Which government is the best? The one that teaches us to govern ourselves.

Be the chief but never the lord.

Independence is a heady draught, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive and with each drink you want more.

The path to the CEO’s office should not be through the CFO’s office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design.

So much of what we do every single day is the result of habits that we have formed over time.

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.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

I understand everybody in this country doesn’t agree with the decisions I’ve made. And I made some tough decisions. But people know where I stand.

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor.

If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals.

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

A man is as good as he has to be, and a woman as bad as she dares.

I found that the corridors of power in Delhi were littered with lobbies of various kinds.

I want to be an honest man and a good writer.

Most members of Congress are politicians. They’re bores.

Dressing up is a bore. At a certain age, you decorate yourself to attract the opposite sex, and at a certain age, I did that. But I’m past that age.

I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.

But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.

Presidents quickly realize that while a single act might destroy the world they live in, no one single decision can make life suddenly better or can turn history around for the good.

My rich dad believed we should all learn to take care of ourselves.

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.

How can any man be weak who dares to be at all?

The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led.

Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both had exceptional natural abilities. Nelson Rockefeller was very good statewide but never gained national traction.

I look like a casual, laid-back guy, but it’s like a circus in my head.

I just want to be just as everyone else. I want to educate myself and be just like a normal teenager.

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.

My earliest books focus almost entirely on psychological tools to help readers employ effective commonsense approaches to problems. There are no references to God or a higher self in the first 15 or so years of my publishing history.

Courage – you develop courage by doing small things like just as if you wouldn’t want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself.

I found it hard to be young. When I was married in my twenties, I hated being regarded as ‚the little wife.‘ You don’t know what it was like then! I’d never even written a cheque. I had to ask my husband for money for groceries.

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

Well, I don’t think there’s any need for people to focus on my career.

Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.

My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

I don’t look at my old work. I mean, they made nice books; the books were made without me, the one from last year and the one from this year. I – personally, I’m not interested in my own past. I’m only interested in today – perhaps tomorrow.

One of the roles of the Presidency is to lead a political party. Having a President in office is usually a huge advantage to a party because it gives the party a mouthpiece and an advocate at the highest level.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

I would like to see people more aware of where their food comes from. I would like to see small farmers empowered. I feed my daughter almost exclusively organic food.

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.

The biggest problem that we have is that California is being run now by special interests. All of the politicians are not anymore making the moves for the people, but for special interests and we have to stop that.

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.

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

I am so tired of fear. And I don’t want my girls to live in a country, in a world, based on fear.

No man who worships education has got the best out of education… Without a gentle contempt for education no man’s education is complete.

In my heart, I’m confident I could make a good president.

In a world of complex threats, our security and leadership depends on all elements of our power – including strong and principled diplomacy.

Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

The possession of anything begins in the mind.