Quotes About Leadership

Mr. Martin and Mr. Rowan

I remember that we had a discussion in the war about unity of command, and that Mr. Lloyd George said, It is not a question of one general being better than another, but of one general being better than two.

Churchill used words for different purposes: to argue for moral and political causes, to advocate courses of action in the social, national and international spheres, and to tell the story of his own life and that of Britain and its place in the world.

Ingratitude towards their great men," says Plutarch, "is the mark of strong peoples.

The old wars were decided by their episodes rather than by their tendencies. In this war the tendencies are far more important than the episodes. Without winning any sensational victories we may win this war.

But over a century before she appeared an outlaw knight, William Wallace, arising from the recesses of South-West Scotland which had been his refuge, embodied, commanded, and led to victory the Scottish nation.

The structure of this army is curious. Every four men had a fifth man as leader; every nine men a tenth; every nineteen men a twentieth, and so on to every thousand; and it was agreed that the penalty for disobedience to the leader of any unit was death. Thus from the ground does freedom raise itself unconquerable.

One can hardly find a more perfect example of the impotence and fatuity of waging war by committee, or rather by groups of committees.

It has been well said that wherever there are three Jews it will be found that there are two Prime Ministers and one leader of the Opposition.

no es que un general sea mejor que otro, es que un general es mejor que dos generales».

The use of force for the waging of war is not to be regulated simply by firm character and text-book maxims.

Any clever person can make plans for winning a war if he has no responsibility for carrying them out.

The Scots were unconquerable foes. It was not until 1305 that Wallace was captured, tried with full ceremonial in Westminster Hall, and hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. But the Scottish war was one in which, as a chronicler said, "every winter undid every summer's work". Wallace was to pass the torch to Robert Bruce.

the one most awful thing in war is 'the careful man'!

Some at least of its impulse came from the Admiralty.

It's ridiculous what little the French do!

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings.

We have had nothing else but wars since democracy took charge.

depended. On this point we should never have given way, but the refusal would have been bitterly resented by our struggling Ally, and would have poisoned all our relations. It was even with an actual sense of relief that some of our high commanders addressed themselves to our new and grimly simplified problem. As

Salutations and congratulations upon the victory of Bardia! If I may debase a golden phrase, "never has so much been surrendered by so many to so few". The

Winston S. Churchill

It marked in fact the turning of "the Hinge of Fate". It may almost be said, "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.

while here and there the bright flashes of the guns or the occasional whistle of a random bullet accompanied our path, the conviction came into my mind with absolute assurance that the simple soldiers and their regimental officers, armed with their cause, would by their virtues in the end retrieve the mistakes and ignorances of Staffs and Cabinets, of Admirals, Generals and politicians—

The uncontrollable momentum of war, the inadequacy of unity and leadership among Allies, the tides of national passion, nearly always force improvident action upon Governments or Commanders