“It isn’t making mistakes that’s critical; it’s correcting them and getting on with the principal task.”

There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don’t know.

Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.

Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers – they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up.

Agreement can always be reached by increasing the generality of the conclusion; when this is done, the form is generally preserved but only the illusion of policy is created.

Many people around the President have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos.

Enjoy your time in public service. It may well be one of the most interesting and challenging times of your life.

Presidential leadership needn’t always cost money. Look for low- and no-cost options. They can be surprisingly effective.

Politics is human beings; it’s addition rather than subtraction.

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.

With the press there is no ‘off the record.’

If in doubt, don’t. If still in doubt, do what’s right.

Learn to say ‘I don’t know.’ If used when appropriate, it will be often.

Prune – prune businesses, products, activities, people. Do it annually.

Everyone’s saying you can’t do anything until you can do everything.

Simply because you do not have evidence that something exists does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn’t exist.

If the staff lacks policy guidance against which to test decisions, their decisions will be random.

Our critical day is not the very day of our death; but the whole course of our life.

If you never get criticized, chances are you aren’t getting anything done.

Criticism is the essence of creation.

Dare to risk public criticism.

I like to not care that much about criticism, but I do care about it.

I don’t look at the criticism anymore. If somebody calls me fat, even in a vulnerable moment, I laugh to myself and think, I’m doing everything I can, so there’s nothing I can do about it.

Hateful, racist and ignorant remarks. When I hear people criticize without knowing the context, it makes me boil inside.

Know that the amount of criticism you receive may correlate somewhat to the amount of publicity you receive.