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?

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

Duty cannot exist without faith.

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.

I have been on the road and visited numerous places and met people from all over the globe. I can say that it looks nearly the same everywhere I have been: The climate crisis is ignored by people in charge, despite the science being crystal clear.

Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.

Founding a company is hard. Most of it isn’t smooth. You’ll have to make very hard decisions. You have to fire a few people. Therefore, if you don’t believe in your mission, giving up is easy. The majority of founders give up. But the best founders don’t give up.

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

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.

For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.

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

I feel good because I believe I have made progress in rebuilding the people’s trust in their government.

We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been.

I can see clearly now… that I was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate.

I want the Israeli government to be made accountable for its behaviour to the Palestinians, and I want the people of the U.S. to cease acting as if they don’t understand what is going on.

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.

An individual step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual.

When I checked into SEAL Team One many years ago, one of the things that I noticed was there was this old guy, who was younger than I am today, who I decided that I was going to be like. I wanted to emulate what he was doing, and one of those things was he got to work before anybody else.

It is my responsibility that I must make demonstrative efforts to reach out to every citizen of the country.

The more a person seeks security, the more that person gives up control over their life.

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

Back in the day, what motivated me was overcoming myself. Now I believe in being a leader. I’ve done it all – I’m good. Now, it’s about setting an example for others to follow. I can’t just talk it – I have to live it.

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

Understand, when you eat meat, that something did die. You have an obligation to value it – not just the sirloin but also all those wonderful tough little bits.

I’m no leader; I’m a little humble follower.

The onus is on the managers to send out an attacking formation and to tell their players to be bold.

A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.

When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency.

I am confident that when the facts and policies have been examined, when the record of performances have been reviewed, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will once again be elected to lead our beloved country to a better future.

It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.

Political courage is not political suicide.

Steve Jobs‘ ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right, and market things as revolutionary are amazing things.

I let the American people down.

Adopt responsibility for your own well-being, try to put your family together, try to serve your community, try to seek for eternal truth… That’s the sort of thing that can ground you in your life, enough so that you can withstand the difficulty of life.

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.

I’ve had some ‚riotous excursions of the human spirit‘ alongside the young Sailors and Marines, and it’s time to leave the stage to the young leaders who got their rank the old-fashioned way – they earned their stripes in combat.

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

Before I became a chief minister, I never thought that one day I’d be the chief minister.

I can move any crowd.

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.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

I always tell people that you should only hire people to be on your team if you would work for them.

What charitable 1 percenters can’t do is assume responsibility – America’s national responsibilities: the care of its sick and its poor, the education of its young, the repair of its failing infrastructure, the repayment of its staggering war debts.

This President is going to lead us out of this recovery.

Do the duty which lies nearest to you, the second duty will then become clearer.

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

Power has only one duty – to secure the social welfare of the People.

The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.

Put two or three men in positions of conflicting authority. This will force them to work at loggerheads, allowing you to be the ultimate arbiter.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

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

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.

Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

We should understand the source of our authority and something of the keys that control its power.

Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.

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.