We should work with the principle that a work that can be done at a lower level should never be escalated to a higher level.

I always tell people that if I move anywhere it would be Toronto.

The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

I try to lead by example, being conscious of others and being responsible.

Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.

I’m very much into making lists and breaking things apart into categories.

The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.

Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.

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.

I can’t deny that the thought of being governor, the thought of being president, is alluring. And beyond that, it would be an opportunity to make a real impact on people’s lives on a global scale. But there are a lot of other things I want to do first.

I wanted in my lifetime to vote for a radical Native American woman, since my vision of any future that we might have is that it will be led by women and older women.

Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.

In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.

I felt we must separate political responsibility. The Dalai Lama should not carry that burden. So that is my selfish reason – to protect the old Dalai Lama tradition. It is safer without political involvement.

But let me tell you, this gender thing is history. You’re looking at a guy who sat down with Margaret Thatcher across the table and talked about serious issues.

It takes me about two hours to run into Target. People always want a picture. They hem and haw, and they can’t spit the words out, so they waste about five minutes of my time just standing there getting ready for a picture. Just do it!

When I take action, I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It’s going to be decisive.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.

It has so happened in all ages of the world that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits.

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

I never do anything that I don’t want to do.

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.

Every President wants to do right.

It has not yet become obvious to me that there’s no real problem. I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there’s no real problem, but I’m not sure there’s no real problem.

But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke – I’d leave meetings crying all the time.

Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

If I have the chance to say something, I will say it – but that doesn’t obligate me to always say something, or to shed light on every problem, as if I were a lawmaker.

Imagination decides everything.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

Being prime minister is a lonely job… you cannot lead from the crowd.

It’s a question of whether we’re going to go forward into the future, or past to the back.

We go to school to learn to work hard for money. I write books and create products that teach people how to have money work hard for them.

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.

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

I realized why directors are such horrible people – in a way – because you want things to be right, and people will just not listen to you, and there is no time to be nice to people, no time to be delicate.

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

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

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

My one big regret is that I didn’t play on for ten more years.

It doesn’t take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause.

Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.

The woman that deliberates is lost.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

If you are the kind of person who is waiting for the ‚right‘ thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It’s like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before starting the trip.

Thinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.

I think I’d be a better president because I was in combat.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

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 do not think psychoanalysis has a scientific basis. If we can’t explain why a cockroach decides to turn left, how can we explain why a human being decides to do something?

Always do everything you ask of those you command.

It is our future on the line, and we must at least have a say in it.

I think I was identified as a failed president because I wasn’t re-elected.

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

I understood that with the swipe of my pen as a prosecutor, I would have the decision in my pen to make a decision about someone’s life.