Quotes About Leadership

the empire created the emperors – not the other way round.

When you are about to hand control of the senate and people of Rome, the armies, the provinces, the allies to one man alone, would you look to the belly of a wife to produce him or search for an heir to supreme power only within the walls of your own home? … If he is to rule over all, he must be chosen from all.

Trump and Clinton, Perseus and Medusa, and rest my case.

Es habitual pensar que las mujeres que ocupan cargos de poder están derribando barreras o apoderándose de algo a lo que no tienen derecho.

she was well aware that the further up the career hierarchy she went, the fewer female faces she saw.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, for example, who more than two millennia later gave his name to the American city of Cincinnati, is supposed to have returned from semi-exile in the 450s BCE to become dictator and lead Roman armies to victory against their enemies before nobly retiring straight back to his farm without seeking further political glory.

Lord Palmerston and John F. Kennedy proudly broadcast the Latin phrase Civis Romanus sum ('I am a Roman citizen') as a slogan for their times.

His supporters dubbed him pater patriae, or 'father of the fatherland', one of the most splendid and satisfying titles you could have in a highly patriarchal society.

When you are about to hand control of the senate and people of Rome, the armies, the provinces, the allies to one man alone, would you look to the belly of a wife to produce him or search for an heir to supreme power only within the walls of your own home? … If he is to rule over all, he must be chosen from all.' Tacitus

Are Members of Parliament, for example, to be seen as delegates of the voters, bound to follow the will of their electorate? Or are they representatives, elected to exercise their own judgement in the changing circumstances of government?

The secret, Polybius suggested, lay in a delicate relationship of checks and balances between consuls, the senate and the people, so that neither monarchy nor aristocracy nor democracy ever entirely prevailed.

Fabius took command after Cannae, avoided pitched battle with Hannibal and played a waiting game, combining guerrilla tactics with a scorched-earth policy, to wear down the enemy (hence 'delayer').

he saw to it that the greatest number did not have the greatest power – a principle that we should always stand by in politics.

Los emperadores romanos y sus consejeros nunca resolvieron el problema de la sucesión. Fueron derrotados en parte por la biología, en parte por las persistentes incertidumbres y desacuerdos sobre la mejor manera de transmitir la herencia. La

Most Roman rulers spent longer at their desks than at the dinner table. They were expected to work at the job, to be seen to exercise practical power

That raised an issue still familiar in modern electoral systems. Are Members of Parliament, for example, to be seen as delegates of the voters, bound to follow the will of their electorate? Or are they representatives, elected to exercise their own judgement in the changing circumstances of government?

years that is exactly what he did, before resigning the office, retiring to his country house on the Bay of Naples and dying in his bed in 78 BCE. It was a surprisingly peaceful

The basic rule of Roman history is that those who were assassinated were, like Gaius, demonised. Those who died in their beds, succeeded by a son and heir, natural or adopted, were praised as generous and avuncular characters, devoted to the success of Rome, who did not take themselves too seriously.

In short, as the last part of this chapter reveals, the empire created the emperors – not the other way round. Governors

How far is it useful to see Roman history in terms of imperial biographies or to divide the story of the empire into emperor-sized (or dynasty-sized) chunks?

It's the odious, insufferable people who usually get to the top.

Mais pour regner il faut se taire.

As the brains of colored women expanded, their hearts began to grow. No sooner had the heads of a favored few been filled with knowledge than their hearts yearned to dispense blessings to the less fortunate of their race.

Oh, that lovely title, ex-president.