In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

I think whenever something is – whenever there’s something that affects the public good, then there does need to be some form of public oversight.

Choose your life’s mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 percent of all your happiness or misery.

Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.

I think what you’re seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they’ve got to be treated like every other American. And I think that principle will win out.

It is our choices… that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

If someone you know makes a bad decision or uses bad judgment, it doesn’t mean you have to allow that to alter your attitude. Why should you allow anyone else’s bad decisions to send you into a tailspin of misery?

Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.

We must think and act like a nation of a billion people and not like that of a million people. Dream, dream, dream!

I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts.

When you have peace in yourself and accept, then you are calm enough to do something, but if you are carried by despair, there is no hope.

Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.

I wonder how many decisions we make every day. I believe it’s probably hundreds. We decide whether or not to get out of bed, what we’ll eat, what we’ll do, what we’ll think about, what we’ll say… and on and on.

At the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values, and your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you are.

I have not endorsed Trump and will not do so.

When you’re around the kids, you feel like you act the most grown up just because you’re supposed to lead. I say things, like every other parent, that reminds you of your own parents. One thing I do know about being a parent, you understand why your father was in a bad mood a lot.

No man should be in politics unless he would honestly rather not be there.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.

I can move any crowd.

I am not made for politics because I am incapable of wanting or accepting the death of the adversary.

Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that’s how we’ve got to live.

My biographers… would like to have my time at the court almost complete before they finish the book. We decided… to flip the order.

It doesn’t matter who likes you or doesn’t like you, all that matters is that God likes you. He accepts you, he approves of you.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

When in doubt, don’t.

Whoever won’t fight when the President calls him, deserves to be kicked back in his hole and kept there.

If you’re going to wake up early all the time, and you’re working hard, and you’re working out, sometimes you’re going to get tired. It’s OK. It’s acceptable – somewhat. We’re all human, unfortunately.

Do I think faith will be an important part of being a good president? Yes, I do.

In every walk of life, you must have leaders. An education in the spiritual world, in the labor field, in the agricultural field, we must have leaders.

Since the team understands that the leader is de facto in charge, in that respect, a leader has nothing to prove. But in another respect, a leader has everything to prove: Every member of the team must develop the trust and confidence that their leader will exercise good judgment, remain calm, and make the right decisions when it matters most.

I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.

I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.

Go before the people with your example, and be laborious in their affairs.

The time has come for all evangelists to practice full financial disclosure. The world is watching how we walk and how we talk. We must have the highest standards of morality, ethics and integrity if we are to continue to have influence.

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president I must put the interests of America first Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

Everyone got kind of crazy with me mentioning I was in love with a woman.

And now, of course this is another thing I didn’t count on, that now as the governor of the state of California, I am selling California worldwide. You see that? Selling.

I loved being Secretary of State, that’s probably evident to everyone who watched me.

I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped. Most of the time it just happened to me without my ever seeking it.

It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.

It doesn’t matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I’m a woman or a man.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

In business, if you realize you’ve made a bad decision, you change it.

Politics has always been ugly to me, and yet I accept that as a fact of life.