Leadership Quotes

"I am delighted with the strong vote I have received. My message of positive leadership, patriotism and commitment clearly was resonating with tens of thousands of ordinary Irish people"

Michael D. Higgins, Politician

"Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time"

George W. Bush, President

"I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership"

Lee Iacocca, Businessman

"Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It's being able to take it as well as dish it out. That's the only way you're going to get respect from the players"

Larry Bird, Coach

"I think our leadership team is a highly accountable leadership team"

Steve Ballmer, Businessman

"Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you're not giving it all you've got"

Larry Bird, Coach

"The atmosphere at my school was very competitive. Young girls were competing with each other every day for status, for leadership, for the affection of the teachers. I hated it"

Zhang Ziyi, Actress

"There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two"

Bertolt Brecht, Poet

"A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better"

Jim Rohn, Businessman

"Clearly no one knows what leadership has gone undiscovered in women of all races, and in black and other minority men"

Gloria Steinem, Activist

"The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born"

Warren G. Bennis, Psychologist

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality"

Warren G. Bennis, Psychologist

"Presidential leadership needn't always cost money. Look for low- and no-cost options. They can be surprisingly effective"

Donald Rumsfeld, Politician

"Leadership in today's world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table"

Hubert H. Humphrey, Politician

"In our system leadership is by consent, not command. To lead a President must persuade. Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his persuasiveness and thus to his leadership"

Donald Rumsfeld, Politician

"Don't necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership"

Donald Rumsfeld, Politician

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That's not leadership. That's not going to happen"

Barack Obama, President

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt"

Barack Obama, President

"On the other hand, the waging of peace as a science, as an art, is in its infancy. But we can trace its growth, its steady progress, and the time will come when there will be particular individuals designated to assume responsibility for and leadership of this movement"

Fredrik Bajer, Writer

"I look forward to working with our leadership team to advance the causes of smaller government, lower taxes, eliminating terrorism, and providing affordable health care, among other issues"

Howard Coble, Politician

"We've been sitting at the compromise table for a long time. We're just waiting for that cold chair to be warmed up by the Republican leadership. They still have time to do the right thing and be responsible. They just seem to be moving further and further away from it"

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Politician

"Aren't we at the point where the closer we get to chaos, the more concern that there should be about coming to the table and compromising with Democrats? This is not leadership. This is almost like dictatorship"

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Politician

"True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well"

Bill Owens, Politician

"The Leadership Training Institute of America is a cultural think tank providing training and opportunity in leadership development and cultural dynamics"

Michael Burgess, Congressman

"The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there"

James Buchanan, President

"The Leadership Training Institute of America trains and equips young men and women to be leaders with high standards of personal morality and integrity"

Michael Burgess, Congressman

"If people want to compete for leadership of a religious group, they can compete in piety. A chilling thought. Or funny"

Mary Douglas, Scientist

"The Irish Republican Army has kept every commitment made by its leadership"

Gerry Adams, Politician

"The fact is, when it comes to economic leadership, the Republicans have nothing to brag about. This isn't what the American people want. They want to see progress that works for them"

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Politician

"Democrats are going to proudly run on the fact that we turned the economy around. It was our policies under President Obama's leadership through the Recovery Act, through investing in the automobile industry"

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Politician

"Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the House right now seems to have been strangled by the tea party"

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Politician

"Actions, not words, are the ultimate results of leadership"

Bill Owens, Politician

"Sinn Fein has demonstrated the ability to play a leadership role as part of a popular movement towards peace, equality and justice"

Gerry Adams, Politician

"At that time, the army leadership said the implementation of this agreement would allow everyone, including the IRA, to take its political objectives forward by peaceful and democratic means"

Gerry Adams, Politician

"We're going to need to absorb some pain. The Republicans want to pile all the pain on people who can least afford it and the middle class and Democrats under his leadership want to make sure that we can address deficit reduction and continue to make investments and shared sacrifice is going to be imperative in order to be able to do that"

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Politician

"Leadership offers an opportunity to make a difference in someone's life, no matter what the project"

Bill Owens, Politician

"Leadership is an active role; 'lead' is a verb. But the leader who tries to do it all is headed for burnout, and in a powerful hurry"

Bill Owens, Politician

"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall"

Stephen Covey, Businessman

"Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out"

Stephen Covey, Businessman

"Such manifestations I account as representing the creative leadership of the new forces of thought and appreciation which attend changes in technological pattern and therefore of the pattern of human relationships in society"

John Grierson, Director

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