John Edwards Quotes

Debates measure abilities you don't need to govern, like glibness. To govern you should be thoughtful, not glib. A debater has a sense of humor, but what's it got to do with governing? The ability to think on your feet. You make a budget sitting on your tush.

It's important for whoever is governor to be somebody with a breadth of experience in life, in business, and in service.

I've done enough of this that I can tell early on if it's going in the wrong direction or not.

Merit should count more than academic background.

In many companies, the person who talks the best usually gets the job. I got snowed by a few of those people over the years. I still think communication is important, but I don't think there's always a correlation between being a great communicator and other virtues that make for a great leader.

Failure to recognize the obvious is not a good characteristic of a leader.

It is not about gender, it is about experience, leadership, and vision.

Age is irrelevant. Experience is relevant.

What is competent? Who is it that can adjudicate what is competent or not competent? If the guys that are running the most important banks in our country aren't competent enough, well then, who is competent enough?

It doesn't matter what you look like. Experience is the key.

A presidential debate is a job interview. And voters look for certain traits in people applying to be president.

I admit I do have some drawbacks and limitations as a candidate. Although I am a professional comedian, some of my critics maintain that this is not enough. I cannot deny that I stand before you untested and inexperienced - I only spent two years in television, never as a romantic lead or a song and dance man.

I'll look and pick the best, and the one who can do the best job for the party.

I haven't had vast amounts of ministerial experience - in fact, none at all. But I do have a lot of experience of people.

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.

The experience of learning how to get straight to the core of a problem proved to be of immense value later when I had a long succession of responsibilities in large, complex government departments.

Management teams aren't good at asking questions. In business school, we train them to be good at giving answers.

I think for leadership positions, emotional intelligence is more important than cognitive intelligence. People with emotional intelligence usually have a lot of cognitive intelligence, but that's not always true the other way around.

You have to study the people and the ones that measure up are not always the ones you expect.

My biggest thing is, I'm learning what it's like to carry myself in a personal way and also a professional way: how I can be a leader and do multitasking.

I think experience is a terribly overrated idea when it comes to thinking about who should become president.

Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level.

I'm looking for the best person irregardless of political party, of race or religion, or color of their skin. Those things don't matter to me. I want someone who's qualified, who has a qualification to character and the integrity to do the things that have to be done to save this world.

An executive is a person who always decides sometimes he decides correctly, but he always decides.

I'm not even an engineer. I don't have a college degree; I hire guys with college degrees.