Barack Obama Quotes

Whether or not regime change is a good idea or a bad idea. I don't think because I think the regime change was a bad idea it means that Hussein was necessarily a good idea.

They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.

Almost all politicians are able to have a great one-on-one meeting. But I'm not interested in the candidate who can have a great meeting. I'm interested in the person who can make the right decisions.

If public opinion still endorses military action that's one thing, but if they wait maybe it will not. So it's not only impatience, but there are several other factors.

You try to make the decisions that you think are best in realtime.

Politics, as a profession, is not about making the right political decision. It's about making the right decision and then managing the political consequences.

And your brain doesn't naturally know how to think the way Zeckhauser knows how to play bridge. "for example," people do not react symmetrically to loss and gain. Well maybe a great bridge player like Zeckhauser does, but that's a trained response. Ordinary people, subconsciously affected by their inborn tendencies.

I think the Democratic Party has got to make fundamental choices.

Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I'm a great optimist. but, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it 'the eaten by wolves factor.' If I do something, what's the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don't worry about, because I have a plan in place if they do.

It's got to be the best intellectual exercise out there. You're seeing through new situations every ten minutes. In the stock market you don't base your decisions on what the market is doing, but on what you think is rational. Bridge is about weighing gain/loss ratios. You're doing calculations all the time.

I actually think this whole Brexit thing in the U.K. was a welcome example of being straightforward. With the candidates pulling out quickly, there's no stringing the people along.

Whatever way uncertainty is approached, probability is the only sound way to think about it.

A lot of people in their mind think ‘If there is a problem this is what I would do, this is how I would do it.’ But the truth is they don’t really know. Parkour teaches you to be sure of what you are able to do.

Whenever I think about an issue, I always argue the opposite side of it. So, when I ultimately decide on a course of action, I've already been through all the conceivable scenarios, and I'm going to go for it.

So if you are evaluating others (or yourself!) in the investment field, think out some standards - apply them - interpret them.

Daddy always said that an option that you know to have a bad outcome is only a fool's option, i.e., not an option at all. And I liked to think that Daddy hadn't raised a fool.

I think I'm determined. And I think if you're determined, you're right. Your behavior is exactly the same when you're stubborn, except then you're wrong. And so, there's times when I'm wrong, and I'd say, "Well, you were the dark side of determined." But I think determination, you know, it's like have an idea, think about the idea, the risks involved. What does it take to get from here to there? And then once you make the choice, you just keep going.

Clearly [Donald] Trump likes the way business executives and generals think and talk much more than policy professionals.

I think that a lot of times, I trust people I shouldn't, and it turns out right, and it makes me feel a little better about it.

I tend not to read the size of the production into a script when I'm reading it. It's just something you respond to or not and I do think it's very dangerous to say it's time now to do this or it's time now to do that.

Can you think of a single area of government in which George Bush hasn't already made things worse than Bill Clinton did?

I would say it would be worth it if, in fact, it would - if you could demonstrate that that would be the case and that the results and ramifications around the world wouldn't lead to more problems and more people dying. It's a very complex issue, and that's why I think we need to decide it.

Risks I think are the thing that make life important and everything that you and I do is risk vs. benefit. Is there a risk to sending your kid out? Absolutely. Is there a benefit? It exceeds the risk.

When people think of the outcomes of their decisions, they think much more short term than that. They think in terms of gains and losses.

I think that [having not a lot of time sweating the details] can be both a strength and a weakness. I think it depends on how [Donald Trump] approaches it. If it gives him fresh eyes, then that can be valuable. But it also requires you knowing what you don't know and putting in place people who do have the kinds of experience and background and knowledge that can inform good decision making.