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

Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.

Artists have a responsibility to speak and to act when governments fail, and if we don’t do that, we really deserve the world we get.

The Youth of a Nation are the trustees of posterity.

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.

If you have fear, you are bound by tradition, you follow some leader or guru. When you are bound by tradition, when you are afraid of your husband or your wife, you lose your dignity as an individual human being.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

Unless and until you inspire the people, you will not get results. Imposition will never give you the results. Inspiration will always give you the results.

Just as discipline and freedom are opposing forces that must be balanced, leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities between one extreme and another.

We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.

If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.

I’m a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I’m even afraid of it – it’s a learned affectation and it’s just stuck on me like decals. Now I pray for humility because that comes from inside out.

A good leader doesn’t get stuck behind a desk.

The President is always abused. If he isn’t, he isn’t doing anything.

I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

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 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 day-to-day making of policy is arguing all the time. You’re trying to get the right approach and the right answer, and there are moments that aren’t very pleasant. But in the end, you look at the overall product.

If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.

When you meet chimps you meet individual personalities. When a baby chimp looks at you it’s just like a human baby. We have a responsibility to them.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

One thing they never tell you about child raising is that for the rest of your life, at the drop of a hat, you are expected to know your child’s name and how old he or she is.

Feels good to try, but playing a father, I’m getting a little older. I see now that I’m taking it more serious and I do want that lifestyle.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

Adopt responsibility for your own well-being, try to put your family together, try to serve your community, try to seek for eternal truth… That’s the sort of thing that can ground you in your life, enough so that you can withstand the difficulty of life.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

William Gladstone has not a single redeeming defect.

People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people.

Understand, when you eat meat, that something did die. You have an obligation to value it – not just the sirloin but also all those wonderful tough little bits.

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

When I took over as president, I studied the Constitution, and the more I studied it, the more I realised that it does not prevent the president of India from giving the nation a vision. So when I went and presented this vision in Parliament and in legislative assemblies; everyone welcomed it, irrespective of party affiliations.

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

To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes… and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

By most accounts, Aristide is the most popular figure in Haiti.

No other country in the world does what we do. On every issue, the world turns to us, not simply because of the size of our economy or our military might – but because of the ideals we stand for, and the burdens we bear to advance them.

I’m not somebody that just wants to hold up a white flag and say, ‚Let’s all just get along.‘ I think people that do horrible things should be held accountable.

I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.

As a mom, I know it is my responsibility, and no one else’s, to raise my kids. But we have to ask ourselves, what does it mean when so many parents are finding their best efforts undermined by an avalanche of advertisements aimed at our kids.

The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

After you finish a book, you know, you’re dead. But no one knows you’re dead. All they see is the irresponsibility that comes in after the terrible responsibility of writing.

The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.

Nothing can be more hurtful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army the superiority over another.

Force does not constitute right… obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

You can play fast but not in a hurry. As a point guard, I can dictate that.

The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.

I don’t want a brat on my team.