Quotes About Leadership

In the final quarter of our century that life-and-death engagement with leadership has given way to the cult of personality, to a "gee whiz" approach to celebrities.

They should stick to knitting," Napoleon had once said.

Columbia Law School and Coolidge's Attorney

A good government implies two things: fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained.

The nation which reposes on the pillow of political confidence, will sooner or later end its political existence in a deadly lethargy

The essence of Government is power and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

In framing a government, which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty is this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper or safe judges, whether a war ought to be commenced, continued, or concluded. Thy are barred from the latter functions by a great principle in free government, analogous to that which separates the sword from the purse, or the power of executing from the power of enacting laws.

But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflection on human nature?

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

The Presidency alone unites the conjectures of the public.

The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.

But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government.

It is the reason, alone, of the public, that ought to control and regulate the government. The passions ought to be controlled and regulated by the government.

No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.

an awareness of who's in charge. Hint: not you.

Jesus often says, "Follow me," but never "Worship me."5 It's a needed reminder to those who would focus only on his divinity.)