There is no question about the fact that we had very serious disagreements with my German, French, and Russian colleagues over the Iraq war. But I never stopped talking.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

Pissing people off doesn't mean you're doing the right things, but doing the right things will almost inevitably piss people off.

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

None of us can change our yesterdays but all of us can change our tomorrows.

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience.

The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow.

Respect for leaders by followers can't be mandated; it must be earned. It has to be given to leaders by their followers.

Get mad, then get over it.

Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.

He’s my cat! He’s not God’s cat! Let God have his own cat! Let God have all the damn old cats He wants, and kill them all! Church is mine!

Outer beauty attracts, but inner beauty captivates.

Animal crackers, and cocoa to drink That is the finest of suppers, I think When I'm grown up and can have what I please, I think I shall always insist upon these.

A person who is emotionally free has no desire to convince, cajole, insist, beg, seduce, manipulate or control. He/she is free to love

As people do a task, they improve at it.

Better than succeeding little by little is failing at one go.

Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.

If you join government, calmly make your contribution and move on. Don't go along to get along; do your best and when you have to - and you will - leave, and be something else.

Either the future is subject to chance--in which case nobody, not even a god, can affect it one way or the other--or it is predestined, in which case foreknowledge cannot avert it.

There is not, and never was, a greater man than Emil Zatopek.