“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.”

The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow.

First you train the followers to accomplish the mission. Second, you resource them: Make sure that they have the tools to do the job. Third, you reward them: You give them medals or bonuses.

Look for intelligence and judgment and, most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego and the drive to get things done.

It is good if your enemy underestimates you. The dumber they think you are the more surprised they are when you kill them.

Preferring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. This the Constitution forbids.

The chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny.

Give me the right people and I don’t much care what organization you give me. Good things will happen. Give me the wrong people and it doesn’t matter what you do with the organization. Bad things will happen.

Failure is a part of life and you have to learn to deal with it. Failure is something that is part of life’s cycle and it’s from failure that you gain life experience.

I have never seen a good organization where the standards weren’t high.

Always focus on the front windshield and not the review mirror.

Respect for leaders by followers can’t be mandated; it must be earned. It has to be given to leaders by their followers.

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

It takes more courage to send men into battle than to fight the battle yourself.

Pissing people off doesn’t mean you’re doing the right things, but doing the right things will almost inevitably piss people off.

Always be looking for that which you do well and that which you love doing, and when you find those two things together — man, you got it.

My responsibility, our responsibility as lucky Americans, is to try to give back to this country as much as it has given us, as we continue our American journey together.

The potential infinite means nothing other than an undetermined, variable quantity, always remaining finite, which has to assume values that either become smaller than any finite limit no matter how small, or greater than any finite limit no matter how great.

With every thought we think, we either summon or block a miracle. It is not our circumstances, then, but rather our thoughts about our circumstances, that determine our power to transform them.

A person’s age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea.

Love and fear represent two different lenses through which to view the world. Which I choose to use will determine what I think I see.

Either our wills are determined by prior causes and we are not responsible for them, or they are the product of chance and we are not responsible for them.

Determination can be a battle or a thrill. Choose to be thrilled.

Teach boys that manhood is not determined by how often they hold back their tears.

The course of our lives is not determined by great, awesome decisions. Our direction is set by the little day-to-day choices which chart the track on which we run.