100 Inspirational Quotes Every Leader Should Know

"A great leader doesn't only inspire us to have confidence in what THEY can do. A great leader inspires us to have confidence in what WE can do."

- Simon Sinek

"For a message to have real impact, to affect behavior and seed loyalty, it needs to publicize some higher purpose, cause, or belief to which those with similar values and beliefs can relate."

- Simon Sinek

"The greatest contribution of a leader is to make others leaders."

- Simon Sinek

"People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it."

- Simon Sinek

"Finding WHY is a process of discovery, not invention."

- Simon Sinek

"Regardless of WHAT we do in our lives, our WHY—our driving purpose, cause, or belief—never changes."

- Simon Sinek

"When a WHY is clear, those who share that belief will be drawn to it."

- Simon Sinek

"Everything you say and everything you do has to prove what you believe. A WHY is just a belief. That's all it is. HOWs are the actions you take to realize that belief, and WHATs are the results of those actions."

- Simon Sinek

"Leadership is not a license to do less. Leadership is a responsibility to do more."

- Simon Sinek

"A leader must be inspired by people before a leader can inspire people."

- Simon Sinek

"The joy of leadership comes from seeing others achieve more than they thought they were capable of."

- Simon Sinek

"So goes the leader, so goes the culture. So goes the culture, so goes the company."

- Simon Sinek

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

- Ralph Nader

"The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them."

- John Maxwell

"Good leaders share the credit when things go well and take responsibility when things go badly."

- Simon Sinek

"Be the leader you wish you had."

- Simon Sinek

"Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes."

- Peter Drucker

"There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it."

- Simon Sinek

"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."

- Rosalynn Carter

"A leader without a title is better than a title without the ability to lead."

- Simon Sinek

"Without a WHY, the buyer is easily motivated by aspiration or fear."

- Simon Sinek

"When we work on a Trusting Team, we feel safe to admit our mistakes, be honest about our shortcomings, and ask for help when we need it."

- Simon Sinek

"A weak leader likes to tell us how many people work for them. A great leader is humbled to tell us how many people they work for."

- Simon Sinek

"Strong leaders earn loyalty. Weak leaders demand it."

- Simon Sinek

"There is a cost to lead. True leaders are willing to pay the price: sacrifice self-interest and put their Cause ahead of themselves."

- Simon Sinek

"A poor leader will tell you how many people work for them. A great leader will tell you how many people they work for."

- Simon Sinek

"Good leaders have the ability to inspire us in their lifetime. Great leaders have the ability to inspire us beyond their lifetime."

- Simon Sinek

"We achieve more when we chase the dream instead of the competition."

- Simon Sinek

"Communication is not about saying what we think. Communication is about ensuring others hear what we mean."

- Simon Sinek

"A great leader doesn’t only inspire us to have confidence in what THEY can do. A great leader inspires us to have confidence in what WE can do."

- Simon Sinek

"Start with WHY."

- Simon Sinek

"A culture is strong when people work with each other, for each other. A culture is weak when people work against each other, for themselves."

- Simon Sinek

"Don't show up to prove. Show up to improve."

- Simon Sinek

"Bad leaders care about who's right. Good leaders care about what's right."

- Simon Sinek

"It's not WHAT computers did that inspired Bill Gates; it was WHY we needed them."

- Simon Sinek

"The goal is to feel a part of something, not just play a part in anything."

- Simon Sinek

"The best leaders are also the best followers. They follow a purpose, cause, or belief bigger than themselves."

- Simon Sinek

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Leaders take the risk to trust first."

- Simon Sinek

"One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency."

- Arnold Glasow

"When we focus on the competition, we become reactive. When we focus on improving ourselves, we become innovative."

- Simon Sinek

"People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe."

- Simon Sinek

"Vision is the ability to talk about the future with such clarity, it is as if we are talking about the past."

- Simon Sinek

"Greatness happens when the person with the wild imagination collaborates with the person who knows how to get things done."

- Simon Sinek

"Leadership is about the team—the culture they keep and embrace, it’s about empathy for your customers, clients, employees, and the communities where you do business, it’s about doing the right thing for the right reasons, being confident enough to take risks and responsible enough to think of those who your decisions and risks may affect."

- Kat Cole

"A movement starts with a clear vision of a world different than the one we live in today."

- Simon Sinek

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality."

- Warren Bennis

"To be innovative, we can’t look to what others have done. The whole idea of blazing a path is that there was no path there before."

- Simon Sinek

"When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful."

- Malala Yousafzai

"Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning."

- Denis Waitley

"Don’t lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations."

- Ralph Marston

"Bad leaders care about who’s right. Good leaders care about what’s right."

- Simon Sinek

"Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult."

- Warren Bennis

"Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders."

- Warren Bennis

"A leader is a dealer in hope."

- Napoleon Bonaparte

"Leadership is not about the height of our position, but the power of our influence."

- Colonel Nicole Malachowski

"Nothing of significance is accomplished alone."

- John Maxwell

"All leaders are learners. The moment you stop learning, you stop leading.  I learn as much as I can, from as many as I can, as often as I can."

- Gordon Hester

"The most important currency of leadership is time. If you commit your time to your people and create an atmosphere and perception of fairness, you will earn their respect."

- Terrance E. Deal

"None of us is as smart as all of us."

- Ken Blanchard

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"It is a luxury to put our interests first. It is an honor to put the interests of others before our own."

- Simon Sinek

"Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve."

- Mary Kay Ash

"What do you really believe makes a difference in the company? For me it’s really clear. It’s about customers and employees. Everything else follows. If you take care of your customers and you have motivated employees, everything else follows."

- Anne M. Mulcahy

"I think one of the keys to leadership is recognizing that everybody has gifts and talents. A good leader will learn how to harness those gifts toward the same goal."

- Ben Carson

"Strong relationships are based on trust and communication. But if there is no communication, there can be no trust."

- Simon Sinek

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Don't follow the crowd. Let the crowd follow you."

- Margaret Thatcher

"I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail."

- Muriel Strode

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you'll be criticized anyway."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"To ask, “What’s best for me?” is finite thinking. To ask, “What’s best for us?” is infinite thinking."

- Simon Sinek

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

- Ronald Reagan

"Pure pragmatism can’t imagine a bold future. Pure idealism can’t get anything done. It’s when the two cooperate that magic happens."

- Simon Sinek

"Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence."

- Sheryl Sandberg

"Stop looking for a course of action and instead become obsessed with understanding the cause of action."

- Simon Sinek

"It’s okay to admit what you don’t know. It’s okay to ask for help. And it’s more than okay to listen to the people you lead–in fact, it’s essential."

- Mary Barra

"Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position."

- Brian Tracy

"Offer your strengths to others and you will be amazed how many people offer their strengths to you."

- Simon Sinek

"One of the criticisms I’ve faced over the years is that I’m not aggressive enough or assertive enough or maybe somehow, because I’m empathetic, it means I’m weak. I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong."

- 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

"We need to accept that we won't always make the right decisions, that we'll screw up royally sometimes—understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it's part of success."

- Ariana Huffington

"If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done."

- Dale Carnegie

"The more people you inspire, the more people will inspire you."

- Simon Sinek

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

- Steve Jobs

"The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action — an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign — even as the rest of the world wonders why you're not marching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zig while others zag. They understand that in an era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special."

- Bill Taylor

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Focus on long-term success, but be willing to make short-term adjustments to get there."

- Simon Sinek

"Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile."

- Vince Lombardi

"It is the weak leader that compensates by acting strong. It is the strong leader that allows people to see when they are weak."

- Simon Sinek

"To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift."

- Steve Prefontaine

"A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better."

- Jim Rohn

"The distance between number one and number two is always a constant. If you want to improve the organization, you have to improve yourself and the organization gets pulled up with you."

- Indra Nooyi

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

- President John Quincy Adams

"The hardest person you will ever have to lead is yourself."

- Bill George

"Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work."

- Seth Godin

"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

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others."

- Jack Welch

"The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails."

- John Maxwell

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."

- John F. Kennedy

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected."

- Steve Jobs

"Work ethic is giving great effort to complete a task. Passion is giving great effort to advance a Cause."

- Simon Sinek

"A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit."

- Arnold Glasow

"The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born."

- Warren Bennis

"Mastery is great, but even that is not enough. You have to be able to change course without a bead of sweat, or remorse."

- Tom Peters

"Champions keep playing until they get it right."

- Billie Jean King

"Good leaders build products. Great leaders build cultures. Good leaders deliver results. Great leaders develop people. Good leaders have vision. Great leaders have values. Good leaders are role models at work. Great leaders are role models in life."

- Adam Grant

"You don’t get any medal for trying something, you get medals for results."

- Bill Parcells

"Strong leaders are long on vision. Weak leaders are short on sight."

- Simon Sinek

"He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly."

- James Allen

"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done."

- Bruce Lee

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."

- Helen Keller

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that count."

- Winston Churchill

"Effective communication starts with listening."

- Simon Sinek

"Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision."

- Ken Blanchard

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Don't tell people how to do things; tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results."

- George S. Patton Jr.

"Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing."

- Albert Schweitzer

"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

"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

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen."

- Michael Jordan

"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Being right doesn’t make us trustworthy. Being honest makes us trustworthy."

- Simon Sinek

"We can only truly be in charge when we are willing to let others take charge."

- Simon Sinek

"The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion."

- Paulo Coelho

"Be spectacularly great at what you do. Wear your passion on your sleeve and hold your heart in the palm of your hand. And work hard. Really hard."

- Robin Sharma

"Success is a team sport."

- Simon Sinek

"The true measure of the value of any business leader and manager is performance."

- Brian Tracy

"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier."

- Oprah Winfrey

"It’s better to go slowly in the right direction, than to go speeding off in the wrong direction."

- Simon Sinek

"The most accurate tool for measuring trust is human intuition."

- Simon Sinek

"The mind can be convinced, but the heart must be won."

- Simon Sinek

"Our passion lies deep in who we are, not what we do."

- Simon Sinek

"If we want people to speak to us honestly, we must be willing to honestly listen."

- Simon Sinek

"Most of us live our lives by accident—we live it as it happens. Fulfillment comes when we live our lives on purpose."

- Simon Sinek

"For an employee to take responsibility, they must first be given it."

- Simon Sinek

"The next time someone starts listing all the reasons an idea can’t work, ask them to give three reasons it can."

- Simon Sinek

"New ideas need audiences like flowers need bees. No matter how brilliant and colorful, they will die unless others work to spread them."

- Simon Sinek

"Don’t show up to prove. Show up to improve."

- Simon Sinek

"Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you."

- Oprah Winfrey

"You are never too small to make a difference."

- Greta Thunberg

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."

- Woodrow Wilson

"Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing."

- Mary D. Poole

"Do not be afraid to make decisions. Do not be afraid to make mistakes."

- Carly Fiorina

"The most effective way to do it is to do it!"

- Amelia Earhart

"Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it."

- David Starr Jordan

"Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership."

- James Humes

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

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet."

- Theodore M. Hesburgh

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."

- Thomas Jefferson

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

- Charles Darwin

"A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together."

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."

- William A. Ward

"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

"Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm."

- Publilius Syrus

"He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious."

- Sun Tzu

"Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan."

- John F. Kennedy

"Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

"One of the keys to good leadership is good followership."

- James Cameron

"Instruction does much, but encouragement, everything."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Innovation does not entail having new ideas, but rather getting rid of old beliefs."

- Bertrand Piccard

"Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future."

- Deepak Chopra

"Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself."

- Gloria Steinem

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"You can’t change conditions. Just the way you deal with them."

- Jessica Watson

"You must figure out your own destination and the best route to get there because no one else knows the way."

- Nadia Comaneci

"If it’s a good idea, go ahead and do it."

- Grace Hopper

"If you have to choose between an easy thing and a hard thing, the hard one’s usually a lot more fun."

- Samantha Cristoforetti

"It just goes to show the only thing more powerful than HARD work is TEAM work."

- John Cena

"Everyone has the chance to lead if they choose to take what they've been given and make something extraordinary happen."

- Nido Qubein

"Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go, they merely determine where you can start."

- Bobb Biehl

"I have failed more than I have succeeded, and it is on the ashes of those failures that all my success has been built."

- Elizabeth Edwards

"Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you."

- Misty Copeland

"Being aware of your own weaknesses could be your biggest strength."

- Tom Peters

"An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises."

- Mae West

"What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds."

- Wayne Dyer

"It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction."

- Warren Buffett

"For a Cause to be Just, it must be durable, resilient and timeless."

- Simon Sinek

"That idea is so fantastic. Stop talking about it and do it."

- Simon Sinek

"We take responsibility for our actions at the time we perform our actions, not at the time we get caught."

- Simon Sinek

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"I have this ability to find this hidden talent in people that sometimes even they didn't know they had."

- Berry Gordy

"No man will make a great business who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit of doing it."

- Andrew Carnegie

"To get the best advice, it’s better to talk to a few people personally than it is to talk to a lot of people digitally."

- Simon Sinek

"When we try to please everyone, we end up pleasing no one…least of all, ourselves."

- Simon Sinek

"It’s better to endure the discomfort of the truth now than to suffer the discomfort of the lie later."

- Simon Sinek

"Mature companies fail because they forget why they were born."

- Simon Sinek

"I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through—then follow through."

- Edward Rickenbacker

"Regardless of technology or the speed of innovation, people are still people. And all the rules of humanity still apply."

- Simon Sinek

"Our choices reveal our intentions."

- Simon Sinek

"Creating something new is easy. Creating something that can last is the challenge."

- Simon Sinek

"Progress is fueled by the undying belief that the future is bright."

- Simon Sinek

"The goal is not to be perfect by the end. The goal is to be better today."

- Simon Sinek

"The true value of networking doesn’t come from how many people we can meet, but rather how many people we can introduce to others."

- Simon Sinek

"If there are people who care, there is always hope."

- Simon Sinek

"People like me write these polemics with the hope that we can somehow influence some change for the greater good."

- Simon Sinek

"Experts are the ones who think they know everything. Geniuses are the ones who know they don’t."

- Simon Sinek

"The opportunity for creativity begins the moment we don’t know what we’re doing."

- Simon Sinek

"Loyalty is the desire to defend someone when they are not there to defend themselves."

- Simon Sinek

"The value of emotions comes from sharing them, not simply having them."

- Simon Sinek

"When in doubt, be yourself."

- Simon Sinek

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."

- Margaret Mead

"Life is beautiful not because of the things we see or the things we do. Life is beautiful because of the people we meet."

- Simon Sinek

"There is a troublesome humor some men have, that if they may not lead, they will not follow; but had rather a thing were never done, than not done their own way, tho’ other ways very desirable."

- William Penn

"An excessive drive for order interrupts the beautiful chaos needed for creativity to thrive."

- Simon Sinek

"We can contribute to a relationship. But we can’t control a relationship."

- Simon Sinek

"Asking for help is an act of service. Don’t deny the people who love you the honor of being there to support you."

- Simon Sinek

"A community is a group of people who agree to grow together."

- Simon Sinek

"Giving can be as simple as saying “thank you” to someone and meaning it. We should all give a little more."

- Simon Sinek

"If you ask profound questions… you get profound answers. If you ask shallow questions, you get shallow answers. If you ask no questions, you get no answers at all."

- Bob Hoskins

"Too many modern companies have replaced a person with a number and mistakenly called that number a customer."

- Simon Sinek

"Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before.  You can fight it, you can do nothing, but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good."

- Buddhist proverb

"If you light a lamp for someone it will also brighten your own path"

- Ken Blanchard

"Help begets help, just as trust begets trust."

- Bob Davis

"Praise is a powerful people-builder. Catch individuals doing something right!"

- Rick Warren

"Never be afraid to be a poppy in a field of daffodils."

- Michaela Deprince

"If you’re lucky enough to be different, don’t ever change."

- Khoudia Diop

"The main thing about being ‘heroic’ is helping others."

- Sarinya Srisakul

"If a person is drowning, they must be rescued regardless of their religion or nationality."

- Irena Sendlerowa

"Selfish is easy. It’s sharing that takes courage."

- Simon Sinek

"Only if we understand will we care. Only if we care will we help. Only if we help will we all be saved."

- Jane Goodall

"Safe is the new risky."

- Kathy Klotz

"Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them."

- Diogenes of Sinope

"Having fun is not a diversion from a successful life; it is a pathway to it."

- Brian Tracy

"Admire those who admire others."

- Simon Sinek

"Good marketing speaks to us. Bad marketing speaks at us."

- Simon Sinek

"Celebrations infuse life with passion and purpose.  They summon the human spirit."

- Misty Copeland

"Leaders grasp nettles."

- David Ogilvy

"Creativity is the art of finding a new route to a known destination."

- Simon Sinek

"Appreciate when things go awry. It makes for a better story to share later."

- Simon Sinek

"Bad marketing values promotions. Good marketing promotes values."

- Simon Sinek

"Silent gratitude isn't very much to anyone."

- Gertrude Stein

"I am a person of value that values people, and adds value to them, We are a people of value that values people, and adds value to them, You are a person of value that values people, and adds value to them."

- John Donne

"No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main."

- Byron Katie

"The world is nothing but my perception of it.  I see only through myself.  I hear only through the filter of my story."

- Maya Angelou

"When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute."

- Simon Sinek

"To lead people, walk beside them. As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence … When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’"

"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."

"Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well."

"The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves."

"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership."

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."

"The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes."

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

"Don’t find fault, find a remedy."

"To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful."

"Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want."

"There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there."

"Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas?"

"Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals."

"We don't need a title to lead. We just need people to care. We would rather follow a leader with a heart than a leader with a title."

"People do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care."

"Building a strong culture is what builds a strong organization."