There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.

I don’t think I could think of a single thing that’s more isolating than being famous.

If you work hard and play by the rules, this country is truly open to you. You can achieve anything.

I am not saying I am the best manager in the world. But I’m quite good.

The issues a president faces are not black and white, and cannot be boiled down into 140 characters. Because when you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military at your command, you can’t make snap decisions. You can’t have a thin skin or the tendency to lash out.

The pace of progress on Mars depends upon the pace of progress of SpaceX.

I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars; there’s a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that.

I had noticed that many of these successful people, historical and contemporary, shared certain common traits. They had a way of thinking that was exceptionally fluid; they could adapt to almost any circumstance; when confronted with problems, they could look at them from novel perspectives and solve them.

There are a lot of inaccuracies out there when it comes to the SEAL training process. You will see guys carrying logs around on television. They think that the hardest part about being on a SEAL team is getting through that training. The fact of the matter is, if you have a good attitude, that training is fun. I had a blast.

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.

However my parents – both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Successful people will always tell you you can do something. It’s the people who have never accomplished anything who will always discourage you from trying to achieve excellent things.

Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.

There are many things that I don’t understand.

God not only plays dice, He also sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

Overcoming fear is the first step to success for entrepreneurs. The winners all exemplify that, and the hard work and commitment they have shown underlines what is needed to set up a business.

In this great country, we celebrate success. We don’t want to penalize those who have done well.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.

Ironically, parenting is a shame and judgment minefield precisely because most of us are wading through uncertainty and self-doubt when it comes to raising our children.

We should never lose an occasion. Opportunity is more powerful even than conquerors and prophets.

The events of October 1962 are widely hailed as Kennedy’s finest hour.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

From the time that ‚Nevermind‘ came out in September of 1991 to the time that Nirvana was over, it was really just a few years, and a lot happened in those few years.

If you call yourself a leader, then you have to be decisive. If you’re decisive, then you have the chance to be a leader. These are two sides to the same coin.

My dear sisters, whatever your calling, whatever your circumstances, we need your impressions, your insights, and your inspiration. We need you to speak up and speak out in ward and stake councils.

Every first-term president has to learn something after he comes into office. Nobody can be completely ready for the inevitable crises.

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

There’s many ups and downs in the fight game.

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

What is once well done is done forever.

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.

Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.

The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.

There is a difference between what technology enables and what historical business practices enable.

Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having their own racial or ethnic leaders to follow.

Collegiality is crucial to the success of our mission. We could not do the job the Constitution assigns to us if we didn’t – to use one of Justice Antonin Scalia’s favorite expressions – ‚Get over it!‘

The thing that’s been really surprising about the evolution of Facebook is – I think then, and I think now – that if we didn’t do this, someone else would have done it.

Even as you make progress, you need the discipline to keep from backtracking and sabotaging the success as it’s happening.

Always do everything you ask of those you command.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

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

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.

Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.

International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places.

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

I have no private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them.

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.

There are a number of things wrong with Washington. One of them is that everyone is too far from home.