Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

America is a friend to the people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at the regime that enslaves them and threatens us. When these demands are met, the first and greatest benefit will come to Iraqi men, women and children.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

When it comes to the health of our families, Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president. He didn’t care whether it was the easy thing to do politically – that’s not how he was raised – he cared that it was the right thing to do.

The story being told in ‚Star Wars‘ is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you’re in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they’re actually not.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

The 21st century is going to be the American century. Because we lead not only by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. That is the history of the journey of America.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

I’m not denyin‘ the women are foolish. God Almighty made ‚em to match the men.

Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.

Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish – too much handling will spoil it.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be… The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt.

Anywhere in Latin America there is a potential threat of the pathology of caudillismo and it has to be guarded against.

Leadership is influence.

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

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.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

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.

Men are only as good as their technical development allows them to be.

Some men have a necessity to be mean, as if they were exercising a faculty which they had to partially neglect since early childhood.

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.

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.

All men hate the nagging.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That’s not a guess, it’s a guarantee. With pride, it’s not a matter of ‚if‘ we will fall, but ‚when.‘ There are no exceptions.

Being the boss anywhere is lonely. Being a female boss in a world of mostly men is especially so.

There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.

The other day the President said, I know you’ve had some rough times, and I want to do something that will show the nation what faith that I have in you, in your maturity and sense of responsibility. He paused, then said, would you like a puppy?

‚Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.

Boredom is… a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

In other words, don’t expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say ‚we have a problem, let’s go and get it‘.

I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people – one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion’s den. You can’t just play around with all those big cats – you’ve got to take somebody on.

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.

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.

The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.

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.

It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down. Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

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

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

Man has the power to act as his own destroyer – and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.

I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking to any leader – or any person – in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

One of the peculiarities of Delhi is that the term ‚reform‘ is associated only with passing of laws in Parliament. In fact, the most important reforms are those needed, without new laws, at various level of the government, in work practices and procedures.

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.

You quickly find, when you are a hand-reader as I am, that nothing interests people so much as themselves.

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.

My celebrity status allows me an opportunity, allows me a pulpit to preach and reach out to the people. Not even always preaching but just leading, motivating them by being a leader.

Some people want to win races. Other people want to be President of the United States.

When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

Men and women may form associations for and among themselves and be governed by stipulations that are mutually acceptable.

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