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.

Commit yourself to a mighty purpose.

It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.

Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.

The history of science shows that theories are perishable. With every new truth that is revealed we get a better understanding of Nature and our conceptions and views are modified.

I don’t think I would run for president.

It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.

The idea that to make a man work you’ve got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We’ve done that for so long that we’ve forgotten there’s any other way.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It’s made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is.

I’d like to believe that the people that have supported me in my work or identified with me in films, the people that feel they know me, they do and they don’t have misconceptions – they understand. I believe that.

If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.

I have promised myself that I’m going to do everything I can for as long as I can.

Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.

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

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

When people get married young, you don’t really understand the true definition of marriage.

Never regret what you don’t write.

You can become an even more excellent person by constantly setting higher and higher standards for yourself and then by doing everything possible to live up to those standards.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.

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

I never cut class. I loved getting A’s, I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world.

Eighty percent of success is showing up.

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.

Political courage is not political suicide.

I can tell you this: If I’m ever in a position to call the shots, I’m not going to rush to send somebody else’s kids into a war.

The trouble with Nixon is that he’s a serious politics junkie. He’s totally hooked and like any other junkie, he’s a bummer to have around, especially as President.

I firmly believe that unless one has tasted the bitter pill of failure, one cannot aspire enough for success.

The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.

The degree of one’s emotions varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts.

God wants to use you to make other people happy! And the happier you make others, the happier you will be because you reap what you sow.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

Education is hanging around until you’ve caught on.

Where the mind goes, the man follows.

Previous generations understood about death, and undoubtedly would have seen a reasonable amount of death. Once you get into the Victorian era, you might well have seen the funerals of many of your siblings before you were very old.

Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.

Alas! You complain that your soul is out of tune. Then ask the Master to tune the heart-strings.

The best workers, like the happiest livers, look upon their work as a kind of game: the harder they play the more enjoyable it becomes.

The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it.

Read the Bible. Work hard and honestly. And don’t complain.

If you are a parent, you have probably already realized that your children are always watching what you do. And just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees who are watching their bosses.

People like to blame others. I think a person should just look at their own situation, look around them, find out what they wish to do, and seek and go and do that. And that’s it.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.

People need motivation to do anything. I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation.

What really motivates people at Facebook is building stuff that they’re proud of.

The secret is not to give up hope. It’s very hard not to because if you’re really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.

Why do you want to get a good workout early in the morning? Well, because it sends more oxygen to your brain; it releases endorphins. It puts you in a state of mind where you can crush things, which is where you want to be.

With compassion you can die for other people, like the mother who can die for her child. You have the courage to say it because you are not afraid of losing anything, because you know that understanding and love is the foundation of happiness. But if you have fear of losing your status, your position, you will not have the courage to do it.

This President is going to lead us out of this recovery.

The man who occupies the first place seldom plays the principal part.

It’s not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.

Success isn’t supposed to happen, no matter how hard you work. There’s no guarantee you’re going to succeed. There’s nothing set in stone.

I teach children to be winners.