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.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

When you want a thing done, ‚Don’t do it yourself‘ is a good motto for Scoutmasters.

I like to always lead from the front and set an example for whoever is playing with me or around me. I like taking responsibilities. That is my natural thing.

‚Suffering should not make us bitter people,‘ my mother once said, ‚it should make us better comforters.‘ Young people need to hear this from those who have walked before them, because someday they’ll be walking those same steps, but there may not be anyone following behind.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief.

When the players go home, I can’t tell them what to do, so you need to create an atmosphere of trust. I don’t want to think, ‚What are they doing now? Do I need to call them?‘

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person. It’s a pretty good test.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

It’s considered acceptable in our culture to approach perfect strangers, as often or not who may be in extremis, and evangelise. I don’t see why that’s considered a normal thing.

I think humans are just hard-wired to process people’s faces and understand meaning and expression at such a more granular level than other types of communication.

There are a lot of self-imposed restrictions by people who somehow believe they have to fall in with a certain military cant. There was always a sense that we had to put things into words that would touch our troops‘ hearts, not just their heads.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

It is more difficult to rule yourself than to rule a city.

Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

I love that for Barack, there is no such thing as ‚us‘ and ‚them‘ – he doesn’t care whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or none of the above… he knows that we all love our country… and he’s always ready to listen to good ideas… he’s always looking for the very best in everyone he meets.

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.

Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone.

Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.

For so many people, television and movies may be the only way they understand people who aren’t like them.

Managers today have to do more with less, and get better results from limited resources, more than ever before.

People like to hear the word ‚love.‘

Breathe in deeply to bring your mind home to your body. Then look at, or think of, the person triggering this emotion: With mindfulness, you can see that she is unhappy, that she is suffering. You can see her wrong perceptions. You can see that she is not beautiful when she says things that are unkind.

Music helps me tell my story. That’s where I can really be heard. But there’s so much focus on the things that aren’t music.

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.

I can’t read the newspaper without crying. I’m easily affected by horrible events, you see.

When I looked at the third base coach, he turned his back on me.

To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

I do believe that any successful business starts from the top and works its way down.

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

Compassion is the basis of morality.

Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.

The prospect of dating someone in her twenties becomes less appealing as you get older. At some point in your life, your tolerance level goes down and you realize that, with someone much younger, there’s nothing really to talk about.

Example is leadership.

You hear doom and gloom about the Internet ruining young people’s command of English – that’s nonsense.

People respond in accordance to how you relate to them. If you approach them on the basis of violence, that’s how they’ll react. But if you say, ‚We want peace, we want stability,‘ we can then do a lot of things that will contribute towards the progress of our society.

Frank and explicit – that is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and confuse the minds of others.

A President cannot always be popular.

Until the men of action clear out the talkers we who have social consciences are at the mercy of those who have none.

The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.

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

Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

Anybody can be specific and obvious. That’s always been the easy way. It’s not that it’s so difficult to be unspecific and less obvious; it’s just that there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, to be specific and obvious about.

There was one incident at a movie theater where my girl got mad at these guys who were talking behind us. I never looked back there, but she was like, ‚Will you all just shut up!‘ And I just got up and moved three rows in front. She was like, ‚What are you doing?!‘ I was like, ‚You better get up here! I don’t play the fighting games.‘

I love reading people. I really enjoy watching, observing, and being able to figure out a person, the reason they wore that dress, the reason they smell the way they do.

Talking isn’t doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.

We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.

What matters in the Sun-tzu universe are not positions of strength and power, but situations in which you have options, full of potential force.

But I’m pretty good with collaborative thinking. I work well with other people.

The perfect love affair is one which is conducted entirely by post.

We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.

Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.