Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Leadership

Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led.
Warren Bennis (1925–2014) American Business Academic, Author

What you cannot enforce, do not command.
Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.
John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) American Oil Magnate, Philanthropist

Every ruler is harsh whose laws is new.
Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright

Every life is a profession of faith and exercises an inevitable and silent influence.
Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic

The minute a person whose word means a great deal to others dare to take the open-hearted and courageous way, many others follow.
Marian Anderson (1897–1993) American Singer

A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the
blame and a little less than his share of the credit.
John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman

Most People have a desire to look for the exception instead of the desire to become exceptional.
John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman

I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.
Barack Obama (b.1961) American Head of State, Academic, Politician, Author

A good leader needs to have a compass in his head and a bar of steel in his heart.
Robert C. Townsend (1920–98) American Businessman

A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership in the world.
John Updike (1932–2009) American Novelist, Poet, Short-Story Writer

If you lead the people with correctness, who will dare not be correct?
Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State

Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate. Throughout its life cycle, every one of the body’s trillions of cells is driven to grow and improve its ability to use more of its innate yet untapped capacity. Research biologist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who was twice awarded the Nobel Prize, called this syntropy, which he defined as the “innate drive in living matter to perfect itself”. It turns conventional thinking upside down…As living cells—or as people—there is no staying the same. If we aim for some middle ground or status quo, it’s an illusion—beneath the surface what’s actually happening is we’re dying, not growing. And the goal of a lifetime is continued growth, not adulthood. As Rene Dubos put it, “Genius is childhood recaptured”. For this to happen, studies show that we must recapture—or prevent the loss of—such child-like traits as the ability to learn, to love, to laugh about small things, to leap, to wonder, and to explore. It’s time to rescue ourselves from our grown-up ways before it’s too late.
Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.
Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.
Ken Blanchard (b.1939) American Author, Management Consultant

Management means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle, of knowledge for folkways and superstition, and of cooperation for force. It means the substitution of responsibility for obedience to rank, and of authority of performance for the authority of rank.
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant

I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don’t think that’s quite it; it’s more like jazz. There is more improvisation. Someone once wrote that the sound of surprise is jazz, and if there’s any one thing that we must try to get used to in this world, it’s surprise and the unexpected. Truly, we are living in world where the only thing that’s constant is change.
Warren Bennis (1925–2014) American Business Academic, Author

It is the cause and not merely the death that makes the martyr.
Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France

The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants them to do, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer

Ronald Reagan has held the two most demeaning jobs in the country; President of the United States and radio broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs.
George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer

Men are led by trifles.
Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France

I don’t believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them.
Harold S. Geneen (1910–1997) British-American Businessman

I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together.
George W. Bush (b.1946) American Head of State, Businessperson

In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man’s associates find him guilty of being phony, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore is integrity and high purpose.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.
Henry Kissinger (b.1923) American Diplomat, Academician

A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.
Golda Meir (1898–1978) Israeli Head of State

Are you a serial idea-starting person? The goal is to be an idea-shipping person.
Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur

Eagles don’t flock—you have to find them one at a time.
Ross Perot (1930–2019) American Businessman

The well being of the people is the supreme law.
Indian Proverb

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