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Quotes about leadership

138 quotes from 99 people

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Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.
Henry Kissinger1923–2023Years of Upheaval (1982), ch. 25: The End of the Road
It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion’s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.
Winston Churchill1874–1965Speech in Westminster Hall (30 November 1954), quoted in The Times (1 December 1954), p. 11
- Courage
You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington.
Grace Hopper1906–1992The Wit and Wisdom of Grace Hopper (1987)
I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else.
Oliver Cromwell1599–1658Letter to Sir William Spring (September 1643)
- Character
No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.
Henry Miller1891–1980“The Alcoholic Veteran with the Washboard Cranium”, p. 122
There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life’s point of no return.
Dag Hammarskjöld1905–1961Vägmärken · Markings (1963), 1951
- Decisions
A manager’s task is to make the strengths of people effective and their weakness irrelevant⁠—and that applies fully as much to the manager’s boss as it applies to the manager’s subordinates.
Peter Drucker1909–2005Managing for the Future: The 1990’s and Beyond (1992), p. 139
I return you many thanks for the honour you have done me; but Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example.
William Pitt the Younger1759–1806Speech at the Guildhall, City of London (9 November 1805), quoted in The War Speeches of William Pitt (1915), p. 351
- Patriotism
Every age needs men who will redeem the time by living with a vision of the things that are to be.
Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965What I Think (1956), p. 142
The man fitted for affairs and authority never considers individuals, but things and their consequences.
Napoleon1769–1821Napoleon: In His Own Words (1916)
To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead.
William Hazlitt1778–1830“A Farewell to Essay-Writing” (March 1828)
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
Steve Jobs1955–2011Address at Stanford University (2005)
- Decisions
- Life & Death
There is a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and much less prevalent.
George S. Patton1885–1945War As I Knew It (1947)
What counts now is not just what we are against, but what we are for. Who leads us is less important than what leads us — what convictions, what courage, what faith — win or lose.
Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965Address to the Democratic National Convention, Chicago, Illinois. (21 July 1952); published in Speeches of Adlai Stevenson (1952) p. 17
I believe that none can “save” his fellow man by making a choice for him. To help him, he can indicate the possible alternatives, with sincerity and love, without being sentimental and without illusion.
Erich Fromm1900–1980Credo (1965)
- Decisions