55 Famous Leadership Quotes for Inspiration

Collection of 55 famous leadership quotes and sayings for you to get inspired.

1. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”-John Maxwell

2. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”-Jack Welch

3. “He who has great power should use it lightly.”-Seneca

4. “Education is the mother of leadership.”-Wendell Willkie

5. “To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.”-Andre Malraux

6. “A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.”-John Maxwell

7. “Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”-John C. Maxwell

8. “Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.”-Chinese Proverb

9. “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”-Abraham Lincoln

10. “The real leader has no need to lead–he is content to point the way.”-Henry Miller

11. “He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.”-Solon

12. “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.”-Henry Kissinger

13. “Without leadership, command is a hollow experience, a vacuum often filled with mistrust and arrogance.”-Eric Shinseki

14. “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”-Peter Ferdinand Drucker

15. “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”-Theodore Roosevelt

16. “The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.”-Woodrow Wilson

17. “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”-Indira Gandhi

18. “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”-Eleanor Roosevelt

19. “Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.”-Robert Louis Stevenson

20. “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.”-Aristotle

21. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”-Bill Gates

22. “A leader is a dealer in hope.”-Napoleon Bonaparte

23. “If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk.”-Benjamin Hooks

24. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”-John Quincy Adams

25. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson

26. “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

27. “When things go wrong in your command, start searching for the reason in increasingly large circles around your own desk.”-Gen. Bruce Clarke

28. Leadership is not a position or a title, It is action and example.

29. “Great leadership usually starts with a willing heart, a positive attitude, and a desire to make a difference.”-Mac Anderson

30. “Leaders do not avoid, repress, or deny conflict, but rather see it as an opportunity.”-Warren Bennis

31. “Leadership is about magnetic communication. Leaders have a way of communicating that draws people toward the vision and the horizon.”-Doug Firebaugh

32. “A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn’t like the tune.”

33. “Remember the difference between a boss and a leader; a boss says “Go!”-a leader says “Let’s go!”-E.M. Kelly

34. “If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.”-Isaac Newton

35. “The price of greatness is responsibility.”-Winston Churchill

36. “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.”-Theodore M. Hesburgh

37. “Nobody is more powerful as we make them out to be.” Alice Walker

38. “Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.”-Abraham Lincoln

39. “Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.”- Vince Lombardi

40. “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

41. “A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group.”- Russell H. Ewing

42. “An army of deer would be more formidable commanded by a lion, than an army of lions commanded by a stag.” -Viking Proverb

43. “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

44. “There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage.”-Chan Master Fuchan Yuan

45. “Don’t follow the crowd. Let the crowd follow you.” – Margaret Thatcher

46. “A good leader is as good as half an army.”-German Proverb

47. “Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.”-John Davison Rockefeller

48. “Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”-George Smith Patton, Jr.

49. “Love and respect do not automatically accompany a position of leadership. They must be earned.”

50. “There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them.”

51. “Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.”

52. “Courage is not the absence of fear. It is going forward with the face of fear.”-Abraham Lincoln

53. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” –John Kennedy

54. “No guts, no story.” Chris Brady

55. “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