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110 Quotes About Leadership to Seek Inspiration And Feel Motivated
Here’s a great collection of quotes about leadership that’ll inspire you in a million ways. Bookmark a few and unleash the best of your abilities today itself!
A leader is the one who directs the right path and helps one achieve their goals. Whether you wish to guide a community, seek inspiration, or lead an organization, you need to trace the qualities of history’s outstanding leaders found through their words of wisdom.
Reading quotes about leadership from prominent personalities will inspire you in a million ways. Through their statements, you get to understand their character, actions, personality, and thoughts, which makes people show immense faith in them.
Bookmarking a couple of inspiring leadership quotes gradually helps conquer your fears and overcome all odds. They are the source of constant motivation that keeps you going through the journey of life.
Moreover, motivational and inspirational quotes about leadership allow you to navigate your path, face challenges, influence others, and be the guiding light. In fact, reading leadership quotes by great leaders every day can aid in developing and improving your leadership styles.
As you scroll ahead, you will be exposed to our treasure trove of leadership quotes for work and daily life.
Great Quotes About Leadership
1. "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. "A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." — Martin Luther King Jr.
3. “You do not lead by hitting people over the head. That’s assault, not leadership.” — President Dwight D. Eisenhower
4. "Leaders grasp nettles." — David Ogilvy
5. “You manage things; you lead people.” — Grace Murray Hopper, U.S. Navy rear admiral
6. "A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, and his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." — Lao Tzu
7. “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” — Ralph Nader
8. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." — Margeret Mead
9. "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." — Charles Darwin
10. “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” — President Abraham Lincoln
11. "Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why." — Bernard Baruch
Inspirational Leadership Quotes by Famous Personalities
12. “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
13. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” — William Arthur Ward
14. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” — Bill Gates
15. “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.” — President Ronald Reagan
16. “A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see.” — Leroy Eimes
17. “The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears, and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.” — George Orwell
18. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
19. “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” — Gen. Colin Powell
20. “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
21. “In the simplest terms, a leader is one who knows where he wants to go and gets up and goes.” — John Erskine
22. “Always do right. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” — Mark Twain
Most Encouraging Leadership Quotes to Find Your Own Way
23. "In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." — Thomas Jefferson
24. "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
25. “He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious." — Sun Tzu
26. "Champions keep playing until they get it right." — Billie Jean King
27. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done." — Bruce Lee
28. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." — Winston Churchill
29. “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes." — Peter Drucker
30. “You don’t get any medal for trying something, you get medals for results." — Bill Parcells
31. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." — Helen Keller
32. “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
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Famous Leadership Quotes
33. “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
34. "The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.” — John Maxwell
35. "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
36. "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.
37. "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." — John F. Kennedy
38. “Good leaders build products. Great leaders build cultures. Good leaders deliver results. Great leaders develop people. Good leaders have a vision. Great leaders have values. Good leaders are role models at work. Great leaders are role models in life." — Adam Grant
39. "Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing." — Albert Schweitzer
40. "Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them." — Diogenes of Sinope
41. “The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born 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
42. "Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm." — Publilius Syrus
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Best Leadership Quotes to Keep Going in Life
43. "Silent gratitude isn't very much to anyone." — Gertrude Stein
44. "Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan." — John F. Kennedy
45. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." — Dwight D. Eisenhower
46. "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." — John C. Maxwell
47. "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
48. "To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." — Eleanor Roosevelt
49. "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
50. "Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others." — Robert Louis Stevenson
Insightful Quotations on Leadership And Motivation
51. "Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility." — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
52. "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
53. "A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together." — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
54. "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
55. “Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work." — Seth Godin
Leadership Quotes That Highlight the Importance of Responsibilities
56. "There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity, and courage." — Chan Master Fuchan Yuan
57. “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
58. "The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionable integrity." — Dwight D. Eisenhower
59. "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 DePree
60. "Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths." — John Peter Zenger
61. "To have long-term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way." — Pat Riley
62. "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
63. "The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on." — Walter Lippmann
64. "Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand." — Gen. Colin Powell
65. "Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day." — Jesse Jackson
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Best Leadership Quotes for Workplace
66. "The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been." — Henry Kissinger
67. “He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.” — Aristotle
68. "Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success. Leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." — Stephen Covey
69. "One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." — Arnold H. Glasow
70. "I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people." — Mahatma Gandhi
71. "Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard." — Warren Bennis
72. "People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything." — Thomas Sowell
73. "Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing." — Tom Peters
74. "The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership." — Harvey S. Firestone
75. "The greatest gift of leadership is a boss who wants you to be successful." — Jon Taffer
76. "Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else through hard work." — Vince Lombardi
77. "The art of communication is the language of leadership." — James Humes
78. "Leadership is the key to 99% of all successful efforts." — Erskine Bowles
79. "Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." — Margaret Fuller
80. “Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things." —Peter Drucker
81. "Education is the mother of leadership." — Wendell Willkie
82. "You have to have your heart in the business and the business in your heart." — An Wang
Inspiring Leadership Quotes for Taking Actions
83. "Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy.” — U.S. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
84. "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader." — John Quincy Adams
85. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” — Jack Welch
86. “Earn your leadership every day.” — Michael Jordan
87. “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 Tzu
88. “Make sure you’re not just waiting for someone else to fix things, or hoping that things will improve … Figure out what’s going on and make a plan to improve things.” — Kenneth W. Thomas
89. “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” — President Theodore Roosevelt
90. “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” — Arnold Glasow, humorist and author
91. “Leadership is the capacity to transform vision into reality.” — Warren G. Bennis
92. “What you do has far greater impact than what you say.” — Stephen Covey
93. “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” — John Buchan, novelist, historian and politician
Powerful Leadership Quotes About Vision
94. “Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob.” — Oscar Wilde
95. “In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.” — Harry Truman
96. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” — Gen. George S. Patton
97. “You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.” — Sam Rayburn
98. "The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet." — Theodore M. Hesburgh
99. “The led must not be compelled. They must be able to choose their own leader.” — Albert Einstein, physicist
100. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” — Steve Jobs
101.“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor but without folly.” — Jim Rohn
102. “The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision." — Ken Blanchard
103. “If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk.” — Benjamin Hooks, former director of the NAACP
104. "Leadership is the capacity to translate a vision into reality." — Warren Bennis
Motivational Leadership Quotes
105. "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
106. "Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them." — John C. Maxwell
107. "Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems." — Brian Tracy
108. "Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better." — Bill Bradley
109. "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent." — Abraham Lincoln
110. “I am reminded of how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be.” — Warren Bennis
As long as you keep reading such powerful quotes about leadership, you’ll be able to find the best of your abilities and achieve your goals. If you are working in an organization, then you can be an excellent leader and motivate your team members to deliver fruitful results. If not so, then you can be the voice of the voiceless, lead societies, and be the change that you want to see in the world.
This bank of famous leadership quotes is not just a compilation of popular sayings, instead, they are reminders to hold your head high and bring out the best of your capabilities. After all, it is not only about leading others on the right path but leading yourself to do wherever you go!
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