If I always appear prepared, it is because before entering an undertaking, I have meditated long and have foreseen what might occur. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly and secretly what I should do in circumstances unexpected by others; it is thought and preparation.

It is a grave error for any leader to be oversensitive in the face of criticism.

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.

A real leader uses every issue, no matter how serious and sensitive, to ensure that at the end of the debate we should emerge stronger and more united than ever before.

A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.

There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.