Quotes About Leadership

Choice by the people themselves is not generally distinguished for its wisdom.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it...To myself, personally, it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends.

One man with courage is a majority.

When a man has cast his longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.

Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company 600,000. No, I replied, I just spent 600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience

Depending on the skill and will of the individual, the right leadership style may be coaching, motivating, or directing rather than delegating. A leader has to pick the right style of leadership for each employee, and it is not one-size-fits-all

Wars are begun by frightened men.

I'd rather talk to people who do things than complain about other people who do things. I say they're idiots.

if college graduates can no longer be counted on to lead reasoned debate and discussion in American life, and to know the difference between knowledge and feeling, then we're indeed in the kind of deep trouble no expert can fix.

As the political scientist Ian Bremmer wrote in the run-up to the U.S. elections of 2020, victims seek saviors, and there is never a shortage of volunteers.

Yes, it is unbridled ego for experts to believe they can run a democracy while ignoring its voters; it is also, however, ignorant narcissism for laypeople to believe that they can maintain a large and advanced nation without listening to the voices of those more educated and experienced than themselves.

Preparing our city to achieve its destiny will require strong leadership.

the best way to be allowed to do something was to do it with authority and put the onus on someone to stop you.

You better take advantage of the good cigars. You don't get much else in that job.

Thomas P. O'Neill (Jr.)

The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.

It is important that we should never lose sight of this distinction. We must not confuse the peoples with their governments...

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

Kill the king but spare the man.

The guilt of a government is the crime of a whole country;

It is the pride of kings that throws man kind into confusion.

If those to whom power is delegated do well, they will be respected: if not, they will be despised; and with regard to those to whom no power is delegated, but who assume it, the rational world can know nothing of them.