There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.

Unless a president can protect the privacy of the advice he gets, he cannot get the advice he needs.

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

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Because I know about the Holy Land, I’ve taught lessons about the Holy Land all my life, and – but you can’t bring peace to Israel without giving the Palestinian also peace. And Lebanon and Jordan and Syria as well.

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

If you’re talking to a man who wouldn’t fight with you under any circumstances whatsoever, then you’re talking to someone for whom you have absolutely no respect.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

Whenever I go on a ride, I’m always thinking of what’s wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.

This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.

I try to speak in a way that people can understand.

My mom was on the United Way group that decides how to allocate the money and looks at all the different charities and makes the very hard decisions about where that pool of funds is going to go.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

There is always an easy solution to every problem – neat, plausible, and wrong.

My position has always been, along with many other people, that any differences be resolved in a nonviolent way.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

I delayed my father’s funeral because of cricket.

Only by contending with challenges that seem to be beyond your strength to handle at the moment you can grow more surely toward the stars.

And obviously, from our own personal point of view, the principal challenge is a personal challenge.

I don’t need therapy. I’m not going to see a therapist; comedy acts as my therapy. I put my problems out there. I talk about them. I talk about everything before anybody has a chance.

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.

When I get logical, and I don’t trust my instincts – that’s when I get in trouble.

I don’t believe in signing anything and everything that comes my way. I leave it to my agency to help narrow them down for me, but I do research it myself before signing. The image of the brand and its ambassadors go hand in hand.

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

The buck stops here!

Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions – Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.

It’s not easy being young. It’s hard to know what to do.

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.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

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.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

I’ve made money, and I’ve been ripped off. I’ve had creative freedom, and I’ve been pressured to make hits. I have dealt with diva behavior from crazy musicians, and I have seen genius records by wonderful artists get completely ignored. I love music. I always will.

One of the powerful temptations is that of the cinema palace. The cinema has undoubtedly an enormous attraction for boys, and people are constantly cudgelling their brains how to stop it. But it is one of those things which would be very difficult to stop even if it were altogether desirable.

I have always believed in evolving a consensus before taking any major decision.

Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.

If you get down and quarell everyday, you’re saying prayers to the devil, I say.

For my career, I wouldn’t go racing if I didn’t enjoy it. I still need to have my say, and not just get put with a team and get told to deal with it.

With Benghazi, I don’t see anyone saying, ‚Hey look, I am overall responsible for this and therefore, I take responsibility for what happened. It’s my fault.‘ I haven’t heard that yet. Meanwhile, the other side of the coin, the Osama bin Laden raid, it seems everyone made that decision, and that’s just unbelievable to me.

I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.

I got a fancy reputation. During high school, every puzzle that was known to man must have come to me. Every damn, crazy conundrum that people had invented, I knew.

Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.

If I had chosen the populist course, it would have been a breach of the trust placed in me by the people.

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.

You are doomed to make choices. This is life’s greatest paradox.

I never make conscious decisions.

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.

Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.

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

Don’t bother people for help without first trying to solve the problem yourself.

People don’t realize that we, we meaning people in show business, have the same problems as everyone else. Money doesn’t change that. Fame doesn’t change that. Sometimes that brings on more problems. You know, it’s just a different kind of problems.

It’s not called quitting if you quit while you ahead. It’s about being aware and being strategic enough to know that you got to get out the pool at some point. You got to put your clothes back on and dry off.

We need to recognize that the situation in Ferguson speaks to broader challenges that we still face as a nation. The fact is, in too many parts of this country, a deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color. Some of this is the result of the legacy of racial discrimination in this country.

I enjoy competition. I enjoy challenges. If a challenge is in front of me and it appeals to me, I will go ahead and conquer it.

Who shall decide when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?

Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they will face. So it’s very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country.

It’s hard to improve public education – that’s clear.

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

Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

I used to get into a lot of fights.