Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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

- Saying, Zen

Best Quotes about Leadership

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

Laura Preble

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

Seneca

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

A leader knows what's best to do; a manager knows merely how best to do it.

Adelman, Ken

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

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control.

Landry, Tom

A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group.

Ewing, Russell H.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.

Rohn, Jim

10.

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

Kissinger, Henry

11.

Blessed is he who has learned to admire but not envy, to follow but not imitate, to praise but not flatter, and to lead but not manipulate.

Ward, William A.

12.

In really good companies, you have to lead. You have to come up with big ideas and express them forcefully. I have always been encouraged -- or sometimes forced -- to confront the very natural fear of being wrong. I was constantly pushed to find out what I really thought and then to speak up. Over time, I came to see that waiting to discover which way the wind was blowing is an excellent way to learn how to be a follower.

Enrico, Roger

13.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

14.

Outstanding leaders appeal to the hearts of their followers -- not their minds.

15.

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

Disraeli, Benjamin

16.

The person who has no enemies has no followers.

Piatt, Don

17.

The leader seeks to communicate his vision to his followers. He captures their attention with his optimistic intuition of possible solutions to their needs. He influences them by the dynamism of his faith. He demonstrates confidence that the challenge can be met, the need resolved, the crisis overcome.

Haggai, John

18.

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

Marx, Groucho

19.

Impatience is the cause of most of our irregularities and extravagances Command by obeying.

Motto

20.

Who has not served cannot command.

Florio, John

21.

It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope.

Pope John XXIII

22.

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

Depree, Max

23.

No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

24.

Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it.

Naisbitt, John

25.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

26.

I've always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team.

Iacocca, Lee

27.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws are new.

Aeschylus

28.

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

29.

The golden rule for every business man is this: Put yourself in your customer's place.

Marden, Orison Swett

30.

Those that rule must hear and be deaf, must see and be blind.

Proverb, German

31.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves.

Lao-Tzu

32.

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

33.

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

Lindner, Robert

34.

The right man comes at the right time.

Proverb, Italian

35.

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

36.

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

Proverb, French

37.

It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead -- and find no one there.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

38.

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

39.

Public sentiment is everything, with it nothing can fail, without it nothing can succeed.

Lincoln, Abraham

40.

The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground.

Churchill, Winston

41.

Leadership must be established from the top down.

Nunn, Sam

42.

Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.

Lombardi, Vince

43.

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

Melbourne, Lord

44.

Perhaps in His wisdom the Almighty is trying to show us that a leader may chart the way, may point out the road to lasting peace, but that many leaders and many peoples must do the building.

Roosevelt, Eleanor

45.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

46.

If you have fear of those that command you, spare those that obey you.

Azai, Rabbi Ben

47.

The first duty of a leader is to make himself be loved without courting love. To be loved without'playing up'to anyone - even to himself.

Andre Malraux

48.

The wealth of kings is in the affections of their subjects.