Leading others has been a role in human groups since before history began. Is leadership learned or inborn? Is it best done by exercising power and force, or by cooperation and service? What really is meant by leadership? These leadership quotations describe the experiences and expertise of many in history and today. May you find something useful and inspiring among them!
It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.
The term ‘power’ comes from the Latin posse: to do, to be able, to change, to influence or effect. To have power is to possess the capacity to control or direct change. All forms of leadership must make use of power. The central issue of power in leadership is not Will it be used? But rather Will it be used wisely and well?
We’re not willing to give black leaders second chances because, in most cases, we’re not willing to give them first chances.
Great masters neither want nor need your worship. Your greatest gift to them and yourself is to emulate their divinity by claiming it as your own.
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.
I’m really glad that our young people missed the Depression, and missed the great big war. But I do regret that they missed the leaders that I knew. Leaders who told us when things were tough, and that we would have to sacrifice, and these difficulties might last awhile. They didn’t tell us things were hard for us because we were different, or isolated, or special interests. They brought us together and they gave us a sense of national purpose.
To the highest leadership among women it is given to hold steadily in one hand the sacred vessels that hold the ancient sanctities of life, and in the other a flaming torch to light the way for oncoming generations.
….Every human being may be better … We know it, because we — the human beings we know best — could be better than we are. Every human being should take advantage of his opportunity, however poor. We know this because we feel that we have failed to make the best of our opportunities. Every human being can… become a larger, finer, and fairer specimen of the human race. This is the gospel of religion and this is the gospel of personal ethics. more
I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.
I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.
I am very doubtful whether history shows us one example of a person who, having stepped outside traditional morality and attained power, has used that power benevolently.
But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.
Leaders don’t force people to follow — they invite them on a journey.
You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people if you don’t serve the people.
It is well to respect the leader. Learn from him. Observe him. Study him. But don’t worship him. Believe you can surpass. Believe you can go beyond. Those who harbor the second-best attitude are invariably second-best doers.
If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you. If you really make them think, they’ll hate you.
A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.
Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.
You do not lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.
The function of a leader within any institution: to provide that regulation through his or her non-anxious, self-defined presence.
Leadership can be thought of as a capacity to define oneself to others in a way that clarifies and expands a vision of the future.
Leadership through self-differentiation is not easy; learning techniques and imbibing data are far easier. Nor is striving or achieving success as a leader without pain: there is the pain of isolation, the pain of loneliness, the pain of personal attacks, the pain of losing friends. That’s what leadership is all about.
It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.
What is to give light must endure the burning.
What you always do before you make a decision is consult. The best public policy is made when you are listening to people who are going to be impacted. Then, once policy is determined, you call on them to help you sell it.
These projects are not lacking in natural leaders. They contain people with real ability, wonderful people many of them, but the typical sequence is that in the course of organization leaders have found each other, gotten all involved in each others’ social lives, and have ended up talking to nobody but each other. They have not found their followers. Everything tends to degenerate into ineffective cliques, as a natural course. There is no normal public life. Just the mechanics of people learning what’s going on is so difficult. It all makes the simplest social gain extra hard for these people.
In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
It is not so much that man is a herd animal, said Freud, but that he is a horde animal led by a chief.
I never had much faith in leaders. I am willing to be charged with almost anything, rather than to be charged with being a leader. I am suspicious of leaders, and especially of the intellectual variety. Give me the rank and file every day in the week. If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and mis-representatives of the masses — you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.
I would not be a Moses to lead you into the Promised Land, because if I could lead you into it, someone else could lead you out of it.
I never had much faith in leaders. I am willing to be charged with almost anything, rather than to be charged with being a leader. I am suspicious of leaders, and especially of the intellectual variety. Give me the rank and file every day in the week. If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and mis-representatives of the masses — you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.
I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition; as it is now the capitalists use your heads and your hands.
I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.
Whoever is providing leadership needs to be as fresh and thoughtful and reflective as possible to make the very best fight.
The only safe ship in a storm is leadership.
Large organization is loose organization. Nay, it would be almost as true to say that organization is always disorganization.
People don’t become leaders because they never fail. They become leaders because of the way they respond to failure.
If you are a leader, the people are your work.
In the seed model, leadership is the process of creating an environment in which people become empowered.
You don’t have to be a boss to be a leader.
If you’re not reaching back to help anyone then you’re not building a legacy.
When I’m talking to people, I find myself quoting the three organizing rules of Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter was initiated by three young women, and too few people know that. But, anyway, the first one is lead with love. The second is low ego, high impact. The third is move with the speed of trust. I must say those make me feel very hopeful for the future.
Inventories can be managed, but people must be led.
A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: which is: Try to please everybody.
Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.
Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.
A leader must have the courage to act against an expert’s advice.
