Leadership Quotes - N's, O's and P's

More wonderful leadership quotes from: Tom Peters, Ross Perot, Ralph Nadar, Plato, Picasso, Michael Porter, Colin Powell, selected national proverbs, General George S. Patton, George Orwell and Friedrich Nietzsche plus many more!

"Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand."— General Colin Powell

"High sentiments always win in the end, The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic."— George Orwell

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are" - Anais Nin

"Do you wish men to speak well of you? Then never speak well of yourself" - Blaise Pascal

"An army of a thousand is easy to find, but, ah, how difficult to find a general" - Chinese Proverb

"Don't let yesterday use up too much of today" - Cherokee proverb

"Great souls have wills; feeble ones have only wishes" - Chinese proverb

"He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever" - Chinese proverb

"There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the really great man is the man who makes every man feel great" - Chinese Proverb

"Those who seek power for personal ends eventually run afoul of popular opinion" - Chinese Proverb

"If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain" - Dolly Parton

"Talent … is most likely to be found among non-conformists, dissenters, and rebels" - David Ogilivy

"You shouldn't gloat about anything you've done; you ought to ... try to find something better to do" - David Packard

"Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself" - Friedrich Nietzsche

"What is good? Whatever augments the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself, in man" - Friedrich W. Nietzsche

"Wisdom sets bounds even to knowledge" - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader" - General George S. Patton Jr.

"Coaching isn't an addition to a leader's job, it's an integral part of it" - George S Odiorne

"Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results" - George S Patton

"The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them." - General Colin Powell

"Wars are not won by fighting battles; wars are won by choosing battles" - George S. Patton

"You must be single-minded. Drive for one thing on which you have decided" - George S. Patton

"Often a dash of judgement is better than a flash of genius" - Howard W. Newton

"People cannot be managed. Inventories can be managed, but people must be led." - H. Ross Perot

"People cannot be managed. Inventories can be managed, but people must be led." - H Ross Perot

"Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting somebody else to do the work" - John G. Pollard

"Leadership development is about helping people grow, and if I can get people as individuals growing, then I've got a company that grows " - James McNerney

"Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it" - John Naisbitt

"One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks" - Jack Penn

"The most reliable way to anticipate the future is by understanding the present" - John Naisbitt

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Chilton Pearce

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare" - Japanese proverb

"In an organization, each person rises to the level of his own incompetence" - Laurence J. Peter

"Knowledge flows along existing pathways in organisations. If we want to understand how to improve the flow of knowledge, we need to understand those pathways." - Larry Prusak

"Strategic thinking rarely occurs spontaneously" - Michael Porter

"The best test of a man is authority" - Montenegran Proverb

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant." - Max De Pree

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor. That sums up the progress of an artful leader" - Max De Pree

"Incrementalism is innovation's worst enemy" - Nicholas Negroponte

"People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success." - Norman Vincent Peale

"The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism" - Norman Vincent Peale

"The man who moved a mountain is the one who started taking away the small stones" - Old Chinese Proverb

"Thy destiny is only that of a man, but thy aspirations may be those of a god" - Ovid

"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers" - Pablo Picasso

"The life which is unexamined is not worth living" - Plato

"To find fault is easy: to do better may be difficult" - Plutarch

"Where there is no vision the people perish" - Proverbs 29:18

"Eagles don't flock" - Ross Perot

"Forcefulness in the character of a chief executive is an invaluable quality" - Robert K. Patterson

"I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." - Ralph Nader

"Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing... layout, processes, and procedures" - Tom Peters

"Great design = WOW! + GRACE" - Tom Peters

"If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade" - Tom Peters

"If no one is pissed-off with you then you are dead but just haven't figured it out yet" - Tom Peters

"If timing ain't everything, it's damn close" - Tom Peters

"If you're not confused, you're not paying attention" - Tom Peters

"One size NEVER fits all. One size fits one. Period" - Tom Peters

"Skill at creating, exploiting, and exiting crucial alliances beats ownership of fixed assets" -Tom Peters

"Take someone NEW AND WEIRD to lunch today" - Tom Peters

"Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast" - Tom Peters

"Underpromise; overdeliver" - Tom Peters

"Unless you walk out into the unknown, the odds of making a profound difference in your life are pretty low" - Tom Peters

"You can't think your way out of a box, you've got to act" - Tom Peters

"Big thinking precedes great achievement" - Wilfred Peterson

"Knowledge is the treasure, but judgement is the treasurer of a wise man" - William Penn

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