41 Poignant Leadership Quotes

I really like quotes. This past week, I've been reading about leadership. Here are a few that caught my eye. I hope you like them too ...

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." - Lao Tzu

"A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves" - unknown

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them" - JFK

"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction." - JFK

"The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership." - Harvey S. Firestone

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln

"The greatness of a leader is measured by the achievements of the led. This is the ultimate test of his effectiveness." - Gen. Omar Bradley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" - Albert Einstein

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The older I get the less I listen to what people say and the more I look at what they do." - Andrew Carnegie

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches but to reveal to them their own" - Benjamin Disraeli

"The best way to predict the future is to create it" - Peter Drucker

"A man should never neglect his family for business." - Walt Disney

"It's never crowded along the extra mile" - Wayne Dyer

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

“My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life.” - Lee Iacocca

“We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” - Lee Iacocca

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot... and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan

"The first step to leadership is servanthood." - John Maxwell

"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing." - Vince Lombardi

"The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way." - Henry Miller

A friend of mine characterizes leaders simply like this: "Leaders don't inflict pain. They bear pain." - Max DePree

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it." - Andrew Carnegie

"Probably my best quality as a coach is that I ask a lot of challenging questions and let the person come up with the answer." - Phil Dixon

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." -Thomas Jefferson

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." -Robert F. Kennedy

"A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go but ought to be." -Rosalyn Carter

"...there is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit." - Ronald Reagan

"...I know it's hard when you're up to your armpits in alligators to remember you came here to drain the swamp." - Ronald Reagan

"Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them. They make the impossible happen." - Robert Jarvik

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." - William Arthur Ward