Famous Leadership Quote Stockpile

(Clicking on the author links will take you to an external page)

A clever man commits no minor blunders.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)  

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
William Blake  

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
William James (1842-1910)  

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right
Thomas Paine   - Common Sense

A love affair with knowledge will never end in heartbreak.
Michael Garrett Marino  

A prudent question is one half of wisdom.
Francis Bacon  

A reasoning, self-sufficing thing, An intellectual all-in-all!
William Wordsworth  

A wise man's question contains half the answer.
Solomon Ibn Gabriel  

Be wiser than other people, if you can, but do not tell them so.
Chesterfield, Lord  

Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)  

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

"We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly."
-- Margaret Atwood

It distresses me, this failure to keep pace with the leaders of thought, as they pass into oblivion."
-- Max Beerbohm

"Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself."
-- Robert F. Bennett (b. 1933),

"Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself."
-- Robert F. Bennett (b. 1933), American politician, Republican

"A desire to be in charge of our own lives, a need for control, is born in each of us. It is essential to our mental health, and our success, that we take control."
-- Robert F. Bennett (b. 1933), American politician, Republican

"The leaders I met, whatever walk of life they were from, whatever institutions they were presiding over, always referred back to the same failure something that happened to them that was personally difficult, even traumatic, something that made them feel that desperate sense of hitting bottom--as something they thought was almost a necessity. It's as if at that moment the iron entered their soul; that moment created the resilience that leaders need."
-- Warren G. Bennis (b. 1925), American writer, educator, University of Southern California sociologist

"Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning."
-- Warren G. Bennis (b. 1925),

"What makes a good follower? The single most important characteristic may well be a willingness to tell the truth. In a world of growing complexity leaders are increasingly dependent on their subordinates for good information, whether the leaders want to hear it or not. Followers who tell the truth and leaders who listen to it are an unbeatable combination."
-- Warren G. Bennis (b. 1925)

"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. Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led."

-- Warren G. Bennis (b. 1925)

"The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority."
-- Kenneth Hartley Blanchard (b. 1939),