Theodore Roosevelt on leadership

Speak softly and carry a big stick.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.

George S. Patton1885–1945Often credited to Thomas Paine

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

Henry Kissinger1923–2023

Being a leader is like being a lady, if you have to go around telling people you are one, you aren’t.

Margaret Thatcher1925–2013