Quotes About Leadership

to truly lead one's people one must also truly know them.

In love, unlike politics, caution is not usually a virtue.

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

and when we did come out [of prison], my children said, "We thought we had a father and one day he'd come back. But to our dismay, our father came back and he left us alone because he has now become the father of the nation.

I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people.

It reminded me once again that truly to lead one's people one must also truly know them.

I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a consensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the regent's axiom: a leader, he said is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, to realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.

I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a consensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the regent's axiom: a leader, he said, is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.

As a leader, one must sometimes take actions that are unpopular, or whose results will not be known for years to come. There are victories whose glory lies only in the fact that they are known to those who win them. This is particularly true of prison, where you must find consolation in being true to your ideals, even if no one else knows of it.

university degree, I believed, was a passport not only to community leadership but to financial success.

leader, he said, is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead,

have always endeavoured to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a consensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the regent's axiom: a leader, he said, is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go on ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.

not because they always agreed with him, but because the regent listened to and respected all different opinions.

If I preached unity, I must act like a unifier, even at the risk of perhaps alienating some of my own colleagues.

the wealthiest and most popular boy at the circumcision school.

I was a hotheaded young man who attempted to make up for his ignorance with militancy.

Decisions should not be taken out of pride or embarrassment, but out of pure strategy.

Gaur was an example of a man without a BA who seemed infinitely better educated than the fellows who left Fort Hare with glittering degrees. Not only was he more knowledgeable, he was bolder and more confident. Although I intended to finish my degree and enter law school, I learned from Gaur that a degree was not in itself a guarantee of leadership and that it meant nothing unless one went out into the community to prove oneself.

there was not a single act of violence on our side. The discipline of our resisters was exemplary.

It was one of the first times that I saw that it was foolhardy to go against the masses of people. It is no use to take an action to which the masses are opposed, for it will then be impossible to enforce.

The secret to success is to own nothing, but control everything.

Much of her life, Anna had worked in a male-dominated world. She would defend the right of any woman to do the same, but she was realist enough to admit women made things more complicated, more volatile. Not because women were stupid or incompetent but because their presence often made men stupid and incompetent.

Hitler has missed the bus.

This is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace in our time.