Leadership and Motivational Quotes
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you
are a leader. - John Quincy Adams
The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and
the wishbone that go with it. - Elaine Agather
Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be
affected by it. - Marian Anderson
If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. - Maya Angelou
If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in the dark with a
mosquito. - Anonymous
Praise works with only three types of people; men, women, and children. - Anonymous
Leadership is the ability to hide your panic from others. - Anonymous
No general can fight his battles alone. He must depend upon his lieutenants, and his success
depends upon his ability to select the right man for the right place. - Philip Armour
He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. - Aristotle
If an incompetent chieftain is removed, seldom do we appoint his highest-ranking
subordinate to his place. - Attila the Hun
I would rather regret the things I have done than the things I have not. - Lucille Ball
I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony
orchestra. But I don’t think that’s quite it; it’s more like jazz. There is more improvisation. Warren Bennis
The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why. - Warren Bennis
The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor
to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than
born. - Warren Bennis
I think leadership comes from integrity – that you do whatever you ask others to do. I think
there are non-obvious ways to lead. Just by providing a good example as a parent, a friend, a
neighbor makes it possible for other people to see better ways to do things. Leadership does
not need to be a dramatic, fist in the air and trumpets blaring, activity. - Scott Berkun
Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as
tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a
phony. And they can tell when you're not giving it all you've got. - Larry Bird
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The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. - Tony Blair
The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. - Kenneth Blanchard
When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out. - Napoleon
Bonaparte
Leaders are simultaneously champions of the vision, custodians of the values and shepherds
of the people. - Manie Bosman
Leadership is mostly about the courage and willingness to do what it takes and sacrifice
what is needed to achieve what is required. - Manie Bosman
Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts. - Erskine Bowles
Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better. - Bill Bradley
There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is
number two. - Bertolt Brecht
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is
there already. - John Buchan
Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all
of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge,
skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure. - Admiral Arleigh A. Burke
Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening
from time to time. - George W. Bush
Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you
make a life. - Sandra Carey
Let him who would be moved to convince others, be first moved to convince himself. Thomas Carlyle
No man will ever make a great leader who wants to do it all by himself or to get all the credit
for doing it. - Andrew Carnegie
Unless structure follows strategy, inefficiency results. - Alfred Chandler
If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great
power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority
whatever. - G.K. Chesterton to Alexander Woollcott
If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall in the ditch. - Jesus Christ
The price of greatness is responsibility. - Winston Churchill
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them
into the impossible. - Arthur C. Clarke
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I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. - Bill
Cosby
Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether
the ladder is leaning against the right wall. - Stephen R. Covey
The leader’s job is not to cover all the bases - it is to see that all bases are covered. - James
Crupi
There are two kinds of men who never amount to much - those who cannot do what they
are told and those who can do nothing else. - Cyrus H. K. Curtis
You don't have to hold a position in order to be a leader. - Anthony J. D'Angelo
It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep, than a sheep at the head of an
army of lions. - Daniel Defoe
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In
between, the leader is a servant. - Max DePree
I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times. Everett Dirksen
Next to the assumption of power is the responsibility of relinquishing it. - Benjamin Disraeli
The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches but to reveal to them
their own. - Benjamin Disraeli
There's plenty of room at the top, but there's no room to sit down. - Helen Downey
When nothing is sure, everything is possible. - Margaret Drabble
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. - Peter F. Drucker
Management means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle,
of knowledge for folklore and superstition, and of cooperation for force. - Peter F. Drucker
The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because
they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think
“team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept
responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit…. This is what creates trust,
what enables you to get the task done. - Peter Drucker
In today's economy, the most important resource is no longer labor, capital or land; it is
knowledge. - Peter F. Drucker
No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be
organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average
human beings. - Peter F. Drucker
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Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to
a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. - Peter F.
Drucker
Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not
"making friends and influencing people", that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's
vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the
building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. - Peter F. Drucker
So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. Peter F. Drucker
The led must not be compelled; they must be able to choose their own leader. - Albert
Einstein
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he
wants to do it. - Dwight D. Eisenhower
The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is
possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an
office. - Dwight D. Eisenhower
You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership. - Dwight D.
Eisenhower
Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. - Ralph
Waldo Emerson
People are more easily led than driven. - David Harold Fink
The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. - Harvey
Firestone
If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth
reading, or do things worth the writing. - Benjamin Franklin
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. - Edwin H. Friedman
I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with
people. - Mohandas K. Gandhi
Most important, leaders can conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty
preoccupations and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts. - John
Gardner
He who has great power must first become good servants. - Robert Greenleaf
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The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain
trumpet. - Theodore M. Hesburgh
In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully
equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. - Eric Hoffer
The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and
the idealist. - Eric Hoffer
You manage things; you lead people. - Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
Misfortunes, untoward events, lay open, disclose the skill of a general, while success
conceals his weakness, his weak points. - Horace
I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership. - Lee
Iacocca
Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of
the day. - Jesse Jackson
The only real training for leadership is leadership. - Antony Jay
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. Thomas Jefferson
Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. - Steve Jobs
Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach. - Rosabeth
Moss Kantor
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. - John Fitzgerald Kennedy
You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that
place and making a case. - Ken Kesey
The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.
- Henry Kissinger
The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves. - Ray Kroc
Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want
to achieve. - Tom Landry
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. - Tom Landry
There go the people. I must follow them for I am their leader. - Alexandre Ledru-Rollin
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. - Abraham
Lincoln
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Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him
power. - Abraham Lincoln
The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men, the conviction and the
will to carry on. - Walter Lippman
Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard
work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal. - Vince
Lombardi
In this world a man must either be an anvil or hammer. - Henry W. Longfellow
Leadership is action, not position. - Donald H. McGannon
Humans are ambitious and rational and proud. And we don’t fall in line with people who
don’t respect us and who we don’t believe have our best interests at heart. We are willing to
follow leaders, but only to the extent that we believe they call on our best, not our worst. Rachel Maddow
The very essence of leadership is its purpose. And the purpose of leadership is to
accomplish a task. That is what leadership does–and what it does is more important than
what it is or how it works. - Colonel Dandridge M. Malone
To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less. - André Malraux
It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate
victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people
will appreciate your leadership. - Nelson Mandela
Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men: the other 999 follow women. - Groucho Marx
Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them. John C. Maxwell
Leadership is influence. - John C. Maxwell
People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. - John Maxwell
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed
it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead
The best example of leadership is leadership by example. - Jerry McClain
The real leader has no need to lead, he is content to point the way. - Henry Miller
My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to
a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. - General Montgomery
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I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered a training ground for
leadership, but raising children isn’t. - Dee Dee Myers
I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more
followers. - Ralph Nader
The power is detested, and miserable the life, of him who wishes to be feared rather than to
be loved. - Cornelius Nepos
To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult. - Friedrich
Nietzsche
High sentiments always win in the end, The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat
always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it
comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic. - George Orwell
True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone is performing at
their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well. - Bill Owens
Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. - General George Patton
Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be
managed but people must be lead. - Ross Perot
Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing. Tom Peters
Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing. Mary D. Poole
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the
day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or
concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership. - Colin Powell
Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow. - Chinese Proverb
It is absurd that a man should rule others, who cannot rule himself. (Absurdum est ut alios
regat, qui seipsum regere nescit.) - Latin Proverb
Where there is no vision, the people perish. - Proverbs 29:18
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. - Jim Rohn
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. - Theodore Roosevelt
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to
look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. - Eleanor Roosevelt
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The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants
done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. - Theodore
Roosevelt
In our system leadership is by consent, not command. To lead a President must persuade.
Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his
persuasiveness and thus to his leadership. - Donald Rumsfeld
Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without
one, be without the strategy. - Norman Schwarzkopf
It is impossible to imagine anything which better becomes a ruler than mercy. - Seneca
What you cannot enforce / Do not command. - Sophocles
We must recognize that as the dominant power in the world we have a special
responsibility. In addition to protecting our national interests, we must take the leadership
in protecting the common interests of humanity. - George Soros
Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small. - Edmund Spenser
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: which is:
Try to please everybody. - Herbert B. Swope
To be a great leader and so always master of the situation, one must of necessity have been
a great thinker in action. An eagle was never yet hatched from a goose's egg. - James Thomas
Things do not change, we do. - Henry David Thoreau
Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership,
society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity
to change things for the better. - Harry S. Truman
The cardinal responsibility of leadership is to identify the dominant contradiction at each
point of the historical process and to work out a central line to resolve it. - Mao Tse-Tung
To lead people, walk beside them … As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their
existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the
next, the people hate … When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it
ourselves!" - Lao-Tsu
Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people
believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish. - Sam Walton
There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage. - Fuchan Yuan
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SOURCES:
Best Leadership Quotes http://www.famous-quotes-and-quotations.com/leadershipquotes.html
Brainy Quote http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/leadership.html
Inspirational Quotes http://www.inspirational-quotes.info/leadership.html
Leadership 501 http://www.leadership501.com/leadership-quotes/316/
Perpetual Calendar of Motivational Quotes Great Quotations, Inc.
The Positivity Blog http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2007/07/06/25-greatquotes-on-leadership/
Winston Churchill Leadership http://www.winston-churchill-leadership.com/leadershipquote.html
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