The die is cast.

Every 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.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

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

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

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.

International summits and organisations like WTO take decisions, which will bind us, and if we are not present in such summits, we may be hurt by the decisions taken.

Don’t wait for the last judgment – it takes place every day.

There’ll always be serendipity involved in discovery.

Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.

It’s been my experience in politics that you can try and plan it out: ‚I’m going to hit the three ball which will hit the eight ball.‘ You’ve just got to go run and try to do everything right. And then have a little luck.

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.

A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration… that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

Warren Buffet told me once and he said always follow your gut. When you have that gut feeling, you have to go with don’t go back on it.

We 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.

I don’t really plan. I’m almost intuitive about things.

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

We need an adult in the White House. When making life-or-death, war-or-peace decisions, a president can’t just pop off or lash out irrationally.

No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means – either may do – the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.

My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative. I have never been a right-winger. It was my authoritarian way of making decisions that created problems.

Whatever fortune has raised to a height, she has raised only to cast it down.

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

I always tell people that if I move anywhere it would be Toronto.

We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.

Of the love or hatred God has for the English, I know nothing, but I do know that they will all be thrown out of France, except those who die there.

Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas.

If life is a checker game, someone else is moving the pieces. It isn’t us. Don’t be surprised by amazing coincidences. There are no accidents. Consider, as I learned to do, the incredible interconnectedness of all of life.

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

My dad seemed comfortable with his decision to be a ‚have-not,‘ but I knew that I wasn’t.

A majority is always better than the best repartee.

You should do what other people do, unless you have a very good reason not to.

Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.

A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

I’m substantially concerned about the policy directions of the space agency. We have a situation in the U.S. where the White House and Congress are at odds over what the future direction should be. They’re sort of playing a game and NASA is the shuttlecock that they’re hitting back and forth.

I don’t write policy for my government.

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right.

There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.

I just usually go with my own taste. If I like something, and it happens to be against the law, well, then I might have a problem.

It has not yet become obvious to me that there’s no real problem. I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there’s no real problem, but I’m not sure there’s no real problem.

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

Let’s just be smart this time. I’m looking for smart.

It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.

You and I are stuck with the necessity of taking the worst of two evils or none at all. So-I’m taking the immature Democrat as the best of the two. Nixon is impossible.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods.

He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.

Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him.

My one big regret is that I didn’t play on for ten more years.

All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.

Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates.