The most important thing for a director is being able to communicate.

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

I understand everybody in this country doesn’t agree with the decisions I’ve made. And I made some tough decisions. But people know where I stand.

Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader; you have to listen to the people who are on the front line.

The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.

We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

I played by the rules of politics as I found them.

The true measure of the value of any business leader and manager is performance.

HartBeat Productions is a company established by me; it’s mine. I run it. I have employees.

Most people don’t like change. They revolt against it unless they can clearly see the advantage it brings. For that reason, when good leaders prepare to take action or make changes, they take people through a process to get them ready for it.

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.

Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be, as the egg is to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.

The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

It is pretty ironic that the so-called ‚least advanced‘ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.

The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.

You know, you can make a small mistake in language or etiquette in Britain, or you could when I was younger, and really be made to feel it, and it’s the flick of a lash, but it would sting, and especially at school where there’s not much privacy, and so on. You could, yes, undoubtedly be made to feel crushed.

The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.

When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency.

In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

In business, if you realize you’ve made a bad decision, you change it.

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

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

Wise and humane management of the patient is the best safeguard against infection.

One of my direct subordinates, one of my guys that worked for me, he would call me up or pull me aside with some major problem, some issue that was going on. And he’d say, ‚Boss, we’ve got this, and that, and the other thing.‘ And I’d look at him and I’d say, ‚Good.‘

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

To me, a leader is someone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes. And so what I think is really important is sustainability.

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

Example is leadership.

People make a big fuss over you when you’re President. But I’m very serious about doing everything I can to make sure that it doesn’t go to my head.

I just really want to get music out and tour and go places I’ve never been, and just do more videos. I love photography and videography, and so I really want to direct videos when I can.

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.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

Always remember that your calmness under fire is your best defense in any argument or discussion.

What Britain needs is an iron lady.

Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.

I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.

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.

How do leaders serve their people? They may pay good wages and treat employees with respect.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

Women have to be active listeners and interrupters – but when you interrupt, you have to know what you are talking about.

Especially when you’re at a high level in an organization, criticism can be devastating to an employee. I prefer to praise employees for what they’re doing right, and it tends to lead to them doing more of the same. Not always, but it’s the way I choose to bet.

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

I really hope someday in Hollywood, some producer or director will hire me only to do drama.

I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters – two beautiful, intelligent black young women – playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters, and all our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.

There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous.

You know, you can only lead them from behind.

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.

When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.

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

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

Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

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.

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

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