It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

The true measure of the value of any business leader and manager is performance.

The United States tyrannizes and pillages the globalized world with its political, economic, technological, and military might.

Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue.

A few years ago, the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved bowls… saying that it is cruel to keep a fish in a bowl with curved sides because, gazing out, the fish would have a distorted view of reality. But how do we know we have the true, undistorted picture of reality?

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

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

You’ve all seen over the last eight years what President Obama means to this country. He is the embodiment of honor, resolve, and character – one of the finest presidents we have ever had.

Polygamy: An endeavour to get more out of life than there is in it.

People do not make wars; governments do.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

The colonel replied that he didn’t care how my men had got the job done. He was happy that it had been accomplished. He said that, obviously, no matter how much or how little I knew technically, I was able to get the best out of people I worked with.

Obama’s not Jesus. He can’t walk on water.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

In my view, the only thing worse than a rock star is a rock star with a conscience.

If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.

An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable.

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

I can’t imagine what this place would be – I can’t imagine what the country would be – with Donald Trump as our president.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.

The FBI should not be a political body.

The more responsibility the Scoutmaster gives his patrol leaders, the more they will respond.

You know I vowed when I became President not to talk about the loneliest toughest job in the world and I didn’t.

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.

There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.

If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?

Good executives never put off until tomorrow what they can get someone else to do today.

Be extra careful in the work environment with those who like to maintain their position through charm and being political, rather than getting things done. They are very prone to envying and hating those who work hard and get results. They will slander and sabotage you without any warning.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War.

One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves.

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

There might be some serious fun in politics.

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.

There are some women I definitely would not want to succeed me… but a man like David Souter, that would be great.

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.

All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

I think governments can’t do much.

Liberals seem to assume that, if you don’t believe in their particular political solutions, then you don’t really care about the people that they claim to want to help.

Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments‘ plans.

In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are: if you cannot create harmony – even vicious harmony – on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete.

When you’re not engaged in the day-to-day struggles that everybody feels, you slowly start losing touch. And I think it’s important for the people in the White House to have a finger on the pulse.

Well I do think, when there are more women, that the tone of the conversation changes, and also the goals of the conversation change. But it doesn’t mean that the whole world would be a lot better if it were totally run by women. If you think that, you’ve forgotten high school.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

I don’t follow politics much.

A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief.

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

Presidents quickly realize that while a single act might destroy the world they live in, no one single decision can make life suddenly better or can turn history around for the good.