Thank you for your interest in our weekly Leadership Quotes.
As I looked through my list of leadership quotes to find one that resonated with me, I realized – why am I keeping this list to myself? There are so many inspirational leadership quotes here, that I decided to share them with you.
The original plan was to post 52 quotes, one for every week. But why withhold valuable content just to match the calendar – these are too good not to share! Some of these quotes aren’t directly about leadership, but they contain principles that every great leader should hold true.
Quick Quote Wednesdays – check back every Wednesday for a new leadership quote and a short related post.
~Rob Jackson
Do you have a favorite quote that you’d like to share with us? Does a particular quote resonate with you? Share your your quote or comments below.
Everyone has peak performance potential – you just need to know where they are coming from and meet them there. ~Anonymous MORE ABOUT THIS QUOTE
Success is not something you own; it’s something you rent, and the rent is due every day. When you stop paying rent on success, you start paying the rent on failure. ~Tom Black MORE ABOUT THIS QUOTE
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the boss is covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives. ~Theodore Roosevelt
No man will work for your interests unless they are his. ~David Seabury MORE ABOUT THIS QUOTE
You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb himself. ~Andrew Carnegie MORE ABOUT THIS QUOTE
You do not lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership. ~Dwight Eisenhower
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. ~John Maxwell
Leadership is the activity of influencing people to cooperate toward some goal which they come to find desirable. ~Ordway Tead MORE ABOUT THIS QUOTE
In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. ~Dwight Eisenhower
The man who follows a crowd will never be followed by a crowd. ~R.S. Donnell
Leadership is a serving relationship that has the effect of facilitating human development. ~Ted Ward
A prime function of the leader is to keep hope alive. ~John Gardner
Skill in the art of communication is crucial to a leader’s success…He can accomplish nothing unless he can communicate effectlively. ~Norman Allen
You can only make others better by being good yourself. ~Hugh R. Hanels
What does it mean to be promoted into a leadership position? Frankly, it means we now have the authority to serve people in a special way. ~Anonymous
I spend 60 percent of my time planning, 60 percent with people, and all other duties are completed with whatever time is left. ~A.W. Clausen
There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability. ~Elbert Hubbard
Great leaders understand human behavior rather than the cybernetics of any functional specialty. ~James Schorr
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. ~Mark Twain
If you’re not practicing, somebody else is, somewhere, and he’ll be ready to take your job. ~Brooks Robinson MORE ABOUT THIS QUOTE
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. ~William Arthur Ward
The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. ~Benjamin Franklin
Smiles are to people as sunshine is to the roses. ~Tom Black
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly. ~Langston Hughes
One gains at least two to three times more experience grabbing the tiger by the tail than reading about it in a book. ~Mark Twain MORE ABOUT THIS QUOTE
There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction. ~Franz Kafka
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm… As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others. ~Audrey Hepburn
Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman-not the attitude of the prospect. ~W. Clement Stone
Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them. ~Ann Landers
It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others. ~Unknown
Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can enter except by your permission. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one’s levels of aspiration …and expectation. ~Jack Nicklaus
You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted. ~Ruth E. Renkl
You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was. ~Abraham Lincoln
Within every problem or setback lays the seed of an equal or greater opportunity or benefit. ~Napoleon Hill
Great opportunity is only as good as your preparation to take advantage of it. ~Tom Black
Anything done for another is done for oneself. ~Pope John Paul II
Nothing is so potent as the silent influence of a good example. ~James Kent
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass… it’s about learning to dance in the rain. ~Anonymous
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being. ~Goethe
There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children. ~Nelson Mandela
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. ~Albert Einstein
Our lives improve only when we take chances -and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves. ~Walter Anderson
Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics. ~Albert Einstein
The word fear is worry in depth. Psychologists say it’s the most disintegrating force of human emotion. ~Anonymous
The heart that gives, gathers. ~Marianne Moore
The secret of discipline is motivation. When a man is sufficiently motivated, discipline takes care of itself. ~Sir Alexander Paterson
The minute you start talking about what you’re going to do if you lose, you have lost. ~George Schultz
As you walk down the fairway of life, you must smell the roses……for you only get to play one round. ~Ben Hogan
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. ~Leo Tolstoy
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. It comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday. ~John Wayne
Things turn out for the best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out. ~John Wooden
You can’t just dream big -you’ve got to think big, and then plan big. ~Tom Black
Never work just for money or for power. They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night. ~Marian Wright Edelman
It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference. ~Tom Brokaw
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. ~Henry Ford
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. ~George Bernard Shaw
If we threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back. ~Regina Brett
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. ~Helen Keller
The greatest pleasure I know is to do good action by stealth and have it found by accident. ~Charles Lamb
Regardless of your lot in life, you can build something beautiful on it. ~Zig Ziglar
Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
When the heart is right, the mind and the body will follow. ~Coretta Scott King
Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. ~William Feather
Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it – but sail we must, and not drift nor lie at anchor. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
To get profit without risk, experience without danger and reward without work is as impossible as it is to live without being born. ~A.P. Gouthey
There are always two choices, two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it’s easy. ~Anonymous
Your decision to be, have and do something out of the ordinary entails facing difficulties that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else. ~Brian Tracy
The oldest trees survive the most difficult situations. ~Bristlecone Forest
I defend myself by improving myself. ~Sidney Poitier
The more challenging the climb the better the view. ~Unknown
It is by spending oneself that we become rich. ~Sarah Bernhardt
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. ~Henry Ford
Real optimism is aware of problems but recognizes the solutions. ~William Arthur Ward
To reach any significant goal, you must leave your comfort zone. ~Hyrum W. Smith
Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. ~Albert Schweitzer
Reflect each day on all you have to be grateful for and you will receive more to be grateful for. ~Chuck Danes