A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it’s not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It’s more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.
Madeleine AlbrightPolitics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.
Winston ChurchillWe are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork, you must make a decision.
C. S. LewisOnce I’ve decided to do something, I do usually try to carry it through to fruition.
Edmund HillaryWe do need women in civic life. We do need women to run for office, to be in political office. We need a feminist to be at the table when decisions are being made so that the right decisions will be made.
Dolores HuertaOf the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.
Samuel JohnsonThe commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.
Colin PowellThere’s no difference between one’s killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It’s exactly the same thing, or even worse.
Golda MeirThe die is cast.
Julius CaesarAt one point he decided enough was enough.
Steven WrightNarrow your life down to this moment. Your life situation may be full of problems – most life situations are – but find out if you have a problem at this moment. Do you have a problem now?
Eckhart TolleAll progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.
Martin Luther King, Jr.There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.
Lyndon B. JohnsonI don’t write policy for my government.
Jim MattisNo 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.
Henry KissingerToo often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression.
Eleanor RooseveltLife is a matter of really tough choices.
Joe BidenEverything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.
Carl von ClausewitzWe need someone with superb judgement in their own right because, yes, a president can hire the best advisors on Earth, but I guarantee you this: Five advisors will give five different opinions. And it is the president – and the president alone – who always makes the final call.
Michelle ObamaGive me something to assemble, I won’t look at the directions, I’ll try to figure it out by myself. It’s why I love Ikea furniture.
Dave GrohlI think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don’t know.
Bill GatesOpinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.
PlatoTo Sun-tzu and the ancient Chinese, doing something extraordinary had little effect without a setup of something ordinary. You had to mix the two – to fix your opponent’s expectations with some banal, ordinary maneuver, a comfortable pattern that they would then expect you to follow.
Robert GreeneIt is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
Henry David ThoreauEvery mind must make its choice between truth and repose. It cannot have both.
Ralph Waldo EmersonAnd 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.
Madeleine AlbrightIf you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values.
Narendra ModiTake calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.
George S. PattonNever say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.
Richard M. NixonThe function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.
Marcus Tullius CiceroPeople are getting smarter nowadays; they are letting lawyers, instead of their conscience, be their guide.
Will RogersI don’t easily fall for lies, I can see through things.
Greta ThunbergRational discussion is useful only when there is a significant base of shared assumptions.
Noam ChomskyYour philosophy determines whether you will go for the disciplines or continue the errors.
Jim RohnIf you are the kind of person who is waiting for the ‚right‘ thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It’s like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before starting the trip.
Robert KiyosakiEvery man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‚Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?‘ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.
Pope FrancisHe who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.
Robert FrostWhen I get logical, and I don’t trust my instincts – that’s when I get in trouble.
Angelina JolieNo one person controls Microsoft. The board and the shareholders decide whether they want to have me as CEO.
Bill GatesLearn to think continentally.
Alexander HamiltonInformation is not knowledge.
Albert EinsteinUnless a president can protect the privacy of the advice he gets, he cannot get the advice he needs.
Richard M. NixonWe are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.
Stephen CoveyIf you’re a quarterback, you want everything on your shoulders. You want to be the one to make the decisions.
Tom BradyPeople want to go out and travel around and meet cool people. I could just go live in Vermont, but is that what I really want?
Tom BradyConcentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.
Andrew CarnegieThere is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.
George S. PattonOne of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.
Jocko WillinkI 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.
Fidel CastroGood thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started, because what you put in always impacts what comes out.
John C. MaxwellTwo roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
Robert FrostWe have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.
Charles SpurgeonUltimately this issue is on us. We’re the ones who make the decisions about what our kids eat.
Michelle ObamaWe welcome the scrutiny of the world – because what you see in America is a country that has steadily worked to address our problems and make our union more perfect.
Barack ObamaThere is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.
Tennessee WilliamsDon’t swap horses in crossing a stream.
Abraham LincolnYou’re president, if you conclude my judgment is not the right judgment, I abide by that, but I want an opportunity to have an input.
Joe BidenWhen you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.
J. Robert OppenheimerThe government’s job is good governance for everybody. My government will make policies; if you fit into it, come on board, or stay where you are. My job is not to spoon-feed anyone.
Narendra Modi