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.

I’ll be glad to reply to or dodge your questions, depending on what I think will help our election most.

I love that we can trust Barack to do what he says he’s going to do, even when it’s hard – especially when it’s hard.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

No one can give you better advice than yourself.

The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.

What’s done can’t be undone.

I hate letting my teammates down. I know I’m not going to make every shot. Sometimes I try to make the right play, and if it results in a loss, I feel awful. I don’t feel awful because I have to answer questions about it. I feel awful in that locker room because I could have done something more to help my teammates win.

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.

Too often in life, something happens and we blame other people for us not being happy or satisfied or fulfilled. So the point is, we all have choices, and we make the choice to accept people or situations or to not accept situations.

It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do.

Always fall in with what you’re asked to accept. Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever’s going. Not against: with.

I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

All very successful commanders are prima donnas and must be so treated.

I have no delusions about my likability in every scenario. I know that in order to get things done the way you want them, oftentimes your position will be unpopular.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

You can’t do something forever.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.

Gays are some of the nicest, kindest, most loving people in the world.

Military school was great and especially great for leadership and then I spent two years in Vietnam.

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.

A conductor can’t be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.

If you can ask a young man to give his life for his country, you can lead people.

Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

Who shall decide when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?

I’ve turned down shows offering large amounts of money.

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.

You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, ‚Is it safe?‘ Expediency asks the question, ‚Is it politic?‘ And Vanity comes along and asks the question, ‚Is it popular?‘ But Conscience asks the question, ‚Is it right?‘

Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don’t find out til too late that he’s been playing with two queens all along.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

Solutions are not the answer.

I have considered voting Conservative because I am so against the Labour party.

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government – that is despotism.

If you have to control people, you have to have an administrative force that does it. So in U.S. industry, even more than elsewhere, there’s layer after layer of management – a kind of economic waste, but useful for control and domination. And the same is true in universities.

Once you feel loved by the universe, you’re already accepted, and you’re not really concerned about offending people.

I am confident that when the facts and policies have been examined, when the record of performances have been reviewed, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will once again be elected to lead our beloved country to a better future.

The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

You cannot be President of the United States if you don’t have faith. Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial in the Civil War and all that stuff.

I thought ‚Heller‘ was a very bad decision.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.

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

Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.

Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You can’t do that. It’s gone, gone forever.

Doing what’s right isn’t the problem. It is knowing what’s right.

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.

Millions of people die every day. Everyone’s got to go sometime.

My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for.

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.