Leader Quotes

500+ Sourced quotes

Unless you want to carry the whole load yourself, you need to be developing leaders.

John C. Maxwell

Of all the potential perils to the new American republic, the prospect of concentrated power... troubled the intellectual leaders of the Revolutionary generation. Familiar as the founders were with old Europe... they understood why the accumulation of inherited wealth led to inequities and imbalances that inevitably corrupted any system of government.

I wish, I were big enough, like Einstein, to do what he did on one occasion. A hundred-dollar-a-plate dinner was organised for him to speak, and leaders of America in all fields, particularly in the field of science, were invited to hear the great man. When his turn came, he rose and said:'I've nothing to say,' and sat down. You can imagine the consternation, quite apart from the wasted cost of the dinner! Realising the frightful effect his remarks had on the audience, Einstein got up again and said: 'When I've something to say, I'll let you know.'

Aside from the humanitarian aspects, it is well known that, under excruciating torture, a prisoner will admit almost any suggested crime. Such confessions are, of course, not admissible in trials in civilized nations. The primary goal of torture or the threat of torture is not to obtain convictions for crimes, but to engender and maintain fear. Some of our leaders have found that it is easy to forgo human rights for those who are considered to be subhuman, or "enemy combatants."

Successful people become great leaders when they learn to shift the focus from themselves to others.

Marshall Goldsmith

This book is cheerfully dedicated to those greatest and most heroic of all human endeavors, WAR and WARFARE; may they never cease to give us the pleasure, excitement and adrenal stimulation that we need, or provide us with the heroes, the presidents and the leaders, the monuments and museums which we erect to them in the name of PEACE.

I told all four [congressional leaders] that I felt like this election happened for a reason; that it pointed out — the delay in the outcome should make it clear to all of us — that we can come together to heal whatever wounds may exist, whatever residuals there may be. And I really look forward to the opportunity. I hope they've got my sense of optimism about the possible, and enthusiasm about the job. I told all four that there are going to be some times where we don't agree with each other, but that's okay. If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier... [Bush laughs out loud, audience laughs out loud]... just so long as I'm the dictator [more laughter].

People today are desperate for leaders, but they want to be influenced only by individuals they can trust, persons of good character.

John C. Maxwell

American policy makers must understand that the activists and young people who started Yemen's peaceful revolution deeply respect the United States and Western civilization... We call on American officials to engage with the leaders of Yemen's democracy movement and abandon their misplaced investment in the old regime's security apparatus

Tawakkol Karman

The working world needs more empathic leaders, staff and colleagues. A person's high level of empathy will make up for a wide array of other skills and attributes.

Nigel Cumberland

Over the next three years, governments will have to choose whether or not to adopt this new people-centric framework for development. The temptation for political leaders to retreat to a safer, more conventional approach will mean a strong global grassroots campaign will thus be necessary to build pressure for adoption of these groundbreaking and transformative elements recommended in the report.

Tawakkol Karman

The poor did not hear such doctrines gladly and they were not at all disposed to follow the teaching of Tolstoy.... such teaching was no more acceptable to the peasants than some of Tolstoy's other views were to his wife and to the Government.... The more enlightened of their leaders looked upon him as a reactionary, standing in the way of the people's progress.

Robert Hunter (author)

When leaders are separate and definitely not equal, they tend to become ensconced in corner offices, or at least offices with windows.

It's up to us, the people, to break immoral laws, and resist. As soon as the leaders of a country lie to you, they have no authority over you. These maniacs have no authority over us. And they might be able to put our bodies in prison, but they can't put our spirits in prison.

The strength of any organization is a direct result of the strength of its leaders.

John C. Maxwell

There is a direct relationship between the absence of celebrity and the presence of good-to-great results. Why? First, when you have a celebrity, the company turns into the one genius with 1,000 helpers. It creates a sense that the whole thing is really about the CEO. At a deeper level, we found that for leaders to make something great, their ambition has to be for the greatness of the work and the company, rather than for themselves.

James C. Collins

We have to change the mindset of our corporate leaders and, obviously, we have to raise the level of corporate governance.

N. R. Narayana Murthy

The past doesn't equal the future.
All great leaders, all people who have achieved in any area of life,
know the power of continuously pursuing their vision,
even if all the details of how to achieve it aren't yet available

Anthony Robbins

The Jewish problem is no utopia, but a grave life and death problem for the Romanian nation, the country's leaders grouped by political parties becoming more and more like toys in the hands of the Judaic manipulators.

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu

One hundred years ago, visionary political leaders from the Progressive Era established a system of national forests and parks in our country that are the envy of the world and today are the treasure of an entire nation. Why not a similar, global vision for our generation?

Government can be moral — and it must be moral — without adopting a religion. Leaders can be moral — and they should be moral — without imposing their morality on others.

Geraldine Ferraro

We leaders should leave the tradition that we have become crazy for God.

It is impossible to overstate the significance of this. This is the last citadel for women in our Army. The bias towards officers with an arms corps affiliation in choosing senior leaders has some justification. Close combat is the core business of the Army. But women are already 'in combat' due to the changing character of war. Formal recognition of this removes the last defence of those who are resistant to the widest employment of women in the Army, and by extension their promotion to the most senior ranks. It is quite conceivable now that a woman will serve as the Chief of the Army in light of this decision.

There is no "slippery slope" toward loss of liberty, only a long staircase where each step down must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders.

Alan K. Simpson

Ethiopia did not have the same problem [of corruption]. African leaders looked at us with envy.

Mengistu Haile Mariam