Quotes About Leadership

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.

The thought of being president frightens me. I do not think I want the job.

This administration is totally colorblind.

Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.

You can accomplish much if you don't care who gets the credit.

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.

There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.

I have left orders to be awakened at any time during national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.

The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.

A democracy cannot rule an empire. Neither can one man, though empire may appear to presuppose monarchy. There is always an oligarchy somewhere, open or concealed.

The composition of the oligarchy of government [...] emerges as the dominant theme of political history [...] ; it is something real and tangible, whatever may be the name or theory of the constitution.

Ein wohlgeordneter Staat braucht keine großen Männer und hat keinen Raum für sie.

Few men have gained power, or retained it, by using, in Lenin's words, "the methods of a finishing school for young ladies.

Were there mistakes? Yes, there were. Only those who don't act don't make mistakes. But to organize well - that's a difficult task.' (Lenin to the All-Russian Conference of Bolsheviks on 24 April, 1917.)

When your leadership appeals to only one generation, you are limiting your leadership in the future. Leading cross-generationally occurs when you are able to lead people in your own generation, the generation that came before you, and the generation that comes behind you. Connecting to all generations is what forward leaders will do.

If democracy is to be rebuilt … it is necessary not just for the public to learn to trust their politicians, but for the politicians to learn to trust the public.

If your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." The old adage applies here as well. If your only functioning government institution is the military, everything looks like a war—and when everything looks like war, everything looks like a military mission.

It takes a whole government to really screw up a war. A dollop of American hubris goes a long way too.

The more that social democracy develops, grows, and becomes stronger, the more the enlightened masses of workers will take their own destinies, the leadership of their movement, and the determination of its direction into their own hands.

The ultra-centralism asked by Lenin is full of the sterile spirit of the overseer. It is not a positive and creative spirit. Lenin's concern is not so much to make the activity of the party more fruitful as to control the party--to narrow the movement rather than to develop it, to bind rather than to unify it. . . . What is today only a phantom haunting Lenin's imagination may become reality tomorrow.

Each person must live their life as a model for others.

Power is the ability to get things done.

The world is not getting better by itself. Making the world a better place demands more and better leaders.

Given such strong defenses against change, fresh ideas come from those who do more than think outside the box. They think outside the building.