The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

When I take action, I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It’s going to be decisive.

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.

Since the team understands that the leader is de facto in charge, in that respect, a leader has nothing to prove. But in another respect, a leader has everything to prove: Every member of the team must develop the trust and confidence that their leader will exercise good judgment, remain calm, and make the right decisions when it matters most.

When things haven’t gone well for you, call in a secretary or a staff man and chew him out. You will sleep better and they will appreciate the attention.

The authority you establish must emerge naturally from your character, from the particular strengths you possess.

I think that a president needs to have a variety of views presented. But also, there has to be a team effort, because otherwise, I think it creates a dissonance and difficulty.

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

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

Even if the politics needed doesn’t exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country.

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.

Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.

I just think you ought to talk straight with your people.

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

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

And I will do everything that I can as long as I am President of the United States to remind the American people that we are one nation under God, and we may call that God different names but we remain one nation.

You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.

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

It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.

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

It sure is hell to be president.

I think our politicians could learn a lot from Mandela.

No man should be in politics unless he would honestly rather not be there.

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

We need every person on Earth to acknowledge that climate change is real and encourage each other and our leaders to address the challenge.

But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke – I’d leave meetings crying all the time.

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‘.

One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice-president, and that one word is ‚to be prepared‘.

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.

When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.

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

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

I saw a subliminal advertising executive, but only for a second.

I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else – I can give my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.

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

Be the chief but never the lord.

We need a president who will choose to do what’s best for the country, even when it doesn’t personally benefit them.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

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.

A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it’s been tested by recession and all manner of challenges – I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn’t mean I won’t run.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

One of the roles of the Presidency is to lead a political party. Having a President in office is usually a huge advantage to a party because it gives the party a mouthpiece and an advocate at the highest level.

I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m the President. I know what it means to send young Americans into battle, for I have held in my arms the mothers and fathers of those who didn’t return. I’ve shared the pain of families who’ve lost their homes, and the frustration of workers who’ve lost their jobs.

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.

I don’t create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

Leadership is hard. It’s a skill. It’s a technique.

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.

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.

Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.

People invest in businesses that they believe have the leadership, mission and team to grow and operate profitably.

One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

I believe that many of my young guys lived because I didn’t waste their lives because I didn’t have the vision in my mind of how to destroy the enemy at least cost to our guys and to the innocents on the battlefields.