I Shall Always Be Grateful For This

Good Leadership Requires You To Surround Yourself With People Of Diverse Perspectives Who Can Disagree With You Without Fear Of Retaliation.

Politicians Generally Form Alliances And Not Friendships. Individuals And Institutions Achieve Their Ends Through Continual Barter. But Deals Are Not Bonds. Indeed, Intense Emotional Involvement With Anything - With Issues, Ideology, A Woman, Even A Family - Can Be A Handicap, Not Only Consuming Valuable Time, But More Importantly, Reducing Flexibility And The Capacity For Detached Calculation Needed To Take Maximum Advantage Of Continually Changing Circumstances.

They All Start Competing Against Lincoln As The Greatest President. And The [library] Building Becomes The Symbol, The Memorial To That Dream.

I Think The Most Important Thing I Wanted To Say At Various Times To Franklin And Eleanor Roosevelt Was That It Seemed So Sad To Me That - I Really Believe They Loved Each Other And Had A Great Deal Of Affection - But Because Of That Early Hurt In Their Marriage, There Was A Certain Kind Of Distance From Then On, Until Their Deaths Actually. So At Times, I Just Wanted To Push Them Together And Say, "come On, You Guys! I Know You Love Each Other. This Is Crazy!"

The White House Is Such An Extraordinary, Simple, Beautiful Place. It's An Extraordinary Piece Of Our History, Because It Is The One Thing That Binds Our Country Together. We Don't Have A King Obviously, But We Have This President, And The Fact That Almost All Of Them Have Lived In The Same Place, And So Much History Took Place In Those Rooms. You Can't Help But Feel Awe-inspired By Being There.