Pierre Trudeau Quotes

The prime minister's job is to captain his team, his party and his government.

On a good day, I view the job [of president] as directing an orchestra. On the dark days, it is more like that of a clutch -- engaging the engine to effect forward motion, while taking greater friction.

Over the years, I've had a lot of different jobs - newspaper boy, dish washer, naval flight officer, Amtrak board member, Governor and chairman of the National Governors Association - just to name a few. But my most cherished job - and frankly my most important job for that matter - is being a father.

I've always thought Anne-Marie Slaughter would make a fantastic United States Senator or something. She's a real intellectual, but she's got enormous communicative skills and she's got government experience. The thing that drives me slightly crazy is the way we think about intellectuals as wooly, hopeless, arrogant, self-deceived, incapable.

Being prime minister is not a job to be performed with an eye for the exit.

Being the chief minister of a regional government is just a pastime compared with the hellish job of being prime minister of two different communities brought together.

Given the daunting challenges that we face, it's important that president elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one.

The Prime Minister is head of team but its not a one woman act. I've been called all those things. Intellectual, sharp-tongued, all true. But what New Zealander is like is to know that someone is in charge and in the end the buck stops with the Prime Minister.

The people who have never been in government, don’t know how hard the jobs are.

The United States is a very difficult country to govern.

I’ve learned that governing is more difficult than criticizing.

The Prime Minister of this country should be 100 percent efficient at all time.

I have been humbled by my first two weeks in office.

The CDU is willing to continue to take responsibility for our country. We want to do justice to the government mandate.

I think it's time for the Prime Minister to stop making excuses and to start governing.

It is not an easy job to govern China, I am aware of that.

Governing a large state is like boiling a small fish.

The work of a Prime Minister is the loneliest job in the world.

Politics is more difficult than physics.

The art of governing is a great metier, requiring the whole man, and it is therefore not well for a ruler to have too strong tendencies for other affairs.

I was a very senior minister in the Howard government and I sat around this particular table [in the prime ministerial office] in many discussions. The difference between being a senior minister and the prime minister is that ultimately the buck does stop with the prime minister and in the end the prime minister has to make those critical judgement calls and that's the big difference.

If ever there was a time for a PM ready and able to do the job from day one, this is it.

I don't think we do a great job in America any more of distinguishing between campaigns and governance. We live in an environment that's all campaign all of the time and it's helpful, now that we've moved beyond a campaign and an election to get into a governance posture.

The right way to proceed when we face the kind of challenges we face is to pursue the strategy which Ronald Reagan pursued when we faced the challenges of the last century.

President means chief servant