Quotes About Leadership

When an enlisted man sees his commanding officer lose his head entirely…," Private Taylor wrote, "it would…demoralize anyone taught to breathe, almost, at the word of command.

This is also the story of two British generals. The first, Thomas Gage, was saddled with the impossible task of implementing his government's unnecessarily punitive response to the Boston Tea Party in December 1773.

After seventeen days, one of the crew suggested that they cast lots. As it turned out, the lot fell to the man who had originally made the proposal, and after lots were cast again to see who should execute him, he was killed and eaten.

Since republics rely on the inherent virtue of the people, they are exceedingly fragile. All it takes is one well-placed person to destroy everything. Washington, his face betraying the sadness, anger, and shock of this most recent revelation, turned to Lafayette and asked, "Whom can we trust now?

the greatest danger to America's future came from self-serving opportunism masquerading as patriotism.

Custer did not drink; he didn't have to. His emotional effusions unhinged his judgment in ways that went far beyond alcohol's ability to interfere with clear thinking.

To be in the presence of a great leader is to know a blighted soul who has managed to make the darkness work for him. Ishmael says it best: For all men tragically great are made so through a certain morbidness. Be sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but a disease. In chapter 36, The Quarter-Deck, Melville show us how susceptible we ordinary people are to the seductive power of a great and demented man.

And I'm willing to march into hell if I'm following you.

He had always figured it was going to be a one-way journey, he said, and now he wanted his leader to know that he did not intend to slow down the team if they had the chance to escape. He would find his own way. "Nonsense," Rønneberg said flatly. "You've kept up with us until now, and you can keep up with us to Sweden." For this decision the young leader did not offer a vote.

he had become the patriarch of horseflesh.

Part of Walt's secret was that in insisting on quality from individuals of whom it had never been required, he inspired commitment.

You'll find in life, Caden, that many decisions are made by morons in high places.

the captain is supposed to go down with the ship . unless the first mate knocks him out and throws him in a lifeboat

Hey," he said, "how about you be Cleopatra, and I'll be Prometheus?

Leadership is about keeping toilets flushing, the Admiral once said. Unless you're on the battlefront. Then it's about staying alive. Neither are pleasant.

The Admiral's using us, he says to the kids around him. Don't you see that? Most of the kids just shrug, but Hayden's there, and he never misses an opportunity to add his peculiar wisdom to a situation. I'd rather be used whole than in pieces, Hayden says.

a true leader never puts his ego ahead of his assets.

For once, the entire scythedom seemed to agree there was something afoot that was more important than food.

Of course, the politicians, dictators, and warmongers weren't happy, but their voices, which had always seemed so loud and intimidating, were suddenly insignificant. The emperor not only had no clothes, turns out he had no testicles either. The

And in this way, we shall make our scythedom great once more.

Suddenly, Tara's accomplishment was clear. She had lined up allies among the school's various groups and got them all to work together for probably the first time in the school's history. She was like a master builder who could bend materials like stone and steel and clay to her will... except her materials were flesh and spirit.

Supongo que el que lleva la antorcha es también el que proyecta la sombra más oscura

whoever holds the torch casts the darkest shadow.

have found that building a sandbox around a domineering child, then allowing that child to preside over it, frees the adults to do the real work.