A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

Power over a man’s subsistence is power over his will.

Well I do think, when there are more women, that the tone of the conversation changes, and also the goals of the conversation change. But it doesn’t mean that the whole world would be a lot better if it were totally run by women. If you think that, you’ve forgotten high school.

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.

Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,‘ he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. ‚Shake it off. Stop complainin‘. Stop grumblin‘. Stop cryin‘. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.

Ordinary morality is innate in my view.

Conscience is a man’s compass.

As president, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values and your vision and the life experiences that make you who you are.

I think that we all know what evil is. We have a sense of what’s evil, and certainly killing innocent people is evil. We’re less sure about what is good. There’s sort of good, good enough, could be better – but absolute good is a little harder to define.

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

I’m always pushing for human responsibility. Given that chimpanzees and many other animals are sentient and sapient, then we should treat them with respect.

We live in a day that nobody’s lived in before: where you can touch more people. The message I’ll speak tonight and the message that I speak at home, people in India will hear. It’s just an amazing day.

I don’t have to see a murder in order to condemn murder.

The role of the intellectual cannot be to excuse the violence of one side and condemn that of the other.

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

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.

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

Without a moral framework, there is nothing left but immediate self-indulgence by some and the path of least resistance by others. Neither can sustain a free society.

All art is but imitation of nature.

Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.

Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

Success is always dangerous, and we need to be alert and avoid becoming the victims of our own success. Will we influence the world for Christ, or will the world influence us?

There is the good and the bad, the great and the low, the just and the unjust. I swear to you that all that will never change.

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

I don’t mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.

It constitutes a superhuman effort to lead any people in times of crisis. Without them, the changes would be impossible.

The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side… It has revealed to us much about man’s shortcomings, his illnesses, his sins, but little about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations, or his psychological health.

From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

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.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

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.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Instead of being critical of people in authority over you and envious of their position, be happy you’re not responsible for everything they have to do. Instead of piling on complaints, thank them for what they do. Overwhelm them with encouragement and appreciation!

I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

If you’re looking for the safe choice, you shouldn’t be supporting a black guy named Barack Obama to be the next leader of the free world.

I’m the president of the United States. I’m not the emperor of the United States.

The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one’s opponent.

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.

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

Whatever position I occupied, it was the result of colleagues – of my comrades in the movement – who had decided in their wisdom to use me for the purpose of focusing the attention of the country and the international community on me.

We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.

I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.

Good executives never put off until tomorrow what they can get someone else to do today.

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

The man who occupies the first place seldom plays the principal part.

An election is a moral horror, as bad as a battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned in it.

The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.

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.

Those who commit injustice bear the greatest burden.

Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.

Life is about conduct and how we conduct ourselves. But two wrongs never make a right.

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