"Leadership is something I was born with."

"We're still getting better as a team. We're still learning how to play basketball as a team and how to win tough games."

"I understand the NBA and the role I play on my team. I know that I have to play a leadership role and do whatever I have to do to win."

"There's no doubt who was a leader in space after the Apollo Program. Nobody came close to us. And our education system, in science, technology, engineering and math, was at the top of the world. It's no longer there. We're descending rather rapidly."

"Globalisation means many other countries are asserting themselves and trying to take over leadership. Please don't ask Americans to let others assume the leadership of human exploration. We can do wonderful science on the Moon, and wonderful commercial things. Then we can pack up and move on to Mars."

"Absolutely the United States should lead in space, for the survival of the United States. It's inspiring for the next generation. If we lose leadership, then we'll be using Chinese capability to inspire Americans."

"The way I see it, what is going to come out of the moon activities is a respect for U.S. leadership."

"Endurance and to be able to endure is the first lesson a child should learn because it's the one they will most need to know."

"To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know"

"I accept what God blessed me to be: a leader, a quarterback. It comes with a lot of fame, a lot of awards, a lot of things."

"The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done."

"Leaders shouldn't attach moral significance to their ideas: Do that, and you can't compromise."

"Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes."

"I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership."

"Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out."

"Management works in the system; Leadership works on the system."

"Most people think of leadership as a position and therefore don't see themselves as leaders."

"Only Americans can hurt America."

"I have found out in later years [that] we were very poor, but the glory of America is that we didn't know it then."

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office."

"In the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy as a prisoner's chains."

"Leadership is a word and a concept that has been more argued than almost any other I know. I am not one of the desk-pounding types that likes to stick out his jaw and look like he is bossing the show. I would far rather get behind and, recognizing the frailties and the requirements of human nature, would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone."

"Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people."