Leadership quotes
3.4K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside leadership — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself, believe."
"It was leadership here at home that gave us strong American influence abroad, and the collapse of imperial Communism. Great nations have responsibilities to lead, and we should always be cautious of those who would lower our profile, because they might just wind up lowering our flag."
"Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission"
"What starting your company means: you will lose your stable income, your right to apply for a leave of absence, and your right to get a bonus. However, it also means your income will no longer be limited, you will use your time more effectively, and you will no longer need to beg for favours from people anymore."
"Find the right people, not the best people."
"Knowledge people and service people learn the most when they teach ."
"The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm which is not easily disturbed, or else a brokenness that can hardly be healed. Conversely, it is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed in order to produce valuable and lasting results."
"I'll never give up on a player regardless of his ability as long as he never gives up on himself. In time he will develop."
"You can't teach court savvy"
"Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach."
"Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry."
"Difficulties mastered are opportunities won."
"Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time."
"Leaders, whether in the family, in business, in government, or in education, must not allow themselves to mistake intentions for accomplishments ."
"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."
"I have always tried to teach my players to be fighters. When I say that, I don't mean put up your dukes and get in a fistfight over something. I'm talking about facing adversity in your life. There is not a person alive who isn't going to have some awfully bad days in their lives. I tell my players that what I mean by fighting is when your house burns down, and your wife runs off with the drummer, and you've lost your job and all the odds are against you. What are you going to do? Most people just lay down and quit. Well, I want my people to fight back."
"An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows."
"He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader."
"If you want a quality, act as if you already had it."
"It is your decisions, and not your conditions, that determine your destiny."
