I think leadership is both a trained thing and a natural gift.

Even the greatest of all strategists must occasionally take into account the presence of an enemy.

The media only report stupid or careless answers, not stupid or unfair questions.

The most effective means of ensuring the government's accountability to the people is an aggressive, free, challenging, untrusting press.

The United Nations will spearhead our efforts to manage the new conflicts (that afflict our world)... Yes the principles of the United Nations Charter are worth our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that's called marriage, and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country.

You don't know what you can get away with until you try.

I can't deny that it will be a historic event for an African-American to become president. And should that happen, all Americans should be proud -- not just African-Americans, but all Americans -- that we have reached this point in our national history where such a thing could happen. It will also not only electrify our country, I think it'll electrify the world.

Trust is the glue that holds an org together and the lubricant that moves it forward.

With vision only, you get no follow-through. With enforcers only, the vision is realized but leaves a lot of wreckage.

High-quality early-childhood programs and health coverage have expanded, and the number of mentoring relationships for at-risk youth has risen dramatically. That progress is encouraging, but it's not evenly distributed.

Generally you should act somewhere between P40 and P70, as I call it. Sometime after you have obtained 40 percent of all the information you are liable to get, start thinking in terms of making a decision. When you have about 70 percent of all the information, you probably ought to decide, because you may lose an opportunity in losing time.

President Assad, I worked with. I know him reasonably well, met with him a few times, and he's a liar.

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

There is only one China. Taiwan is not independent. It does not enjoy sovereignty as a nation.

The country would be a lot better off if we stopped having comment sections. And if we got rid of Twitter.

Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists. And the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House  has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin. And that's despicable.

There is no such thing as an unimportant person in an organization.

The claims made about Iraq's WMD capabilities before the invasion were inaccurate, wrong, and in some cases, deliberately misleading.

The bottom line in all of it is that, in life, it's all about people.