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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"No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance."
"To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult."
"Leaders must understand that some people will inevitably sell out to the evil side. Don't waste your time wondering why; spend your time discovering who."
"To be omnipotent but friendless is to reign."
"You take those little rascals, talk to them good, pat them on the back, let them think they are good, and they will go out and beat the biguns."
"If you want a thing done - go. If not - send."
"Positive questions bring out the best in people, inspire positive action, and create possibilities for positive futures."
"Optimism may sometimes be delusional, but pessimism is always delusional."
"The more excited and committed you are to your work, the more excited and committed will be the people around you. The leader always sets the tone for the department or organization."
"If the challenge is far beyond their skill level, they tend to get frustrated; if it's far below their skill level, they tend to get bored. Leaders need to strike the right balance."
"The leader of the deed was a woman. -Dux femina facti"
"Surround yourself with great people; delegate authority; get out of the way"
"One who is too insistent on his own views, finds few to agree with him."
"There has never been a statue erected to honor a critic."
"A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward."
"A real businessman or entrepreneur has no enemies. Once he understand this, the sky's the limit."
"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."
"If you understand hallucination and illusion, you don't blindly follow any leader. You must know if the person is sane or insane, over the abyss."
"If we learned to walk and talk the way we learn to read and write, everyone would limp and stutter."
"A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape."
