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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"A real leader uses every issue, no matter how serious and sensitive, to ensure that at the end of the debate we should emerge stronger and more united than ever before."
"I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else - I can give my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations."
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."
"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."
"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace."
"As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it."
"Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong."
"To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity."
"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction."
"The leader sees leadership as responsibility rather than as rank and privilege."
"A leader is a dealer in hope."
"I have often been asked whether I am a women or an athlete. The question is absurd. Men are not asked that. I am an athlete. I am a women."
"I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life."
"A man cannot govern a nation if he cannot govern a city; he cannot govern a city if he cannot govern a family; he cannot govern a family unless he can govern himself; and he cannot govern himself unless his passions are subject to reason"
"The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people."
"True words aren't eloquent; eloquent words aren't true. Wise men don't need to prove their point; men who need to prove their point aren't wise. The Master has no possessions. The more he does for others, the happier he is. The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is. The Tao nourishes by not forcing. By not dominating, the Master leads."
"The power to question is the basis of all human progress."
"Leaders are those who empower others."
"Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction."
