Quotes About Leadership

In executing the duties of my present important station I can promise nothing but purity of intentions — and in carrying these into effect, fidelity and diligence; if these, under the guidance of a superintending Providence, shall continue to me the approbation and affection of my fellow-citizens of the Union, it will be the highest gratification and the most ample reward that my mind can form any conception of in this life.

In these circumstances I think we must take the bull by the horns... and, making due allowances, quote whenever we feel that the allusion is interesting or helpful or amusing.

In office a Confucian, in retirement a Taoist.

There are plenty of people holding flashlights casting shadows, offering directions. Perhaps it's best if you light your own way.

The controlled person is a powerful person. He who always keeps his head will always get ahead. Edwin Markham said, "At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky is a place of central calm." The cyclone derives its power from a calm center. So does a person.

The chief engineer was not the only member of the crew who disregarded the safety of the passengers. Of the first eighty people lowered away in lifeboats, seventy-three were crew members.

Robert Wilmott was responsible for no small part of the Morro Castle's success. Passengers frequently made sure that he was still in command of the ship before buying a ticket. He was the perfect ship's captain for passengers who had never been on anything bigger than the ferryboat to Staten Island.

Historically, the common form of revolution has been a not-too-efficient despotism which is overthrown by another non-too-efficient despotism with little or no effect on the public good. Indeed, except for the change in the names of the ruling circles, it would be hard to distinguish one from the other.

By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over.

There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.

Always a godfather, never a god.

It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.

It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Grace Lee Boggs

You manage things. You lead people.

I actually build my dreams around the dancers I've got in my company.

Dennis the Peasant: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. Arthur: Be quiet! Dennis: You can't expect to wield supreme power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

There are good men everywhere. Here. Odessa. Even Moscow. Do they count? Does anyone ever listen to them? Yes, of course they do. At the beginning, their voices matter. Without them nothing happens. But afterwards it's different. Afterwards, the only thing that matters is power.

Orientation, the big O in the OODA loop, is the schwerpunkt.

You have given them an ideal to aspire to, embodied their highest aspirations. They will race, and stumble, and fall and crawl....and curse....and finally.... They will join you in the sun, Kal-El. They will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time you will help them accomplish wonders.

This is what I find most magnetic about successful givers: they get to the top without cutting others down, finding ways of expanding the pie that benefit themselves and the people around them. Whereas success is zero-sum in a group of takers, in groups of givers, it may be true that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

He started reading local papers six months before he got to town and arranged regular breakfast meetings for local pastors.

A wise man makes his own decisions. An ignorant man follows public opinion.

In less than a year, the Bush administration will strut out of office, leaving the country in roughly the same condition a toddler leaves a diaper.