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.

Adopt responsibility for your own well-being, try to put your family together, try to serve your community, try to seek for eternal truth… That’s the sort of thing that can ground you in your life, enough so that you can withstand the difficulty of life.

If… many influential people have failed to understand, or have just forgotten, what we were up against in the Cold War and how we overcame it, they are not going to be capable of securing, let alone enlarging, the gains that liberty has made.

Innovation has nothing to do with how many R & D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R & D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.

Our DNA is as a consumer company – for that individual customer who’s voting thumbs up or thumbs down. That’s who we think about. And we think that our job is to take responsibility for the complete user experience. And if it’s not up to par, it’s our fault, plain and simply.

The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.

One of the things that was really an issue was I did not want to just be a woman secretary of state. I wanted to be a secretary of a state who was a woman, but not just chosen for that particular reason.

Many people listen to what I have to say and I appear a lot in media, so therefore I influence a lot of people and therefore I have a bigger responsibility because I have a bigger platform.

President Obama seems completely unaware of how many of the policies he is trying to impose have been tried before, in many times and places around the world, and have failed time and again.

I perhaps ought to say that individually I never was much interested in the Texas question. I never could see much good to come of annexation, inasmuch as they were already a free republican people on our own model.

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

If you’re looking for the safe choice, you shouldn’t be supporting a black guy named Barack Obama to be the next leader of the free world.

When I checked into SEAL Team One many years ago, one of the things that I noticed was there was this old guy, who was younger than I am today, who I decided that I was going to be like. I wanted to emulate what he was doing, and one of those things was he got to work before anybody else.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.

When I was running training, we would fire a couple of leaders from every SEAL team because they couldn’t lead. And 99.9% of the time, it wasn’t a question of their ability – it was a question of their ability to listen.

One must steer, not talk.

It constitutes a superhuman effort to lead any people in times of crisis. Without them, the changes would be impossible.

As a country, we can’t teach kids how to read and write when we got 18 years to do it. And that’s – that’s a disgrace.

I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.

I don’t think I would run for president.

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

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

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

The former colonies, in Latin America in particular, have a better chance than ever before to overcome centuries of subjugation, violence and foreign intervention, which they have so far survived as dependencies with islands of luxury in a sea of misery.

Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history.

You can play fast but not in a hurry. As a point guard, I can dictate that.

For 500 years, since European explorers came, Latin American countries had been separated from one another. They had very limited relations. Integration is a prerequisite for independence.

Hillary doesn’t play. She has more experience and exposure to the presidency than any candidate in our lifetime – yes, more than Barack, more than Bill. So she is absolutely ready to be Commander-in-Chief on day one. And, yes, she happens to be a woman.

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.

The Spanish Empire eventually collapsed because of its expensive taste for warfare and conquest.

My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative. I have never been a right-winger. It was my authoritarian way of making decisions that created problems.

Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!

The more nobly a man wills and acts, the more avid he becomes for great and sublime aims to pursue. He will no longer be content with family, country, and the remunerative aspect of his work. He will want wider organisations to create, new paths to blaze, causes to uphold, truths to discover, an ideal to cherish and defend.

The Bible is full of warnings about false prophets and false messiahs. These satanically inspired people have appeared in almost every generation of history.

The prescription for endless war poses a far greater danger to Americans than perceived enemies do, for reasons the terrorist organisations understand very well.

I’m not frightened of appearing vulnerable.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

Contention existed before the earth was formed.

NATO has been a thread throughout my life.

Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know.

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

I always say, decisions I make, I live with them. There’s always ways you can correct them or ways you can do them better. At the end of the day, I live with them.

You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don’t seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together.

Just as courage is the danger of life, so is fear its safeguard.

Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed a bridge: on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

If you want to reach the top, don’t run over others. Likely, the only way you’ll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

If I can be a leader, I will.

When you’re one of the leaders of the team, there are no days off.

Let me tell you what I literally told every world leader I’ve met with, and I’ve met them all: It’s never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. We have the finest fighting force in the world.

All good leaders are connectors. They relate well and make people feel confident about themselves and their leader.

We must always remember that the Chinese revolution was not a peasant’s revolution, but one of the extreme Right.