Leadership Quotes

"A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind."

- Nelson Mandela

"If there is not the war, you don't get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don't get a great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Mountaintops inspire leaders, but valleys mature them."

- Winston Churchill

"An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep."

- Alexander the Great

"Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best."

- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

"Discipline is the soul of an army."

- George Washington

"A ship without Marines is like a garment without buttons."

- Admiral David D. Porter, USN

"The Marines have landed and have the situation well in hand."

- Attributed to many sources

"I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world."

- General Douglas MacArthur, USA

"If officers desire to have control over their commands, they must remain habitually with them, industriously attend to their instruction and comfort, and in battle lead them well."

- Stonewall Jackson

"Owning the facts is a prerequisite to leadership. But there are millions of technocrats out there with lots of facts in their quivers and little leadership potential."

- William Pagonis, Lieutenant General

"I may not have been the best combat commander, but I always strove to be. My men depended on me to carefully analyze every tactical situation."

- Major Dick Winters

"I had a sort of a motto, “No details, no paper, and no regrets.”"

- Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim

"The only thing of real importance that leaders do is create and manage culture."

- Edgar Schein

"Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients."

- Richard Branson

"All good leaders are connectors. They relate well and make people feel confident about themselves and their leader."

- John Maxwell

"You can carve your own path. Be your own kind of leader."

- Jacinda Ardern

"If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader."

- Dolly Parton

"I think when you get people who are really talented and you take them out of their comfort zone, you get a lot more out of them."

- Gore Verbinski

"The only sustainable way to win is to enable others."

- Boyong Ma

"Don't be afraid to delegate."

- Richard Branson

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."

- President George Washington

"You may fire when you are ready Gridley."

- Commodore George Dewey

"A powerful Navy we have always regarded as our proper and natural means of defense; and it has always been of defense that we have thought, never of aggression or of conquest."

- President Woodrow Wilson

""In baseball and in business, there are three types of people. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happened.""

- Tommy Lasorda

"If you can help your people have clarity of what their role is, they can achieve amazing things – particularly when the entrepreneur empowers them with responsibility."

- Creel Price

"A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent."

- Douglas MacArthur

"Leaders must be motivators, educators, role models, sounding boards, confessors, and cheerleaders—they must be accessible, and they must aggressively pursue contact with colleagues and subordinates."

- Lieutenant General, William Pagonis

"No man is a leader until he is ratified in the minds and hearts of his men."

"Your Success Is Our Goal."