David M. Rubenstein > Quotes

“He loved to tell a story about the Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen, who went to England after the war. They decided to embarrass him by putting a huge picture of General George Washington in the only outhouse that was connected to the dinner party. He goes into the outhouse and he comes out and he’s not upset at all. And they said, “Well, didn’t you see George Washington there?” “Oh, yes,” he said. “It was the perfectly appropriate place for him.” “What do you mean?” “Well,” he said, “there’s nothing to make an Englishman shit faster than the sight of General George Washington.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“Look for the job that you would want to hold if you didn’t need a job. You’re probably only going to live once. You don’t want to go sleepwalking through life… Look for the job that turns you on. Find a passion.” Warren Buffett is widely if not universally recognized as the world’s greatest”
― David M. Rubenstein, How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers

“When you can make a decision with analysis, you should do so. But it turns out in life that your most important decisions are always made with instinct, intuition, taste, heart.”
― David M. Rubenstein, How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers

“What is it that makes great leadership, in your view? RB: Being a really good listener is one of the most key things.”
― David M. Rubenstein, How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers

“First, a leader can create the type of change or results that will improve the lives of others. Second, a leader can motivate others to become leaders, and in turn improve others’ lives. And third, a leader can feel a sense of accomplishment and achievement that provides human fulfillment and happiness.”
― David M. Rubenstein, How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers

“There is another characteristic of George Washington I particularly admire. He thought in the long term. His correspondence is laced with the phrase “a century hence.” He thought about what our country would be like in a hundred or even two hundred years. And he did so in the crush of everyday political life, in which decisions had to be every day made under the pressure of events, in a hectic world like our own. He thought about us. He thought about the twenty-first century. He challenges us to think about a distant posterity—about the world we are making for generations yet unborn.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“I have absolutely no talent in assessing potential winners.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“There were so very few to choose from, and they were all young, in their thirties or early forties, with no experience.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“made it home just in time to answer the phone call.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“It was his animosity toward MacArthur, which Clay of course knew about, that did it.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“He tried to drop Nixon.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“What was his view on slavery? Was”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“Those words were prophetic.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“ban on his serving in the military),”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“and yell and scream at them.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“but I never regretted how long it took.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“Why was such a big deal made of something that wasn’t like going to the moon?”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“she insisted that it be secured.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“and he was doing this as a sideline. He had a full-time legal practice.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“I said fine,”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“Nobody can lead the Senate. I have nothing to promise them. I have nothing to threaten them with.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“When I was writing the book, I kept imagining how it must have been at night,”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“John Adams is he’s the only Founding Father to become president who never owned a slave.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“You get a much more complete view of the society as a whole.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“One comes from people who have a talent that is just given to them as a gift:”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“And was there any window to look out? How did Lindbergh see where he was going?”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“Those who lived through that crisis no doubt remember thinking a nuclear war was imminent.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“And he didn’t speak a word of French.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“It’s also good that she was there because he could be a little indiscreet,”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

“You’ll never be alone with a poet in your pocket.” Take a book, carry a book. Don’t go anywhere without a book.”
― David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians