Quotes About Leadership

Lincoln's time alone with his thoughts played a crucial role in his ability to navigate a demanding wartime presidency. We can therefore say, with only mild hyperbole, that in a certain sense, solitude helped save the nation.

Here, again, as I conceive, gentlemen forget that this government is a republican one, resting exclusively in the intelligence and virtue of the People.

Would that the Roman people had a single neck [to cut off their head].

Let them hate us, as long as they fear us.

Si nous partons du postulat que les hommes sont à éduquer, nous pouvons aussi bien dire que, manquant d'éducation, voire d'humanisme, il conviendrait de ne pas leur laisser les rênes du commandement de la chose publique.

The only difference between a mob and a trained army is organization.

We need more of the Office Desk and less of the Show Window in politics. Let men in office substitute the midnight oil for the limelight.

Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.

It takes a great man to be a good listener.

Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions.

I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people.

It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation which sooner or later impairs their judgment. They are in grave danger of becoming careless and arrogant.

There is only one form of political strategy in which I have any confidence, and that is to try to do the right thing and sometimes be able to succeed.

When a man begins to feel that he is the only one whou can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions.

Any man who has been placed in the White House cannot feel that it is the result of his own exertions or his own merit. Some power outside and beyond him becomes manifest through him. As he contemplates the workings of his office, he comes to realize with an increasing sense of humility that he is but an instrument in the hands of God.

It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man. When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions. .

People who run a ready-to-wear company are businessmen rather than production or design people.

No 27-year-old has the experience to run a company that does a quarter of a billion dollars a year in sales.

La historia tiene ya el número de páginas suficientes para enseñarnos dos cosas: que jamás los poderosos coincidieron con los mejores, y que jamás la política (contra todas las apariencias) fue tejida por los políticos (meros canalizadores de la inercia histórica).

Words provide a voice to our deepest feelings. I tell you, words have started and stopped wars. Words have built and lost fortunes. Words have saved and taken lives. Words have won and lost great kingdoms.

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations. —Abraham Lincoln

To a young man who has in himself the magnificent possibilities of life, it is not fitting that he should be permanently commanded. He should be a commander. JAMES A. GARFIELD

General Robert Baden-Powell, later founder of the Boy Scouts, drastically cut African rations in an attempt to spare not just his own men but any white civilians trapped in the town with them. His plan was to starve the native population until they were forced to break out of the besieged city in search of food, thus reducing the number of mouths to feed.