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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"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That's not leadership. That's not going to happen."
"The building of a personality beyond its normal limitations."
"And if the imam and the Muslim leadership in that community is so intent on building bridges, then they should voluntarily move the mosque away from ground zero and move it whether it's uptown or somewhere else, but move it away from that area, the same as the pope directed the Carmelite nuns to move a convent away from Auschwitz."
"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."
"It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous."
"Refuse to make excuses or blame others. The leader always says, If it's to be, it's up to me."
"A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility."
"I say no body of men are fit to make Presidents, judges and generals, unless they themselves supply the best specimens of the same; and that supplying one or two such specimens illuminates the whole body for a thousand years."
"Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room."
"It is wonderful what great strides can be made when there is a resolute purpose behind them."
"'Tis skill, not strength, that governs a ship."
"Clarity affords focus."
"I don't see myself being special; I just see myself having more responsibilities than the next man. People look to me to do things for them, to have answers."
"That very aggressive, unapologetic leadership style is needed in Washington, D.C., and I'm not afraid to tackle big issues."
"A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men."
"The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand."
"The consummate leader cultivates the moral law, and strictly adheres to method and discipline; thus it is in his power to control success."
"Drum sound rises on the air, its throb, my heart. A voice inside the beat says, "I know you're tired, but come. This is the way."
"When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out."
"Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will make, not only for our own happiness, but that of the world at large."
