Kings stand more in need of the company of the intelligent than the intelligent do of the society of kings.
No one sees what is before his feet: they scan the tracks of heaven.
It is not enough to acquire wisdom, it is necessary to employ it.
For out of such an ungoverned populace one is usually chosen as a leader, someone bold and unscrupulous who curries favor with the people by giving them other men's property. To such a man the protection of public office is given, and continually renewed. He emerges as a tyrant over the very people who raised him to power.
Whatever is graceful is virtuous, and whatever is virtuous is graceful.
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.
More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. It will steal you blind.
In both cases, weakness and scruples had defeated strength and ruthlessness.
One of the first lessons a president has to learn is that every word he says weighs a ton.
Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist but a person who drives a racing car not called a racist?
We have spoken on many occasions of the need to achieve high economic growth as an absolute priority for our country. The annual address for 2003 set for the first time the goal of doubling gross domestic product within a decade.