Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.

Anytime we step out boldly to make changes, we take a chance that we might fail. But the only way to get better is to try.

I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.

Because of my wrestling background, nothing a director can throw at me on a set can faze me.

One of the things I definitely think of as a driver of me is fear. And it’s fear of failure, fear of being overtaken.

Some day I shall be President.

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.

I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.

And so I think that the idea of America working with other countries to solve problems is good for us, and it is part of digging us out of the ‚my way or the highway‘ approach that was evident in the previous eight years.

People who add value to others do so intentionally. I say that because to add value, leaders must give of themselves, and that rarely occurs by accident.

Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Most people have the opportunity of a lifetime flash right in front of them, and they fail to see it. A year later, they find out about it, after everyone else got rich.

I would hear stories about Steve Jobs and feel like he was at 100 percent exactly what he wanted to do, but I’m sure even a Steve Jobs has compromised. Even a Rick Owens has compromised. You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

Leaders who are kind of insecure or egocentric, they basically sabotage themselves.

Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.

The Scoutmaster who is a hero to his boys holds a powerful lever to their development but at the same time brings a great responsibility on himself. They are quick enough to see the smallest characteristic about him, whether it be a virtue or a vice.

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.

You can tell the tree by the fruit it bears. You see it through what the organization is delivering as far as a concrete program. If the tree’s fruit sours or grows brackish, then the time has come to chop it down – bury it and walk over it and plant new seeds.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.

Standing as I do, with my hand upon this staff, and under the folds of the American flag, I ask you to stand by me so long as I stand by it.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

We should work with the principle that a work that can be done at a lower level should never be escalated to a higher level.

Hope is favorable and confident expectation; it’s an expectant attitude that something good is going to happen and things will work out, no matter what situation we’re facing.

I love women with attitude.

Positional leaders ignore the fact that every person has hopes, dreams, desires, and goals of his own. And leaders must bring their vision and the aspirations of the people they lead together in a way that benefits everyone.

I’m never nervous.

I have nothing to declare except my genius.

A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

If the American people don’t love me, their descendants will.

The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.

Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader; you have to listen to the people who are on the front line.

I’m no leader; I’m a little humble follower.

A president has an inescapable responsibility to provide direction: What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent? Why? To do that, he has to both analyze and reflect.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

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

Confidence comes from discipline and training.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

I feel like you get more bees with honey. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get frustrated in my life. My way of dealing with frustration is to shut down and to think and speak logically.

The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give it to them.

I don’t run restaurants that are out of control. We are about establishing phenomenal footholdings with talent.

Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail.

Movies are not novels, and that’s why, when filmmakers try to adapt novels, particularly long or complex novels, the result is almost always failure. It can’t be done.

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.

Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.

Every President I think I’ve ever known, except Truman, has thought they didn’t quite get done what they wanted done. And toward the end of their Administrations, they were disappointed and wished they had done some things differently.

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

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

If you ask the CEO of some major corporation what he does, he will say, in all honesty, that he is slaving 20 hours a day to provide his customers with the best goods or services he can and creating the best possible working conditions for his employees.

Americans… still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.

People make a big fuss over you when you’re President. But I’m very serious about doing everything I can to make sure that it doesn’t go to my head.

The best fashion advice I’d say would be just to do what makes you comfortable and what makes you feel cute, and that’s how you’re gonna look your best ‚cause when you feel your best, everybody else can feel it, too.

Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.

I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.