“All values are important, everyone who has ever touched my life in some way was a mentor for good or bad. Life is a blend, and a person is a blend of all the influences that have touched their lives.”

A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.

What could be more important than equipping the next generation with the character and competence they need to become successful

The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

When you wrestle with a pig, he has fun, and you just end up dirty.

We can seldom get our children to do what we tell them, but they almost never fail to imitate us.

Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.

Treat people kindly. When you are kind to somebody and I don’t mean necessarily “buddy-buddy”, just show kindness and consideration. Show that people are worthy and you respect them and you are glad they’re with you.

Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission.

The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.

If everybody trusts one another, then the person who didn’t prevail will faithfully execute the decision as if it was their idea.

We are not trapped in what the science of management says we can do. We are capable of doing what the art of leadership says is possible.

Don’t bother people for help without first trying to solve the problem yourself.

Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.

If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.

My own experience is that you get as much information as you can and then you pay attention to your intuition, to your informed instinct.

I read books like mad, but I am careful to to let anything I read influence me.

My dad was the biggest influence on my life because he was never boring.

I think if people really read Martin Luther King, Jr., then they would begin to understand what he really represented. The philosophy that he developed, of course, he was greatly influenced by Gandhi and Jesus Christ.

One of the regrettable things in my life is that my dad was not around to see my stardom, to see me wrestle or to see what I achieved by the dream I had at an early age, influenced by where he would like to go.

Gershwin inspired me very much. The concept of ‘That Lucky Old Sun’ was inspired by ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ – not influenced, but inspired.

A belief in God is fundamental; upon it rest the influences that control life.

Everyone has influence, for good or bad, upon others.

I see plainly how external images influence the image that I call my body : they transmit movement to it.