As a child, I loved to read books. The library was a window to the world, a pathway to worlds and people far from my neighborhood in Philadelphia.

The greatness of a leader is measured by the achievements of the led. This is the ultimate test of his effectiveness.

Leadership means firmness, not harshness or bullying; understanding, not weakness; justice, not irresponsible freedom; humaneness, not intolerance; generosity, not selfishness; pride, not egotism.

Amateurs study tactics; professionals study logistics.

Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.

I learned that good judgment comes from experience and that experience grows out of mistakes.

America today is running on the momentum of a godly ancestry, and when that momentum runs down, God help America.

The second best decision in time is infinitely better than the perfect decision too late.

A piece of paper makes you an officer, a radio makes you a commander.

It seems like people get afraid of a certain music if they can't pigeonhole it to their satisfaction... Good music is good music, and that should be enough for anybody.

Our live experiences, fixed in aphorisms, stiffen into cold epigrams. Our heart's blood, as we write it, turns to mere dull ink.

The cold feel of the leather...Peeking at the world from my other eye...It was strangely exciting...

We inhabit a world in which we tend to put labels on each other and expect that we will then march through life wearing them like permanent sandwich boards.

Wouldn't you like to be my lord Duke of Exeter? Come on, Dom. Say something.""You have lost your mind.""Say something less insulting.

There are times when you don't know yourself. There are times when you don't want to know yourself. There are times when you want to be what you have never allowed yourself to be before.

Adversities are temporary. What is permanent is what we become by the way we react to them.

I think we're in the take-the-money-and-run stage of the economy. So the banks may go under, but the bankers, who make the policy, clean up.

We must become more comfortable with probability and uncertainty.

I can give a beautiful present, and that may change the lives of people around me.

Those few days after Kent State were among the darkest of my presidency.

If two people have only one thought between them, something is very wrong.