ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

BARACK OBAMA:
I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.

CARL SAGAN:
But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

DON MARQUIS:
If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you. If you really make them think, they'll hate you.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER:
You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.

EDWIN H. FRIEDMAN:
Leadership can be thought of as a capacity to define oneself to others in a way that clarifies and expands a vision of the future.

ELIZABETH DOLE:
What you always do before you make a decision is consult. The best public policy is made when you are listening to people who are going to be impacted. Then, once policy is determined, you call on them to help you sell it.

ERIC HOFFER:
In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

EUGENE V. DEBS:
When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.

EVERETT DIRKSEN:
I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.

FAYE WATTLETON:
The only safe ship in a storm is leadership.

H. ROSS PEROT:
Inventories can be managed, but people must be led.

HERBERT B. SWOPE:
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: which is: Try to please everybody.

ISAAC NEWTON:
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.

JAMES CALLAGHAN:
A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice.

JAMES KOUZES AND BARRY POSNER:
There's nothing more demoralising than a leader who can't clearly articulate why we're doing what we're doing.

JAMES MACGREGOR BURNS:
Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics to mere technique.

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU:
A leader or a man of action in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for his action.

JESSE JACKSON:
Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.

JOHN GARDNER:
Pity the leader caught between unloving critics and uncritical lovers.

JOHN GARDNER:
Most important, leaders can conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS:
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

JOSEPH ROST:
In leadership writ large, mutually agreed upon purposes help people achieve consensus, assume responsibility, work for the common good, and build community.

KENNETH BLANCHARD:
The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.

MARGARET CHASE SMITH:
Leadership is not manifested by coercion, even against the resented. Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any measures.

MARGARET J. WHEATLEY:
When leaders take back power, when they act as heroes and saviors, they end up exhausted, overwhelmed, and deeply stressed.

MOHANDAS K. GANDHI:
I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

NOAM CHOMSKY:
It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.

PETER DRUCKER:
The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.

PLATO:
A tyrant is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

RACHEL MADDOW:
Humans are ambitious and rational and proud. And we don't fall in line with people who don't respect us and who we don't believe have our best interests at heart. We are willing to follow leaders, but only to the extent that we believe they call on our best, not our worst.

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

ROBERT GREENLEAF:
Good leaders must first become good servants.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON:
Keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others.

ROSABETH MOSS KANTOR:
Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach.

ROSALYNN CARTER:
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.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY:
Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.

THEODORE HESBURGH:
The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision.

THICH NHAT HANH:
You who are journalists, writers, citizens, you have the right and duty to say to those you have elected that they must practice mindfulness, calm and deep listening, and loving speech. This is universal thing, taught by all religions.

TOM PETERS:
If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.

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

WALTER LIPPMAN:
The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.

WALTER WINK:
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu walked by a construction site on a temporary sidewalk the width of one person. A white man appeared at the other end, recognized Tutu, and said, "I don't make way for gorillas." At which Tutu stepped aside, made a deep sweeping gesture, and said, "Ah, yes, but I do."

WARREN BENNIS:
The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.

WINSTON CHURCHILL:
The price of greatness is responsibility.