“When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk.”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama
Barack Obama: Change
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: Change
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones weve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: Heritage
“You’re a little insecure about your heritage if you’ve got to put somebody else’s heritage down.”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: Adult supervision
“What Washington needs is adult supervision.”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: Everybody can recognize it
“A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, ’Huh. It works. It makes sense.’”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: Liberties
“I
”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: Press on
“The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on.”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: Big country
“The United States is such a big country that after any election people are uncertain. It will be important for everybody around the world to not make immediate judgments but to give this president-elect a chance.”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: On the ballot
“I am not on the ballot, but I tell you what. Fairness is on the ballot. Decency is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Progress is on the ballot. Our democracy is on the ballot. ”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: Unprecedented
“I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the elections process before votes have even taken place. It’s unprecedented.”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: Intolerable
“Now you find a situation in which the guy (Donald Trump) says stuff that nobody would find tolerable if they were applying for a job at 7-Eleven.”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: African American history
“African American history is not somehow separate from our larger American story. It’s not the underside of the American story. It is central to the American story.”
—Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: No plan B
“We only get one planet. There is no plan B.”
~Barack Obama.
Cicero: Black at heart
“The man who backbites an absent friend, nay, who does not stand up for him when another blames him, the man who angles for bursts of laughter and for the repute of a wit, who can invent what he never saw, who cannot keep a secret – that man is black at heart: mark and avoid him.”
Colin Powell: Experts
Experts often possess more data than judgment.
—Colin Powell.
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Henry Kissinger: High office

“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. ”
—Henry Kissinger
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Anatole France: Naive hearts
“It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.”
– Anatole France
Elbert Hubbard: Flattery
“A woman will doubt everything you say except it be compliments to herself. ”
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Colin Powell: Moving on
“The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve.
Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An
important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative
thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will
change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you
to stay where they are. Friends that don’t help you climb will want you to
crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that
don’t increase you will eventually decrease you.
—Colin Powell

Decisions

United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales – official Department of Justice photograph (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“In this job, you’re going to make decisions. You’ll say things that some people are going to love them, some people are going to hate them. It’s just part of the job. ”
—Alberto Gonzales
Colin Powell: Advice to aides
How To Survive as My Aide—Or What Not To Do
—Don’t ever hesitate to ask me what to do if uncertain.
—Don’t ever sign my name.
—Never use your money on my behalf.
—Avoid “The General Wants” syndrome—unless I really do.
—Provide feedback but be tactful to those who ask—talks between you and me are private and confidential. Alma (my wife) has nothing to do with the office.
—Never keep anybody waiting on the phone. Call back.
—I like meetings generally uninterrupted. I ask a lot of questions. I like questions and challenges.
—I like to remain enormously accessible. I like to do things with people.
—I will develop ways of getting to know what’s happening.
—Don’t accept speaking engagements without my knowledge.
—Keep track of whom I have seen.
—I tend to get moody, preoccupied. I will snap but that clears the air.
—Be punctual, don’t waste my time.
—I prefer written information rather than oral.Writing tends to discipline.
—I like to do paperwork—and I do a lot.
—NEVER, NEVER permit illegal or stupid actions.
—No surprises.Bad news doesn’t get any better with time.
—If there is a problem brewing, I want to know of it early—heads up as soon as possible—I don’t like to be blindsided.
—Speak precisely—I often fudge for a purpose. Don’t over-interpret what I say.
—Don’t rush into decisions—make them timely and correct.
—I like excellent correspondence—no split infinitives.
-Excerpted from Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell by Karen DeYoung
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Accomplishing great deeds

English: US Army (USA) General (GEN) Colin Powell, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, waves from his motorcade during the Persian Gulf War, Welcome Home Parade, held in New York City, New York (NY). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.”
Loyalty
“When we are debating an issue, loyalty means giving me your honest opinion, whether you think I’ll like it or not. Disagreement, at this stage, stimulates me. But once a decision has been made, the debate ends. From that point on, loyalty means executing the decision as if it were your own.”
Colin Powell: Rules To Live By
Colin Powell‘s Rules To Live By:
1) It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
2) Get mad, then get over it.
3) Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls your ego goes with it.
4) It can be done!
5) Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
6) Don’t let adverse facts stay in the way of a good decision.
7) Check small things.
8) Share credit.
9) You can’t make someone else’s choices. You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.
10) Remain calm. Be kind.
11) Have a vision. Be demanding.
12) Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13) Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
Excerpted from Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell by Karen DeYoung
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Colin Powell: Being progressive
Many interviewers when they come to talk to me, think they’re being progressive by not mentioning in their stories any longer that I’m black. I tell them, ‘Don’t stop now. If I shot somebody you’d mention it.’
—Colin Powell.
Colin Powell: Egoistic position
Don’t let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn’t go with it.
Colin Powell.
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Fit no stereotypes
Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission.
Colin Powell
Preparedness

Ovid by Anton von Werner. "Bibliothek des allgemeinen und praktischen Wissens. Bd. 5" (1905), Abriß der Weltliteratur, Seite 51 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“He who is not prepared today will be less so tomorrow.”
—Ovid
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