Michelle Obama Quotes

Get advice, then make your own decision.

The greatest presidents have been those who demonstrated astute judgment in times of crisis - often despite the advice they were getting.

I fear we might be losing the basic human facility to be alone - and with that you throw out independent decision-making, what to trust, what not to trust; key stuff - a perilous loss.

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

One man with a head on his shoulders is worth a dozen without.

When we come into the NSC, everybody has different opinions. At the end of the day, we present the president with all the facts. We let him make the decision. And we all, as a team, go out and support that decision.

I got a lot of Ph.D.-types and smart people around me who come into the Oval Office and say, 'Mr. President, here's what's on my mind.' And I listen carefully to their advice. But having gathered the device, I decide, you know, I say, 'This is what we're going to do.'

High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.

Great leaders don't rush to blame. They instinctively look for solutions.

You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment.

Decisions! And a general, a commander in chief who has not got the quality of decision, then he is no good.

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.

A president, like a college freshman, can't know in advance which questions he'll have to answer or what topics he'll have to master. He has to be flexible, supple, and responsive. He has to be comfortable with multiple-choice.

As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view.

The number of those who undergo the fatigue of judging for themselves is very small indeed.

Don't take too much advice.

I make up my own mind in light of available facts, with my own experience and a sense of personal ethics.

The rest is a mere matter of detail, to be settled with judgment, discretion, and caution.

Kerry is an adult - he thinks things through. He learns from the present as well as the past. To George Bush, thinking things through is for sissies.

Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level.

Problem-solving becomes a very important part of our makeup as we grow into maturity or move up the corporate ladder.

The capacity to make free choices is not something we either have entirely or not at all. Rather, choices become freer the more they are the result of our own capacity to reflect on and assess facts and arguments.

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.