Quotes About Leadership

We know the major conditions wherein this large populace may turn upon its keepers - One: When they find a leader. This is the most volatile threat to the powerful; they must retain control of leaders. Two: When the populace recognises its chains. Keep the populace blind and unquestioning. Three: When the populace perceives a hope of escape from bondage. They must never even believe that escape is possible!

On Caladan, we ruled with sea and air power, the Duke said. Here, we must scrabble for desert power. This is your inheritance, Paul.

One must always keep the tools of statecraft sharp and ready. Power and fear – sharp and ready.

We will not run, Paul said. We'll move with dignity. We'll do what must be done.

How would we flood village and city with our information? The people must learn how well I govern them. How would they know if we didn't tell them?

All governments needed to remain under suspicion during their time of power including that of the Sisterhood itself. Trust no government! Not even mine!

Arrakis makes us moral and ethical.

All rebels are closet aristocrats. That's why I can convert them so easily.

In the wrong hands," Leto said, "monolithic centralized power is a dangerous and volatile instrument." - "And your hands are the right ones?

The difference between a good administrator and a bad one is about five heartbeats. Good administrators make immediate choices.

A world is supported by four things... the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these are as nothing...without a ruler who knows the art of ruling.

You must learn to rule. It's something none of your ancestors learned.

I must rule with eye and claw — as the hawk among lesser birds. - Duke Leto Atreides

Once more the drama begins.' — The Emperor Paul Muad'dib on his ascension to the Lion Throne.

A good ruler has to learn his world's language, and that's different for every world, the language you don't hear just with your ears.

Power bases are very dangerous because they attract people who are truly insane, people who seek power only for the sake of power.

Power and fear, he said. The tools of statecraft.

Every religious, business and governmental question has the single derivative: 'Who will exercise the power?' Alliances, combines, complexes, they all chase mirages unless they go for the power. All else is nonsense, as most thinking beings come to realize.

A leader tries to perpetuate the conditions which demand his leadership. Thus, the leader requires the outsider.

But oh, the perils of leadership in a species so anxious to be told what to do. How little they knew of what they created by their demands. Leaders made mistakes. And those mistakes, amplified by the numbers who followed without questioning, moved inevitably toward great disasters.

Even an Emperor may tremble before Muad'Dib, for he has the strength of righteousness and heaven smiles upon him.

Major flaws in government arise from a fear of making radical internal changes even though a need is clearly seen. —Darwi Odrade

He passed off the loss of a spice crawler with a gesture. The threat to men's lives had him in a rage. A leader such as that would command fanatic loyalty. He would be difficult to defeat.

Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually they lose touch with reality… and fall.