Practice Golden-Rule 1 of Management in everything you do. Manage others the way you would like to be managed.

When you want a thing done, ‚Don’t do it yourself‘ is a good motto for Scoutmasters.

In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.

There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous.

I’m not a one-man show. I was never that in my life, and I never want to be that.

As President Nixon says, presidents can do almost anything, and President Nixon has done many things that nobody would have thought of doing.

No foreign policy – no matter how ingenious – has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.

I try to lead by example, being conscious of others and being responsible.

When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.

The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

I don’t think the government should be in the trailer-park business. I don’t think they know how to run a trailer park.

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.

Instead of being critical of people in authority over you and envious of their position, be happy you’re not responsible for everything they have to do. Instead of piling on complaints, thank them for what they do. Overwhelm them with encouragement and appreciation!

We named the book ‚Extreme Ownership‘ because we really found that when we looked at not only at leaders but at teams that were the most successful, we found that the ones that had this attitude of extreme ownership were the ones that did the best, and it’s definitely an attitude that I had.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

I often say of George Washington that he was one of the few in the whole history of the world who was not carried away by power.

Through every victory and every setback, I’ve insisted that change is never easy and never quick; that we wouldn’t meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.

I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone – and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.

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

You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you.

Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.

A conductor can’t be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.

The action we take and the decisions we make in this decade will have consequences far into this century. If America shows weakness and uncertainty, the world will drift toward tragedy. That will not happen on my watch.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

Let me tell you what I literally told every world leader I’ve met with, and I’ve met them all: It’s never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. We have the finest fighting force in the world.

I would rather have peace in the world than be President.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise. Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward… with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

The onus is on the managers to send out an attacking formation and to tell their players to be bold.

Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be, as the egg is to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.

Louis van Gaal is one of the most successful managers in the world.

Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.

I don’t think consensus-building politics is what I’m meant to be doing.

Remember that the essence of authority is that people willingly follow your lead.

When I was running training, we would fire a couple of leaders from every SEAL team because they couldn’t lead. And 99.9% of the time, it wasn’t a question of their ability – it was a question of their ability to listen.

When you’re around the kids, you feel like you act the most grown up just because you’re supposed to lead. I say things, like every other parent, that reminds you of your own parents. One thing I do know about being a parent, you understand why your father was in a bad mood a lot.

If you call yourself a leader, then you have to be decisive. If you’re decisive, then you have the chance to be a leader. These are two sides to the same coin.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

All very successful commanders are prima donnas and must be so treated.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

Our friends at the Republican convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn’t have much to say about how they’d make it right. They want your vote, but they don’t want you to know their plan.

One civilization after another has been wrecked upon the attempt to secure sufficient leadership from a single group or class.

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.

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.

I like to always lead from the front and set an example for whoever is playing with me or around me. I like taking responsibilities. That is my natural thing.

The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.

The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.

Well, the thing that I learned as a diplomat is that human relations ultimately make a huge difference.

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

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.

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.

I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.

I’m glad I’m not Brezhnev. Being the Russian leader in the Kremlin. You never know if someone’s tape recording what you say.

America’s promises do not come with a price tag. We meet our commitments. We bear our burdens. That’s one of the reasons why almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago when I took office.

Any lady who is first lady likes being first lady. I don’t care what they say, they like it.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.