Barack Obama Quotes

I have several times made a poor choice by avoiding a necessary confrontation.

I don't think I'll ever be president of anything.

I'm not a natural leader. I'm too intellectual; I'm too abstract; I think too much.

I think that I have very few personal gifts to bring to real politics.

Every decision you make is a mistake.

I missed a lot of decisions. At the time of making such a decision, there was no doubt in my mind as to its correctness. However, a second or two later I felt that I erred and wished I could change my original ruling.

Mitt Romney has spent his entire life finding ways to solve problems.

I am not fit for this office [the Presidency] and never should have been here.

Throughout my career, I've been someone who's led... and solved problems we had.

Engineers have shown to embody a tremendous amount of leadership skills through the collaborative educational environment.

When I didn't do 'Runaround Sue' on the 'Ed Sullivan Show,' for example, I didn't listen to my inner voice. I should have.

You said go to her, and I let pride stand in my way. You said she needed me, and I didn't believe. You said love her, and I thought it would be easy.

Most people believe that great leaders are distinguished by their ability to give compelling answers. This profound book shatters that assumption, showing that the more vital skill is asking the right questions…. Berger poses many fascinating questions, including this one: What if companies had mission questions rather than mission statements? This is a book everyone ought to read—without question.

He chose a certain path in life, it proved to be a misguided one, but there, he chose it, he can say that at least. As for myself, I cannot even claim that. You see, I trusted. I trusted in his lorship's wisdom. All those years I served him, I trusted I was doing something worthwhile. I can't even say I made my own mistakes. Really - one has to ask oneself - what dignity is there in that?

I feel most badly, though, [because] after 10 years, I was at the company, I wanted to go back to New York where I was from. Why I didn’t go to Steve Jobs and say, ‘Steve, let’s figure out how you can come back and lead your company.’ I didn’t do that, it was a terrible mistake on my part. I can’t figure out why I didn’t have the wisdom to do that. But I didn’t. And as life has it, shortly after that, I was fired.

I know I should just leave. Just go. Because there's a point where a mistake turns into a big mistake, and I should probably come to my senses before I get there.

Second-guess [myself]? Yes, I do. I question everything I do every step of the way. Once I make the decision I'm almost blinded by believing in it, and then I usually hate everything I've done.

Usually, I'm pretty good about sorting through the options and then making decisions that I'm confident are the best decisions in that moment, given the information we have. But there are times where I think I wish I could have imagined a different level of insight.

[Donald] Trump, I think, is the sort of guy that if he maybe thought he'd made a little bit of a mistake, would find a way out, he wouldn't want to say, "Well, that's what I've done and I'm sticking to it, and I don't give a damn." Which is what the other people in America would be like.

You must believe in your own instincts and your own instincts at any particular time and believe that they were the right ones for any given situation. So, there's no point ever of kind of regretting something because you can't properly remember the exact circumstances in which you were playing out this particular scene. You have to believe in your intuition and your instinct at that moment.

Dollars and guns are no substitutes for brains and will power.

You can judge a leader by the size of the problem he tackles - people nearly always pick a problem their own size, and ignore or leave to others the bigger or smaller ones.

It's a sad day when you find out that it's not accident or time or fortune, but just yourself that kept things from you.

Solomon made a big mistake when he asked for wisdom.

I can't play Mahatma Gandhi.