Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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

- Milton, John

Best Quotes about Leadership

Ethics must begin at the top of an organization. It is a leadership issue and the chief executive must set the example.

Hennessy, Edward

Leadership must be established from the top down.

Nunn, Sam

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

Parker, Dorothy

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

I don't believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them.

Geneen, Harold S.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you.

Thatcher, Margaret

There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two.

Brecht, Bertolt

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

Batten, Joe

10.

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.

Tutu, Bishop Desmond

11.

Self-regulation will always be a challenge, but if somebody's going to be in charge, it might as well be me.

Daniel Akst

12.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

Roosevelt, Theodore

13.

Certainly a leader needs a clear vision of the organization and where it is going, but a vision is of little value unless it is shared in a way so as to generate enthusiasm and commitment. Leadership and communication are inseparable.

Taylor, Claude

14.

A good leader needs to have a compass in his head and a bar of steel in his heart.

Townsend, Robert

15.

Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men -- the other 999 follow women.

Marx, Groucho

16.

The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with assistants and associates smarter than they are. They are frank in admitting this and are willing to pay for such talents.

Parrish, Amos

17.

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

Wanamaker, John

18.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

Kissinger, Henry

19.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.

Maxwell, John C.

20.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

21.

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

Miller, Henry

22.

A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership in the world.

Updike, John

23.

That is no use at all. What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong.

Melbourne, Lord

24.

He is the richest man who enriches his country most; in whom the people feel richest and proudest; who gives himself with his money; who opens the doors of opportunity widest to those about him; who is ears to the deaf; eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. Such a man makes every acre of land in his community worth more, and makes richer every man who lives near him.

Marden, Orison Swett

25.

Leaders create an environment which everyone has the opportunity to do work which matches his potential capability and for which an equitable differential reward is provided.

Jaques, Elliott

26.

Faith in the ability of a leader is of slight service unless it be united with faith in his justice.

George Goethals

27.

We will make them think it's their idea. That's how all great leaders fool people.

Laura Preble

28.

It is a characteristic of all movements and crusades that the psychopathic element rises to the top.

Lindner, Robert

29.

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

30.

Great leaders understand human behavior rather than the cybernetics of any function.

Schorr, James

31.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws are new.

Aeschylus

32.

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

Milton, John

33.

A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

Meir, Golda

34.

The first thing a great person does, is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

35.

There is great force hidden in a gentle command.

Herbert, George

36.

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

Depree, Max

37.

The penalty of leadership is loneliness.

Robinson, H. Wheeler

38.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

39.

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.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

40.

We are reformers in the spring and summer, but in autumn we stand by the old. Reformers in the morning, and conservers at night.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

41.

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.

42.

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

Patton, George S.

43.

The crowd gives the leader new strength.

Evenius

44.

Tell a person they are brave and you help them become so.

Carlyle, Thomas

45.

The well being of the people is the supreme law.