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

Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.

The imminent demise of the large record companies as gatekeepers of the world’s popular music is a good thing, for the most part.

When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

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.

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.

My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility.

I’m not looking for sympathy at all.

We must have government that builds stamina into communities and men. That makes men instead of mendicants.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Great tragedy has come to us, and we are meeting it with the best that is in our country, with courage and concern for others because this is America. This is who we are.

Leadership is absolutely vital if there are comparable countries which can affect the security of the world you live in. Between Lincoln and Roosevelt’s time, America was protected by huge oceans and, in practice, by the British navy. Today, it’s different, and the obsession of the Obama administration has been for retrenchment.

Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

Personally, I’d like to see more of our leaders take a technocratic approach to solving our biggest problems.

I’m not comparing myself with anyone, but I am very confident about my captaincy, as I have already led India and in the IPL also. I have confidence I can bring out each player’s ability fully and also give them a lot of confidence… I would like to stick to what I know best and what I have confidence in.

My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

You’re not a product of your nature. That is your genetic makeup or your nurture, the things that have happened to you. Of course those things affect you powerfully, but they do not determine you.

Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing.

I am prepared to resort to anything, to submit to anything, for the sake of the commonwealth.

A hustler has to deal with danger and risk. It’s part of the game. You cannot control it all, nor would you want to. Chaos, unknown factors are not something to be anxious about.

I love the natural world – it comes from my culture, which grew out of a people enslaved.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

I can’t jump the highest. I’m obviously not the biggest, not the strongest.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence.

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.

If you have to stand and fight, you train yourself so that you’re able to do it.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

If you try to protect yourself from pain, it becomes a stone in your heart. But the more you learn to face things, the more likely that stone can become a pearl.

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

High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.

I was raised in a family where vulnerability was barely tolerated: no training wheels on our bicycles, no goggles in the pool, just get it done. And so I grew up not only with discomfort about my own vulnerability, I didn’t care for it in other people either.

I’ve had no contact with my daughter for years. That’s her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don’t want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on.

About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.

I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I’ve done that sort of thing in my life, but I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

And I think it’s that time. And I think if you just step aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over. You can maybe still use a plane. Though maybe a smaller one. Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that.

I think my message to the politicians who have within their power the ability to make change is, ‚Do you really, really not care about the future of your great-grandchildren? Because if we let the world continue to be destroyed the way we are now, what’s the world going to be like for your great-grandchildren?‘

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

Even if the politics needed doesn’t exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country.

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it.

The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force.

Every President wants to do right.

Any experience that touches you, in any particular way, is good. It can be a horrible experience.

Money does not change people, people change.

War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

You’re president, if you conclude my judgment is not the right judgment, I abide by that, but I want an opportunity to have an input.

My dad has kind of been the standard for me, he played 16 years in the league, and since I’ve been in the league, every year that I go through and deal with the scratches, the bumps and bruises, just the grind that it is to go through one NBA season.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

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.

The way people look at me these days – that’s the same way I looked at President Obama before I met him. We tend to forget that people who’ve attained a certain position are human.