Leadership quotes
3.4K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside leadership — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"The great majority of people are “wandering generalities” rather than “meaningful specifics”. The fact is that you can't bit a target that you can't see. If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. You have to have goals."
"30% of all people will never believe you. Do not allow your colleagues and employees to work for you. Instead, let them work for a common goal."
"People wish to learn to swim and at the same time to keep one foot on the ground."
"Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future."
"You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some men up, calm others down, until finally they've got one heartbeat. Then you've got yourself a team."
"The most terrible job in warfare is to be a second lieutenant leading a platoon when you are on the battlefield."
"Clear, written goals have a wonderful effect on your thinking. They motivate you and galvanize you into action. They stimulate your creativity, release your energy, and help you to overcome procrastination as much as any other factor."
"The only real training for leadership is leadership."
"I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn't know how to get along without it."
"Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect."
"Nature never rhymes her children, nor makes two men alike. When we see a great man, we fancy a resemblance to some historical person, and predict the sequel of his character and fortune, a result which he is sure to disappoint. None will ever solve the problem of his character according to our prejudice, but only in his high unprecedented way."
"A good leader is always looking for people smarter and more experienced than they are. If you are the smartest one in the room, then you are stupid."
"We accomplish all that we do through delegation - either to time or to other people."
"Begin to live each day as if it was your last."
"I'm not dismissing the value of higher education; I'm simply saying it comes at the expense of experience."
"When you form a team, why do you try to form a team? Because teamwork builds trust and trust builds speed."
"[The Master] doesn't glitter like a jewel... [but is] as rugged and common as a stone."
"To lead people, walk behind them."
"Act so as to encourage the best in others, and by so doing you will develop the best in yourself."
"Customers should be number 1, Employees number 2, and then only your Shareholders come at number 3."
