The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

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

You can tell the tree by the fruit it bears. You see it through what the organization is delivering as far as a concrete program. If the tree’s fruit sours or grows brackish, then the time has come to chop it down – bury it and walk over it and plant new seeds.

One 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.

But I do not believe that the world would be entirely different if there were more women leaders. Maybe if everybody in leadership was a woman, you might not get into the conflicts in the first place. But if you watch the women who have made it to the top, they haven’t exactly been non-aggressive – including me.

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.

You’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.

Having the support from everyone, the bosses, whoever within the team, definitely makes it much easier for me as a driver.

Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission.

To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.

I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

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.

I was a Marine for 41 years, and it wasn’t long enough. We enjoy putting on that uniform.

I try to encourage all my teammates, and I sure hope that some day all athletes – my kids, high school kids – get the same level of care I get. Because you can play for a long period of time without having knee replacements, without having all the major head trauma that people are dealing with.

It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin.

The court generally moves in small steps rather than in one giant step.

We 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.

The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands.

If you’re looking for the safe choice, you shouldn’t be supporting a black guy named Barack Obama to be the next leader of the free world.

How easy it is to govern when one follows a system of consulting the will of the people and one holds as the only norm all the actions which contribute to the well being of the people.

People and organizations don’t grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage, or of principle.

When you get angry, your options narrow.

I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.

I don’t want to spend money the club doesn’t have; I don’t want to hold a player that doesn’t want to stay.

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

Do I wear a helmet? Ugh. I do when I’m riding through a precarious part of town, meaning Midtown traffic. But when I’m riding on secure protected lanes or on the paths that run along the Hudson or through Central Park – no, I don’t wear the dreaded helmet then.

My justification is that most people my age spend a lot of time thinking about what they’re going to do for the next five or ten years. The time they spend thinking about their life, I just spend drinking.

There are many people who do not know if the U.S. Army has 60,000 men or 6 million. They do not have a clue about that.

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

I can move any crowd.

There are hunters, and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience, and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.

I don’t want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

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.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

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

I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV. If you’re headed for a cliff, you have to change direction. That’s what the American people called for in November, and that’s what we intend to deliver.

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

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

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Indecision may or may not be my problem.

The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people to do so.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.

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

We 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.

The atomic bomb certainly is the most powerful of all weapons, but it is conclusively powerful and effective only in the hands of the nation which controls the sky.

The wise use of your freedom to make your own decisions is crucial to your spiritual growth, now and for eternity.

When I checked into SEAL Team One many years ago, one of the things that I noticed was there was this old guy, who was younger than I am today, who I decided that I was going to be like. I wanted to emulate what he was doing, and one of those things was he got to work before anybody else.

In various countries and times, leaders of groups that lagged behind, economically and educationally, have taught their followers to blame all their problems on other people – and to hate those other people.