Adlai Stevenson:
It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.



Al Gini:
The term “power” comes from the Latin posse: to do, to be able, to change, to influence or effect. To have power is to possess the capacity to control or direct change. All forms of leadership must make use of power. The central issue of power in leadership is not Will it be used? But rather Will it be used wisely and well?



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.



Ernest Becker:
It is not so much that man is a herd animal, said Freud, but that he is a horde animal led by a chief.



Eugene V. Debs:
I never had much faith in leaders. I am willing to be charged with almost anything, rather than to be charged with being a leader. I am suspicious of leaders, and especially of the intellectual variety. Give me the rank and file every day in the week. If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and mis-representatives of the masses -- you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. 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.



Faye Wattleton:
Whoever is providing leadership needs to be as fresh and thoughtful and reflective as possible to make the very best fight.



H. Ross Perot:
Inventories can be managed, but people must be led.



Henrik Ibsen:
A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.



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.