Part of courage is simple consistency.

Candor is a compliment it implies equality. It's how true friends talk.

If you join government, calmly make your contribution and move on. Don't go along to get along do your best and when you have to - and you will - leave, and be something else.

Sincerity and competence is a strong combination. In politics, it is everything.

Beware the politically obsessed. They are often bright and interesting, but they have something missing in their natures there is a hole, an empty place, and they use politics to fill it up. It leaves them somehow misshapen.