The first step for a leader is to be right with yourself. Integrity is the basis of leadership.

We [USA] need to deal with our problems here at home if we're going to be strong enough to lead abroad.

As Americans we like to believe that we're loved in international politics or that people like what we're doing. But we also recognize that we have an extraordinary responsibility to do what we think is right, and that sometimes what we do is not very popular.

I use the word power broadly. Even more important than military and economic power is the power of ideas, the power of compassion, and the power of hope.

The best armor against everything around you is to be well educated, to work hard, to be twice as good as if you had to be, to do languages and culture better.

You know, life is not one in which you just get to choose the things every day that come easily to you. And it's also true - and this is the self-esteem problem - you learn that there are people who are better at things than you are.

Great leaders never accept the world as it was and always work for the world as it should be