While some collect coins, spoons, stamps, I am an avid collector of quotes and books. Since I was 15, I have collected thousands of quotes. Two years ago, this avocation inspired me to create a
quote book which I’m offering
FREE to all my readers. As a student of leadership, I hope you will use these quotes as a resource for future blog posts, speeches, and books.
1. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. — Peter. F Drucker
2. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. — John Quincy Adams
3. Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what do do and let them surprise you with their results. — George S. Patton
4. Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. — Dwight D. Eisenhower
5. Great leadership is about human experiences. It’s not a formula or a program. It is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others. It is an attitude, not a routine — Lance Secretan
6. Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. — Stephen R. Covey
7. Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
8. Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. — Norman Schwarzkopf
9. If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery
10. Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
11. A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. — John C. Maxwell
12. A highly credible leader under-promises and over-delivers. — John C. Maxwell
13. Followers are the gem cutters of leadership coaxing out its full brilliance. — Ira Chaleff
14. 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
15. Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. — T.S. Eliot
16. The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. — William Arthur Ward
17. Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. — Albert Schweitzer
18. In a battle between two ideas, the best one doesn’t necessarily win. No, the idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it. — Seth Godin
19. Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers. — Harry Truman
20. If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything. — Tom Rath
21. Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand. — Colin Powell
22. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality; the last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. — Max De Pree
23. If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants. — Isaac Newton
24. My own definition of leadership is this: the capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. — General Montgomery
25. The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already. — John Buchan
26. Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them. — Stephen Covey
27. A leader is a dealer in hope. — Napoleon Bonaparte
28. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
29. I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. — Ralph Nader
30. People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. — John C. Maxwell
31. In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock — Thomas Jefferson
32. Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems. — Brian Tracy
33. 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. — John Kenneth Galbraith
34. The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. — Theodore Roosevelt
35. Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline. ― James C. Collins
36. 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. ― Ronald Reagan
37. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. ― Warren Bennis
38. The price of greatness is responsibility. ― Winston Churchill
39. I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. ― Albert Einstein
40. Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ― Harold R. McAlindon
41. I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: Try to please everybody. ― Herbert Swope
42. You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things. ― Mother Teresa
43. People don’t buy what you do ; they buy why you do it – Simon Sinek
44. Great vision without great people is irrelevant. ― James. C. Collins
45. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. ― Theodore Roosevelt
46. A leader’s most powerful ally is his or her own example. ― John Wooden
47. Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. ― John C. Maxwell
48. Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard. ― Warren Bennis
49. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you, shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. ― Jesus of Nazareth
50. The spiritual leader should outpace the rest of the church, above all, in prayer. ― Oswald Sanders
51. Desiring to excel is not a sin. It is motivation that determines ambition’s character. Our Lord never taught against the urge to high achievement, but He did expose and condemn unworthy motivation. ― Oswald Sander
52. You can impress from a distance, but you can only impact up close. ― Howard Hendricks
53. He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader. ― Aristotle
54. My great concern for you in life is not that you will fail, but that you will succeed in doing the wrong things. ― Howard Hendricks
55. Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway. ― Eleanor Roosevelt
56. It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him. ― John Steinbeck
57. Always do right. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ― Mark Twain
58. We can do no great things – only small things with great love. ― Mother Teresa
59. Where there is no vision, the people perish. ― Proverbs 29:18
60. We must be the change we wish to see in the world. ― Mahatma Gandhi
61. Being in ministry requires a deep and intensive love for people. ― Dr. Aubrey Malphurs
61. Leaders aren’t born, they are made. ― Vince Lombardi
62. A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. Max Lucado
63. Whatever you are, be a good one. ― Abraham Lincoln
64. If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing. ― Benjamin Franklin
65. Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. ― John F. Kennedy
66. You manage things; you lead people. ― Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
67. Don’t quack like a duck; soar like an eagle. ― Ken Blanchard
68. Feedback is the breakfast of champions. ― Ken Blanchard
69. A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see and who sees before others see. – Leroy Eimes
70. 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!'” – Lao Tsu
71. A big part of leadership is recognizing that your fruit often grows on other peoples trees. – Todd Adkins
72. Refuse to be average. Let your heart soar as high as it will. -A.W. Tozer
73. My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side. – Lincoln
74. Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life. – Proverbs 4:23
75. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. – President Abraham Lincoln
76. He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. — Aristotle
77. 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
78. The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. — Harvey Firestone
79. It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership. — Nelson Mandela
80. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. — Steve Jobs
81. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. — Steve Jobs
82. People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives. — Theodore Roosevelt
83. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. — Thomas Paine
84. The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. — Henry A. Kissinger
85. Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing. — Tom Peters
86. Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best. — Chester W. Nimitz
87. Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people. – Eleanor Roosevelt88. The more seriously you take your growth, the more seriously people will take you. – John C. Maxwell89. Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential. – John C. Maxwell
90. As long as you’re green, you’re growing. As soon as you’re ripe, you start to rot. – Ray Kroc
91. I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. – Bruce Lee
92. Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. – Proverbs 16:3
93. Success is final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill
94. I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through – then follow through. – EV Rickenbacker
95. The best way to lead people into the future is to connect with them deeply in the present. – James Kouzes and Barry Posne
96. If you are not willing to risk the unusual you will have to settle for the ordinary. – John Rohn
97. Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, “what’s in it for me.?” – Brian Tracy
98. If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself. – D.L Moody
99. It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching. – St. Francis
100. You teach what you know; you reproduce what you are. – Leif Hetland