Leadership Quotes :::
The Best Rulers
Of the best rulers,
The people only know that they exist;
The next best they love and praise
The next they fear;
And the next they revile.
When they do not command the people’s faith,
Some will lose faith in them,
And then they resort to oaths!
But of the best when their task is accomplished,
Their work done,
The people all remark, “We have done it ourselves.”
Lao-Tzu
Chinese philosopher
6th century BC
Power and Influence
Power lasts 10 years, influence not more than a hundred.
Korean proverb
Adversity and Power
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln
Why a Sense of Direction Is Important
One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don't know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter.
Lewis Carroll
Alice in Wonderland
Three Questions for Leaders
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?
Rabbi Hillel
Ancient Jewish scholar
Hey, I'm the Leader Here!
There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them.
Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin
French politician, upon seeing a crowd surge past him in Paris
At First, There's Only Hope
Hope is what you find in the woods when there was nothing before. But as the people began walking in the same place, there appeared the path.
Chinese proverb
Why Change Is Hard
There is nothing more difficult and dangerous, or more doubtful of success, than an attempt to introduce a new order of things in any state. For the innovator has for enemies all those who derived advantages from the old order of things while those who expect to be benefited by the new institutions will be but lukewarm defenders.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince
Or, As Reagan Would Say, Trust But Verify
Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes, and as innocent as doves.
Matthew 10:16
To Change Their Minds, Change Their Emotions
People don't change behavior or positions based on what they know. They change based on what they feel.
Oprah Winfrey
Why Things Suddenly Stop
Unsustainable trends tend not to be sustained.
Herbert Stein
Economist and presidential advisor
Why No Is Easier than Yes
It's easier to get everybody together on "No." You all have to have the same reason for "Yes." You don't have to have the same reason for "No."
Barney Frank
U.S. Congressman
Liberty and Local Governments
The strength of free peoples resides in the local community. Local institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they put it within the people's reach; they teach people to appreciate its peaceful enjoyment and accustom them to make use of it. Without local institutions a nation may give itself a free government, but it has not got the spirit of liberty.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America
1835
The Thrill of Consensus
There is almost an ecstasy, which is quite indescribable, in seeing and feeling a city slowly but surely reach a decision and act on it.
Ralph McGill
The South and the Southerner
Writing about Atlanta's coming to terms with the civil rights movement
Power of Perception
One third of what you see is in front of your eyes. Two-thirds is behind your eyes.
Chinese proverb
We will see it when we believe it.
Saul D. Alinsky
Labor activist
It's Spinach, You'll Love It
A leader is a man who has the ability to get people to do what they don't want to do and like it.
Harry S Truman
Some Will Never Be Convinced
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die.
Max Planck
Physicist and founder of quantum theory
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
Upton Sinclair
Author and unsuccessful candidate for governor of California
The Value of Keeping an Open Mind
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?
John Maynard Keynes
The Value of Diversity
It is hardly possible to overrate the value . . . of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar. . . . Such communication has always been and is, peculiarly in the present age, one of the primary sources of progress.
John Stuart Mills
Philosopher and member of the British Parliament
The Power of Ideas
One withstands the invasion of armies; one does not withstand the invasion of ideas. (Often translated from the original French as: Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.)
Victor Hugo
If You Think You're Powerful, You Are
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.
Alice Walker
Focus on the "Whats," Not the "Hows"
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
Gen. George S. Patton
How Opportunity Knocks
A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.
Paul Romer
Economist
Where to Begin
Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
Jonathan Kozol
Writer and education activist
While Waiting for Change, Keep Talking
There is enormous inertia — a tyranny of the status quo — in private and especially governmental arrangements. Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.
Milton Friedman
Economist
Endless Discussion, Followed by Relentless Focus
Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a problem. It's ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea. And it comes from saying no to a thousand things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.
Steve Jobs
A Formula for Intelligence
Perspective/Strong Relationship-Building Skills = +50 IQ points.
Michael Porter
Harvard Business School Professor
In Government, It Takes Two
If you have policy without politics, you're ineffective. If you have politics without policy, nothing changes.
Bill Bradley
Former U.S. Senator
Nothing is possible without men; nothing is lasting without institutions.
Jean Monnet
Diplomat who is considered the chief architect of European unity
The Leadership Show
The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.
Charles De Gaulle
What Leaders Leave Behind
The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and 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.
Walter Lippmann
Leader by Default
I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.
Bishop Desmond Tutu
Right Time, Right Leader
The right man comes at the right time.
Italian Proverb
Volunteers Are Better than Voters
I don't really believe in democracy. I believe in y'all come.
Andrew Young
Former mayor of Atlanta
Just Fix the Road
(Commenting on the story of the Good Samaritan, who aided a man who'd been assaulted by criminals along a road to Jericho.) I admire the Good Samaritan for picking up people on the side of the road, but I don't want to be the Good Samaritan. I want to fix the road to Jericho, so people don't get beat up there.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Quoted by Andrew Young
Why Nietzsche Loved Mission Statements
The most fundamental form of human stupidity is forgetting what we were trying to do in the first place.
Friedrich Nietzsche
What Will I Do Next?
Unpredictability is the greatest asset a leader can have.
Richard M. Nixon
Wise Men vs. Damned Fools
What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools predicted has come to pass.
Lord Melbourne
Queen Victoria's first prime minister
The Civic Century
The 20th century was the century of business. The next century is going to be the century of the social sector.
Peter Drucker
Where to Find Leaders
Social sector organizations increasingly look to business for leadership models and talent, yet I suspect we will find more true leadership in the social sectors than the business sector.
Jim Collins
Business writer
The Value of Cities
A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again.
Margaret Mead
Stop Me if You've Heard This . . .
People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.
Samuel Johnson
We Value Your Input
People say what they like, and then I do what I like.
Frederick the Great
King of Prussia (1740-86)
Don't Just Stand There . . .
The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1932
Go Ahead, Make Me
I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Comment to a group of reformers. His point: Until they lead the way, they shouldn't expect leaders to follow.
Life at the Top
One day you're the toast of the town, the next day you're toast.
Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson
On what's it's like to be in high office in Washington.
Means and Ends
If the end doesn't justify the means, what does?
Robert Moses
New York's legendary development czar and power broker
Listen, Think, Decide
He consulted much, pondered much, resolved slowly, resolved surely
Alexander Hamilton
Describing George Washington's process of decision making
Err Boldly
When I make a mistake, it's a beaut.
Fiorello LaGuardia
Mayor of New York, 1934-45
On his decision to rename 6th Avenue as the Avenue of the Americas, a name most New Yorkers refuse to use to this day.
Say What?
When in danger, ponder; when in trouble, delegate; when in doubt, mumble.
Robert F. Wagner, Jr.
Mayor of New York, 1953-65
Politician's Guide to Avoiding Indictments
Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink.
Martin Lomasney
Boston politician
How to Predict with Confidence
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Alan Kay
Computer scientist