List of points

Occupying as you do a post of government, would you meditate on this: the strongest and most effective instruments, if they are not properly used, become dented, worn out and useless.

How sad it is to see some people in positions of authority speaking and making judgements lightly, without studying the matter in hand. They make hard statements about persons or matters they know nothing about, even permitting certain prejudices which are the result of disloyalty!

Having a position of high authority, you would be imprudent to interpret the silence of those who listen to you as a sign of acquiescence. Ask yourself whether you allow them to make suggestions, or whether you take offence if they actually let you know what they think. —You must change your ways.

If someone thought that wolves could be reared among sheep… imagine what chance his sheep would have.

Mediocre men, mediocre in mind and in Christian spirit, surround themselves by foolish people when they are in power. They are falsely persuaded by their vanity that in this way they will never lose control.

Sensible men, however, surround themselves with learned people who live a clean life as well as possessing knowledge, and become, through their help, men who can really govern. They are not in this matter deceived by their humility, for in making others great they themselves are made great.

There is no prudence in appointing untried men to important posts of direction just to see how it works out. —It would be like risking the common good on a lottery.

You are in a position of authority and you go by what people say? You are a doddering old man! —First of all you should worry about what God will say; then, very much in the second place, and sometimes not at all, you may consider what others might think. “Whoever acknowledges me before men”, says the Lord, “I too will acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father who is in heaven.”

If you occupy a position of responsibility you should remember as you do your job that personal achievement perishes with the person who made himself indispensable.

A fundamental rule for good management is to give responsibility to others without this becoming for you a way of seeking anonymity or comfort. I repeat, delegate responsibility and ask each person to give an account of how his job is going, so that you can “render an account” to God; and to souls, if necessary.

Never say of anybody under you: he is no good.

—It is you who are no good, for you cannot find a place where he will be of use.