Motivational Quotes

Leadership

There is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere. If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions into its nose in an effort to look like an elephant.

- Liu Shao-Ch'I

Best Quotes about Leadership

A crown, golden in show is but a wreath of thorns.

Milton, John

The speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack.

Lukas, Wayne

Men are lead by trifles.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.

Rockefeller, John D.

The right man comes at the right time.

Proverb, Italian

The measure of a great leader, is their success in bringing everyone around to their opinion twenty years later.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

Seneca

The manager administers; the leader innovates. The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective. The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why. The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon. The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.

Bennis, Warren

Show me the leader and I will know his men. Show me the men and I will know their leader.

Newcomb, Arthur W.

10.

Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.

Diderot, Denis

11.

One secret of leadership is that the mind of a leader never turns off. Leaders even when they are sightseers or spectators, are active; not passive observers.

Humes, James

12.

The first task of a leader is to keep hope alive.

Batten, Joe

13.

You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think.

Parker, Dorothy

14.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

15.

Leadership is not magnetic personality--that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people --that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

Drucker, Peter F.

16.

Eagles don't flock, you have to find them one at a time.

Perot, H. Ross

17.

The chief executive who knows his strengths and weaknesses as a leader is likely to be far more effective than the one who remains blind to them. He also is on the road to humility -- that priceless attitude of openness to life that can help a manager absorb mistakes, failures, or personal shortcomings.

Adair, John

18.

In the great mass of our people there are plenty individuals of intelligence from among whom leadership can be recruited.

Hoover, Herbert Clark

19.

Leaders don't inflict pain -- they share pain.

Depree, Max

20.

A leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people or improve the system they live under.

Ervin, Sam

21.

If you want to be comfortable -- take an easy job. If you aspire to leadership, take off your coat.

22.

I don't think that a leader can control to any great extent his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction.

Nixon, Richard M.

23.

The best leaders... almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.

Peters, Thomas J.

24.

Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done.

Packard, Vance

25.

An order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

26.

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.

Lippmann, Walter

27.

The highest of distinctions is service to others.

King George VI

28.

All business success rests on something labeled a sale, which at least momentarily weds company and customer.

Peters, Thomas J.

29.

When a customer enters my store, forget me. He is king.

Wanamaker, John

30.

Liu Shao-Ch'I

31.

The best leaders of all, the people know not they exist. They turn to each other and say We did it ourselves.

Saying, Zen

32.

I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.

Lao-Tzu

33.

When a blind man bears the standard, pity those who follow.

Proverb, French

34.

When the leadership is right and the time is right, the people can always be counted upon to follow -- to the end at all costs.

Seymour, Harold J.

35.

An army of deer would be more formidable commanded by a lion, than an army of lions commanded by a stag.

Proverb

36.

It is a great pity when the one who should be the head figure is a mere figure head.

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

37.

Leadership is the wise use of power. Power is the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it.

Bennis, Warren

38.

The minute a person whose word means a great deal to others dare to take the open-hearted and courageous way, many others follow.

Anderson, Marian

39.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F. Kennedy

40.

The penalty of leadership is loneliness.

Robinson, H. Wheeler

41.

You do not lead by hitting people over the head -- that's assault, not leadership.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

42.

The real leader has no need to lead -- he is content to point the way.

Miller, Henry

43.

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such.

Maurois, Andre

44.

The leader can never close the gap between himself and the group. If he does, he is no longer what he must be. He must walk a tightrope between the consent he must win and the control he must exert.

Lombardi, Vince

45.

Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

46.

Leadership is the challenge to be something more than average.

Rohn, Jim

47.

We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.

Patton, George S.

48.

True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders.