Leadership Quotes

It is the mark of a great man that he puts to flight all ordinary calculations. He is at once sublime and touching, childlike and of the race of giants.

Whenever I look at the history of presidents I deeply admire - the one thing that I'm always struck by is persistence. It's a quality that's underrated. Being able to plough through, being able to stay buoyant in the face of challenges.

Heart of a solider with a brain to teach your whole nation.

High sentiments always win in the end. The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

You must find a way to get your vision seen, implemented, and contributed to by others.

The heart of a statesman should be in his head.

I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference. It was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things.

I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.

The gentleman has nine cares. In seeing he is careful to see clearly; in hearing he is careful to hear distinctly; in his looks he is careful to be kind, in his manner to be respectful, in his words to be sincere, in his work to be diligent. When in doubt he is careful to ask for information; when angry he has a care for the consequences; and when he sees a chance for gain, he thinks carefully whether the pursuits of it would be right.

Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers.

My leadership began to take flight when I allowed myself to press people to change-whether they thanked me or cursed me.

I do make sure that I've got people who are experts that are helping me make the best decisions possible.

To keep any great nation up to a high standard of civilization there must be enough superior characters to hold the balance of power, but the very moment the balance of power gets into the hands of second-rate men and women, a decline of that nation is inevitable.

We need to understand the difference between discipline and punishment. Punishment is what you do to someone; discipline is what you do for someone.

The men who carry their points do not need to inquire of their constituents what they should say, but are themselves the country which they represent: nowhere are its emotions or opinions so instant and so true as in them; nowhere so pure from a selfish infusion.

It is the leader's job to hold hope high.

The real meaning of the spoken word has to be demonstrated by practical deeds

One of our statesmen said, "The curse of this country is eloquent men."

Manipulation is moving together for my advantage. Motivation is moving together for mutual advantage.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.

We all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade.

A statesman who confines himself to popular legislation - or, for the matter of that, a playwright who confines himself to popular plays - is like a blind man's dog who goes wherever the blind man pulls him, on the ground that both of them want to go to the same place.

Anybody who thinks that they are a leader and doesn't have anyone following them is just out for a walk.

Social media requires that business leaders start thinking like small-town shop owners. This means taking the long view and avoiding short-term benchmarks to gauge progress. It means allowing the personality, heart and soul of the people who run all levels of the business to show.

Knowing how to do a job is the accomplishment of labor - showing others is the accomplishment of the teacher - making sure the work is done by others is the accomplishment of the manager - inspiring others to do better work is the accomplishment of the leader.

An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.

Success doesn't come instantly. Neither does the ability to lead.

It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people's lives.

In a narrow sphere great men are blunderers.

In order to succeed we need leaders of inspired idealism, leaders to whom are granted great visions, who dream greatly and strive to make their dreams come true; who can kindle the people with the fire from their own burning souls. The leader for the time being, whoever he may be, is but an instrument, to be used until broken and then to be cast aside; and if he is worth his salt he will care no more when he is broken than a soldier cares when he is sent where his life is forfeit in order that the victory may be won.

If politics were like sports, we could ask Israel to trade us Benjamin Netanyahu for Barack Obama. Of course, we would have to throw in trillions of dollars to get Israel to agree to the deal, but it would be money well spent.

I only escaped from Tibet because I feared my people would resort to desperate violence if the Chinese took me as their prisoner.

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done, / The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won

The great commander, who seemed by expression of his visage to be always on the look-out for something in the extremest distance, and to have no ocular knowledge of anything within ten miles, made no reply whatever.

I have decided in 2020 to run for president.

A strong nation is one that is loved by its people and, as Edmund Burke put it, for a country to be loved it ought to be lovely.

Leadership is about having principles. A leader must have a vision and principles that will endure for all time and must always be true to these principles, applying them to changing circumstances

I had rather be in my grave than in my present situation, I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world; and yet they charge me with wanting to be a king.

The man who commands efficiently must have obeyed others in the past, and the man who obeys dutifully is worthy of someday being a commander.

It has not fallen to your lot to command great armies. You had to create them, organize them and inspire them.

....those who become princes through their skill acquire the pricipality with difficulty, buy they hold onto it with ease.

When I talked to [Donald Trump] about - our intelligence agencies, what I've said to him is - is that there are gonna be times where you've got raw intelligence that comes in and in my experience, over eight years, the intelligence community is pretty good about saying, "Look, we can't say for certain what this means." But there are gonna be times where the only way you can make a good decision is if you have confidence that the process is working, and the people that you put in charge are giving you their very best assessments.

When I ran for Presidency of the United States, I knew that this country faced serious challenges, but I could not realize - nor could any man realize who does not bear the burdens of this office - how heavy and constant would be those burdens

There is a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and much less prevalent. One of the most frequently noted characteristics of great men who have remained great is loyalty to their subordinates.

The essence of leadership is building bonds of trust in your organization.

I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me.

For success of any mission, it is necessary to have creative leadership. Creative leadership is vital for government, non-governmental organisations as well as for industries.

Leaders shouldn?t attach moral significance to their ideas: Do that, and you can?t compromise.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

There's a lack of people in power that are motivated by the idea of helping people.

If you set the example you will not have to set the rules.

Leaders have to be dealers in hope.

Do something, Congress. Do anything.

Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand.

Waterloo is a battle of the first rank won by a captain of the second

In their zeal for particular kinds of decisions to be made, those with the vision of the anointed seldom consider the nature of the: process: by which decisions are made. Often what they propose amounts to third-party decision making by people who pay no cost for being wrong-surely one of the least promising ways of reaching decisions satisfactory to those who must live with the consequences.

The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise. In my experience, the people closest to the problems are often in the best position to see the solutions. The key here is to empower and not be the bottleneck.

The path to the CEO's office should not be through the CFO's office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design.

Being President is like the man who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail... A man in the crowd asked how he liked it, and his reply was that if it wasn't for the honor of the thing, he would much rather walk.