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.

It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.

I’ve never been a jealous person, and I’ve never felt built up by someone else’s failure – that’s a cheap thrill.

Thirty-three-years-old, still creating art. It’s rage, it’s creativity, it’s pain, it’s hurt, but it’s the opportunity to still have my voice get out there through music.

If you look at my life, generally, I’ve been put in situations which were difficult and which I conquered.

I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be.

When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn’t set out to build a business empire… For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.

There are things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.

Whatever one of us blames in another, each one will find in his own heart.

Even if the politics needed doesn’t exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country.

A divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there’s less of you.

I still consider myself a little, fat kid from Hawaii.

If you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

The people of Northern Ireland have sorted out my whole life.

As I grow up, the lessons I learn in love and relationships and how we treat each other are hopefully maturing – hopefully.

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

A woman has the age she deserves.

Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.

Let go of yesterday.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand Points of Light. This is my mission, and I will complete it.

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

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.

One of my proudest moments is I didn’t sell my soul for the sake of popularity.

‚Trilogy‘ was more of a claustrophobic body of work. Before it was released, I hadn’t left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life on one setting; that’s probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that’s what my life felt like. It felt like one long song.

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

You cannot be in a position of power and destroy the life of another person.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument… an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.

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.

Someone told me something that stuck with me: ‚You have to envision your life, and then go backwards.‘ I’ve been living by that motto for a while, so I see where I need to be. Now I’m just backtracking and trying to get back up there.

I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone.

Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.

This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years and justify our existence… on pain of liquidation.

For a young person, it is almost a sin, or at least a danger, to be too preoccupied with himself; but for the ageing person, it is a duty and a necessity to devote serious attention to himself.

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

If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don’t just be mad at him or her.

Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.

If you have fear, you are bound by tradition, you follow some leader or guru. When you are bound by tradition, when you are afraid of your husband or your wife, you lose your dignity as an individual human being.

What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

Anybody who tells you that a two-day conference, you’re going to turn into the General Patton of leadership, they’re not telling you the truth. But you can learn the fundamentals; you can absolutely understand the fundamentals.

Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.

Fear clogs; faith liberates.

I’m not perfect.

If you don’t live your life, then who will?

I know that I always wanted things. I was always proud of my people, proud of my home, but I always wanted more. I think most people do.

If I could give you information of my life, it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do In His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing.

For some reason I did something where I realized I could get a reaction. That was when I broke out of my shell at school, because I really didn’t have any friends or anything like that and I just kind of was going along, and then finally I did this zany thing, and all of a sudden I had tons of friends.

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.

If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.

When you’re in a leadership role, you can never please all of the people all of the time. There’s also a lot of responsibility that goes along with it that others may not realize.