Leadership Quotes - Part One

Here is the first page of my wonderful collection of leadership quotes. These are leadership quotes from the "A's and B's". That means within this selection you will find quotations from John Buchan, George Bush, Balzac, Aristotle, Jeff Bezos, Warren Bennis, Maya Angelou, Napoleon Bonaparte, Otto von Bismark, Francis Bacon, Woody Allen, Attilla the Hun and many many more!

"The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already."— John Buchan

"Four rules of leadership in a free legislative body:First, no matter how hard-fought the issue, never get personal. Don't say or do anything that may come back to haunt you on another issue, another day....Second, do your homework. You can't lead without knowing what you're talking about....Third, the American legislative process is one of give and take. Use your power as a leader to persuade, not intimidate....Fourth, be considerate of the needs of your colleagues, even if they're at the bottom of the totem pole...."— George Bush

"The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Our is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living" - General Omar Nelson Bradley

"I would rather regret the things I have done than the things I have not" - Lucille Ball

"True statesmanship is the art of changing a nation from what it is into what it ought to be " - William R. Alger

"I think leadership comes from integrity - that you do whatever you ask others to do. I think there are non-obvious ways to lead. Just by providing a good example as a parent, a friend, a neighbor makes it possible for other people to see better ways to do things. Leadership does not need to be a dramatic, fist in the air and trumpets blaring, activity."— Scott Berkun

"A first-rate organizer is never in a hurry. He is never late. He always keeps up his sleeve a margin for the unexpected" - Arnold Bennett

"Change in all things is sweet" - Aristotle

"Dissatisfaction and discouragement are not caused by the absence of things but the absence of vision" - Anonymous

"If an incompetent chieftain is removed, seldom do we appoint his highest-ranking subordinate to his place" - Attila the Hun

"If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in the dark with a mosquito" - Anonymous

"Leadership is the ability to hide your panic from others" - Anonymous

"Praise works with only three types of people; men, women, and children" - Anonymous

"Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination" - Anonymous

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects the wind; the realist adjusts the sails" - Anonymous

"There’s never just one wet butt in a canoe. We’re all in this together" - Anonymous

"What you rub up against rubs off" - Anonymous

"When one door closes another one opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us" - Alexander Graham Bell

"You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event - it is a habit" - Aristotle

"You have to find it ... no one else can find it for you" - Bjorn Borg

"Forget about yourself and just think of your people. It's always the people who make things happen" - Corazon Aquino

"In a community all acts of individuals and of organizations are directly or indirectly interconnected and interdependent" - Chester Barnard

"The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funnybone and the wishbone that go with it." - Elaine Agather

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds" - Francis Bacon

"All rising to a great place is by a winding stair" - Francis Bacon

"I learned that good judgement comes from experience and that experience grows out of mistakes." - General Omar Nelson Bradley

"If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner" - General Omar Nelson Bradley

"The greatest leader in the world could never win a campaign unless he understood the men he had to lead." - General Omar Nelson Bradley

"We are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind or whether to act, and in acting, to live" - General Omar Nelson Bradley

"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats" - Howard Aiken

"Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave" - Henry Brougham

"For success, attitude is equally as important as ability" - Harry F. Banks

"One of these days is none of these days." - H G Bohn

"Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true" - Honore de Balzac

"It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety." - Isaac Asimov

"If my life is fruitless, it doesn't matter who praises me, and if my life is fruitful, it doesn't matter who criticizes me" - John Bunyan

"Lincoln was not great because he was born in a log cabin, but because he got out of it" - James Truslow Adams

"Not everything that is faced can be changed; nothing can be changed until it is faced" - James Baldwin

"There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less" - Jeff Bezos

"There is no limit to the good man can do if he doesn't care who gets the credit" - Judson B. Branch

"When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either" - Leo Burnett

"Without a dream there is no reason to work...without work there is no reason to dream." - Lee Ayers

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough" - Mario Andretti

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude" - Maya Angelou

"It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day to day basis." - Margaret Bonnano

"Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it" - Marian Anderson

"Nobody can dim the light which shines from within" - Maya Angelo

"This nation has never lived without independence. We cannot and shall not live without it. Either independence or death" - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

"We must never say 'What does it matter to me if some part of the world is ailing?' If there is such an illness, we must concern ourselves with it as though we were having that illness" - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

"A leader is a dealer in hope" - Napoleon Bonaparte

"Adversity is the midwife of genius" - Napoleon Bonaparte

"Imagination rules the world" - Napoleon Bonaparte

"Men of genius are meteors, intended to burn to light their century" - Napoleon Bonaparte

"To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a God" - Napoleon Bonaparte

"A really great man is known by three signs - generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success" - Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck

"There has been in recent years excessive emphasis on a citizen's rights and inadequate stress upon his duties and responsibilities" - Paxton Blair

"Moving fast is not the same as going somewhere" - Robert Anthony

"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win" - Roger Bannister

"The prudent man may direct a state, but it is the enthusiast who regenerates it" - Robert Bulwer-Lytton

"All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income." - Samuel Butler

"Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility." - St Augustine

"Failure is impossible" - Susan B. Anthony

"Independence is happiness" - Susan B. Anthony

"Men their rights and nothing more; women their rights and nothing less" - Susan B. Anthony

"The lash may force men to physical labour; it cannot force them to spiritual creativity" - Sholem Ash

"The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to help the world; I am like a snowball - the further I am rolled the more I gain" - Susan B. Anthony

"When you are not practising, remember, someone somewhere is practising ... and when you meet him, he will win" - Senator Bill Bradley

"If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world" - Vannevar Bush

"If you are not failing now and again, its a sign you're playing it safe" - Woody Allen

"If you wish to succeed in managing and controlling others - learn to manage and control yourself" - William J.H. Boetker

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality" - Warren Bennis

"Leadership is the wise use of power. Power is the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it" - Warren Bennis

"The new leader is one who commits people to action, who converts followers into leaders, and who may convert leaders into agents of change" - Warren Bennis

"You need people who can walk their companies into the future rather than back them into the future" - Warren Bennis

"When you pass through, no one can pin you down, no one can call you back" - Ying An

To return to the Leadership Quote Page

To return to the Winston Churchill Leadership Home Page

Nice apartment