Leader Quotes

When I shake hands with a world leader, it's not Modi, but 1.4 billion Indians doing so.

A leader has the right to be beaten, but never the right to be surprised.

If you build an army of 100 lions and their leader is a dog, in any fight, the lions will die like a dog. But if you build an army of 100 dogs and their leader is a lion, all dogs will fight as a lion.

A military leader must possess as much character as intellect. Men who have a great deal of intellect and little character are the least suited; they are like a ship whose masts are out of proportion to the ballast; it is preferable to have much character and little intellect. Those men whose intellect is mediocre and whose character is in proportion are likely to succeed in their profession. The base must equal the height.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

A good leader can't get too far ahead of his followers.

A real leader uses every issue, no matter how serious and sensitive, to ensure that at the end of the debate we should emerge stronger and more united than ever before.

It is a grave error for any leader to be oversensitive in the face of criticism.

Like the gardener, a leader must take responsibility for what he cultivates; he must mind his work, try to repel enemies, preserve what can be preserved, and eliminate what cannot succeed.

As a leader, one must sometimes take actions that are unpopular, or whose results will not be known for years to come.

There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.

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.

Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.

Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the Gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment. You know, actually all that I do in civil rights I do because I consider it a part of my ministry.

[Mr. Attlee, then Prime Minister] the other day accused me of being party minded. Everyone would naturally be shocked if a party leader were party minded! But we are all party minded in the baffling and unhappy period between election decisions.

In every age there comes a time when a leader must come forward to meet the needs of the hour. Therefore, there is no potential leader who does not have the opportunity to make a positive difference in society.

I never thought of myself as the leader. The most important person, perhaps.

I think I'm a natural-born leader. I know how to bow down to authority if it's authority that I respect.