To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them.

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do.

Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don’t ever apologize for anything.

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

Gray Davis can run a dirty campaign better than anyone, but he can’t run a state.

A good leader doesn’t get stuck behind a desk.

A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.

I would hear stories about Steve Jobs and feel like he was at 100 percent exactly what he wanted to do, but I’m sure even a Steve Jobs has compromised. Even a Rick Owens has compromised. You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret.

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

One of the things that was really an issue was I did not want to just be a woman secretary of state. I wanted to be a secretary of a state who was a woman, but not just chosen for that particular reason.

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

In every walk of life, you must have leaders. An education in the spiritual world, in the labor field, in the agricultural field, we must have leaders.

I think our politicians could learn a lot from Mandela.

The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it – oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.

Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.

When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.

The feeling about a soldier is, when all is said and done, he wasn’t really going to do very much with his life anyway. The example usually is: he wasn’t going to compose Beethoven’s Fifth.

Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.

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.

Any lady who is first lady likes being first lady. I don’t care what they say, they like it.

Example is leadership.

One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice-president, and that one word is ‚to be prepared‘.

I’ve seen how the issues that come across a president’s desk are always the hard ones – the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer.

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

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.

In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

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.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

Most businesses think that product is the most important thing, but without great leadership, mission and a team that deliver results at a high level, even the best product won’t make a company successful.

A director makes 100 decisions an hour. Students ask me how you know how to make the right decision, and I say to them, ‚If you don’t know how to make the right decision, you’re not a director.‘

I don’t think that a leader can control, to any great extent, his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction.

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

When it comes to the qualifications that we should demand of our president, to start with, we need someone who will take the job seriously.

President Obama seems completely unaware of how many of the policies he is trying to impose have been tried before, in many times and places around the world, and have failed time and again.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

I’m sure everyone knows now that only a few have performed in Madison Square Garden. That list is so small. Now I’m on that list. I’m a part of a very small group, which is unbelievable. You relish in that moment for a second.

I’ve been a mogul and executive since the beginning of my career. People are just born with that skill.

You know, one of the things I think you understand as president is you’re held responsible for everything, but you don’t always have control of everything, right?

Some day I shall be President.

I’m not a one-man show. I was never that in my life, and I never want to be that.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

Hillary doesn’t play. She has more experience and exposure to the presidency than any candidate in our lifetime – yes, more than Barack, more than Bill. So she is absolutely ready to be Commander-in-Chief on day one. And, yes, she happens to be a woman.

In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get – The Future!

When I was running training, we would fire a couple of leaders from every SEAL team because they couldn’t lead. And 99.9% of the time, it wasn’t a question of their ability – it was a question of their ability to listen.

Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots.

I want to use my position of leadership to help move along at a faster pace what I believe and know the Obama administration wants to do around the urgency of climate change.

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

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

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.

The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

Some people will have to be afraid. Those who plunder the nation, deliver injustice, will have to feel scared of me. And I am not afraid of admitting this. Government cannot be so lenient that it forgives them.

I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

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

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