The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

We must not sit still and look for miracles; up and doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will do anything.

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.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.

It’s a very good question, very direct, and I’m not going to answer it.

In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed.

The right man is the one who seizes the moment.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle.

I like the way the stories of my relationships sound to music more than the way they look in print, in gossip columns or in me talking about them in interviews. I think it’s a better way of telling the stories.

All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – ‚tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

Disagreement is something normal.

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone’s imagination.

One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven’t and don’t.

Surveys show our standing around the world is higher than when I was elected to this office, and when it comes to every important international issue, people of the world do not look to Beijing or Moscow to lead – they call us.

Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

Politics is not bean bags. It’s serious, tough stuff.

It is very hard to not be able to engage with people in a real and honest way because they either want something from me, or they see me as something that I simply am not.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

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

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.

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

If you want to get each individual’s honest opinion, you don’t want that opinion to be influenced by others who are present, much less allow a group to coordinate what they are going to say.

‚Good English‘ is whatever educated people talk; so that what is good in one place or time would not be so in another.

Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.

There’s no point in saying anything but the truth.

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.

When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my room.

I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

I like to always lead from the front and set an example for whoever is playing with me or around me. I like taking responsibilities. That is my natural thing.

Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.

Change alone is unchanging.

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.

The press, the machine, the railway, the telegraph are premises whose thousand-year conclusion no one has yet dared to draw.

There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.

Never explain – your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.

Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone.

I don’t see the wisdom in modern politicians that I once saw in men like Dean Acheson, David Bruce, or George Marshall. In my day, the northeastern establishment dominated foreign policy formulation, but the composition and distribution of our population is very different today.

I speak a number of languages, but none are more beautiful to me than English.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.

The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings – words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.

A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth.

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.

One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

When you’re older you want to learn from other people.

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.

The leaders come up from the volunteers that do the work, and it’s amazing because then they do these incredible things in their community that they never thought they had the power to make that happen.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it, there is no way of life.