It is pretty ironic that the so-called ‚least advanced‘ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.

I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well.

I’ve seen how the issues that come across a president’s desk are always the hard ones – the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer.

If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy, and people say, ‚What are we going to do?‘ but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that’s nothing.

It means, people who are in high and responsible positions, if they go against righteousness, righteousness itself will get transformed into a destroyer.

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get – The Future!

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

This country is being managed to death, being public related to death.

I happen to be a big fan of Western civilization; I think it beats the hell out of tyranny and starvation.

There are massive efforts on the part of the internet’s corporate owners to try to direct it to become a technique of marginalisation and control.

There is no inherent power in the office of the vice presidency. Zero. None. It’s all a reflection of your relationship with the president. I mean, Kennedy never let Johnson in the office.

The best leaders understand the motivations of their team members and know their people – their lives and their families. But a leader must never grow so close to subordinates that one member of the team becomes more important than another, or more important than the mission itself.

You know, you can only lead them from behind.

I’m responsible for starting a whole new school of pretension.

Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.

Morality arose largely as an empirical defence of the individual and society. Ever since intelligent beings began to be in contact, and consequently in friction, they have felt the need to guard themselves against each other’s encroachments.

I think I was identified as a failed president because I wasn’t re-elected.

Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

The only difference between the sane and the insane is that the sane have the power to lock up the insane.

When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I’m against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

I would probably have more in common with a whale than with a bourgeois married couple employed at worthy institutions that I would wipe from the face of the earth if it was given to me to do so.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.

The President’s post should not be politicised. Once a president is elected, he is above politics.

We are not to give credit to the many, who say that none ought to be educated but the free; but rather to the philosophers, who say that the well-educated alone are free.

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.

If you’re not producing as much as you consume, or perhaps a little more, then clearly we cannot use the big organization of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us, and it can’t be of very much use to yourself.

In many ways, when you’re a Nobel peace laureate, you have an obligation to humankind, to society.

If the law is upheld only by government officials, then all law is at an end.

I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person. It’s a pretty good test.

That’s the good thing about being president, I can do whatever I want.

I feel strange when I get applauded by people in power… because it’s obvious that it’s them I’m criticizing, but they can’t show that in front of the cameras. It’s quite funny sometimes.

Everybody’s journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality.

We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.

People invest in businesses that they believe have the leadership, mission and team to grow and operate profitably.

One of the powerful temptations is that of the cinema palace. The cinema has undoubtedly an enormous attraction for boys, and people are constantly cudgelling their brains how to stop it. But it is one of those things which would be very difficult to stop even if it were altogether desirable.

Infinites, when considered absolutely without any restriction or limitation, are neither equal nor unequal, nor have any certain proportion one to another, and therefore, the principle that all infinites are equal is a precarious one.

The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

That sort of half sigh, which, accompanied by two or three slight nods of the head, is pity’s small change in general society.

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.

We live in an imperfect world, and imperfect people surround us every day.

In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society.

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President.

We live in ugly times.

Control is the source of strategic power.

I really don’t like women who try to be men. All these politicians, I think they’re horrendous. We could have a brilliant future, but we have this terrible male vision of destroying everything. They’d better sort themselves out and become more womanly.

It doesn’t take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause.

This President is going to lead us out of this recovery.

It’s time to stop thinking of the Republican Party as an exclusive club where your ideological card is checked at the door, and start thinking about how we can attract more solution-based leaders like Nathan Fletcher and Anthony Adams.

Society is at odds with itself.

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

I want to use my position of leadership to help move along at a faster pace what I believe and know the Obama administration wants to do around the urgency of climate change.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together.

In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.

As president, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people. But 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.