James K. Polk Quotes

Yes, Ronald Reagan did sleep through cabinet meetings—and deservedly so. They were incredibly tedious. I know; I was there.

There was no one at the table [of a Cabinet meeting] who could be of help to me except the President, and when I needed to consult him I did not choose a Cabinet meeting to do so.

Making the bureaucracy accountable to the President in any comprehensive and enduring way is impossible. Making it alert to his preferences is possible in those cases where Presidents put loyal and competent subordinates in charge of making decisions.

The presidency is not a collegial body... He will surround himself with people who share his vision.

To say that I'm going to veto something that I haven't read is just - or sign something that I haven't read - I don't think is good policy for any chief executive.

When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.

I am someone who facilitates the President’s ability to make tough decisions.

Lincoln has no conception of his situation—much absorption in the details of office dispensation, but little application to great ideas.

Presidents don’t get to do do-overs!

The way a President runs his business ought to remain highly idiosyncratic.

Ministers do not function well when they are unsure of their authority or of their standing with the Leader [ the Prime Minister]

Congress has chosen to recognize that a president may be forced to pursue legitimate foreign policy objectives by covert means. Such recognition, however, does not mean it surrenders the right to be informed of covert measures so that it can express its views as to the legitimacy of the goals or the wisdom of seeking to achieve them.

The first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.

Presidents ought to get the appointments they want for the cabinet and then be responsible for them.

I am well aware of what three past presidents have said, but that will not be worth five cents if the people and the Congress do not support their president now.”

The President is responsible to the public for the conduct of the person he has nominated and appointed.

Presidents ... become hermits only at their peril. Running the executive branch is now a team sport. It is operated best by politicians who thrive on command, possess a fine and sure touch for the levers of power and enjoy the company of those who serve them.

A unity of the Executive would be necessary in order to promote dispatch; -that a plurality of Persons would never do. When I was in Holland the States general were obliged to give up their power to a French Man to direct their military operations…. However power is always increasing on the part of the Executive

The Executive Branch, when they put the point on the spear, can get things done.

Never with my consent shall an officer of the people, compensated for his services out of their pockets, become the pliant instrument of executive will.

Decision, activity, secrecy and dispatch will characterize the proceedings of one man in a much more eminent degree than the proceedings of any greater number and in proportion as the number is increased.

Governing is about selecting.

You can't have fifteen people coming together to give the president advice in a Cabinet session. They're all arguing with each other for their own interests and he gets confused. What he decides has to come to him in an orderly way.

The legislative branch acts for the future. Judges act by reflecting on the past. The President has to deal with the realities of today.

At present the direction of our affairs, foreign and domestic, has again come to be almost wholly in the hands of the Senate, because there are in the Senate a few courageous men who have dared to take control from the Executive.