Quotes About Leadership

People who leave Washington D.C. do so by way of the box - ballot or coffin.

The President spends most of his time kissing people on the cheek in order to get them to do what they ought to do without getting kissed.

You can always get the truth from an American statesman after he has turned 70, or given up all hope of the Presidency.

Nothing ever gets settled in this town (Washington). It's not like running a company or even a university. It's a seething debating society, in which the debate never stops; in which people never give up, including me, and that's the atmosphere in which you administer.

You say to your soldier, 'Do this' and he does it. But I am obliged to say to the American, 'This is why you ought to do this' and then he does it.

All authority belongs to the people.

The highest duty is to respect authority.

Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.

A decision is the action an executive must take when he has information so incomplete that the answer does not suggest itself.

The father of confederation is deadlock.

Sir John A. Macdonald

The twentieth century belongs to Canada.

Give us men to match our mountains, Give us men to match our plains: Men with empires in their purpose And new eras in their brains.

Not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary.

Those who can, do; those who can't, teach; and those who can do neither, administer.

As one retiring chief executive said to his successor "Yesterday was the last day you heard the truth from your subordinates."

The big unions served a noble purpose once, and bless them for it. Now they're part of the problem and must give way if America is to move and to participate in management and achieve reasonable productivity.

The manager with the in-basket problem does not yet understand that he must discipline himself to take care of activities that fail to excite him.

We have yet to find a significant case where the company did not move in the direction of the chief executive's home.

When you've got them by their wallets, their hearts and minds will follow.

A man isn't a man until he has to meet a payroll.

I don't believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them.

Business is a combination of war and sport.

Good management consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.