135+ Inspirational Quotes & Sayings About Leadership

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Plus, what does it mean to be a good leader? Experts weigh in

Co-authored by Dev Murphy, MA

Last Updated: December 12, 2025 Fact Checked

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"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other," President John F. Kennedy once said, and reading the words of influential figures of the past and present is a great way to educate yourself on what it really means to guide others and be a good leader. That's why we've compiled a list of some of the most inspiring, empowering, and wise sayings and quotes about leadership from historical and pop culture figures across time. But it's one thing to read about leadership, and another to actually embody the role of a leader; that's why we sat down with a team of managers, leadership coaches, and entrepreneurs to discuss what it really means to be a good leader. Keep reading for everything you need to know.

Wise Quotes about Leadership

• He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. —Aristotle
• In most cases, being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way. —Tina Fey
• I must follow the people. Am I not their leader? —Benjamin Disraeli
• Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. —Margaret Mead
• A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men. —Stephen King
• First rule of leadership: everything is your fault. —A Bug's Life

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Section 1 of 7:

Powerful Quotes & Sayings about Leadership

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1. These awe-inspiring quotes are sure to empower you so you can empower others. As the writer Warren Bennis said, "Leaders are made rather than born." If you want to make yourself into the best leader you can be, take encouragement and wisdom from these sayings:

   • I must follow the people. Am I not their leader? —Benjamin Disraeli
   • Men make history and not the other way around. 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 S. Truman
   • The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground. —Sir Winston Churchill
   • The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born—that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. —Warren Bennis
   • 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
   • The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. —Theodore Roosevelt
   • No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. —Abraham Lincoln
   • A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. —Douglas MacArthur
   • My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. —General Montgomery
   • I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. —Ralph Nader
   • Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out. —Stephen Covey
   • Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand. —Colin Powell
   • Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths. —John Zenger
   • I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be. —Warren Bennis
   • I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody. —Herbert Swope
   • Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day. —Jesse Jackson
   • Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership. —Colin Powell
   • Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. —Norman Schwarzkopf
   • Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing. —Tom Peters
   • Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. —Stephen Covey
   • 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
   • One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency. —Arnold Glasow
   • To have long-term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way. —Pat Riley
   • True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do, and doing it well. —Bill Owens
   • I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered a training ground for leadership, but raising children isn't. —Dee Dee Myers
   • All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. —John Kenneth Galbraith

   Meet the wikiHow Experts

   Harish Chandran, PhD is a senior manager, engineering site lead, and senior staff research engineer at DeepMind.

   Lauren Krasny is a leadership and executive coach and the founder of Reignite Coaching, her professional and personal coaching service based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

   Maureen Taylor is the CEO and founder of SNP Communications, a leadership communications company based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

   Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, an online tutoring business offering learning resources for academic subjects, test prep, and college admissions applications.

   Jessica Notini, JD is a negotiation and mediation coach practicing in California and internationally in many Latin countries.
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Section 2 of 7:

Inspirational Quotes & Sayings about Leadership

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1. Take heart from these motivational adages about what it means to lead. Great leaders inspire—but you can't inspire unless you're inspired yourself. These encouraging and empowering quotes are sure to do the trick:

   • If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. —Maya Angelou
   • The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet. —Reverend Theodore Hesburgh
   • Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish. —Sam Walton
   • The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men, the conviction and the will to carry on. —Walter Lippman
   • The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision. —Ken Blanchard
   • Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes. —Peter Drucker
   • 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
   • 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
   • You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case. —Ken Kesey
   • A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible. —Polybius
   • 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
   • A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together. —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
   • Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. —Margaret Mead
   • If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing. —Benjamin Franklin
   • If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. —John Quincy Adams
   • It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership. —Nelson Mandela
   • Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed, but people must be led. —Ross Perot
   • Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them. —John C. Maxwell
   • 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
   • Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. –-Ralph Waldo Emerson
   • A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. —John Maxwell
   • A great leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position. —John Maxwell
   • A leader is a dealer in hope. —Napoleon Bonaparte
   • Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. —General George Patton
   • Leadership is lifting a person's vision to high sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. —Peter Drucker

Section 3 of 7:

Short Quotes & Sayings about Leadership

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1. These quotes may be brief, but they still pack a punch. "He who has great power should use it lightly," Seneca once said, and the following adages prove that by saying a great deal in only a handful of words:

   • There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity, and courage. —Fuchan Yuan
   • Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise. —Woodrow Wilson
   • Leadership is influence. —John C. Maxwell
   • Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. —John F. Kennedy
   • Do what you feel in your heart to be right-–for you’ll be criticized anyway. —Eleanor Roosevelt
   • He who has great power should use it lightly. —Seneca
   • The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. —Tony Blair
   • The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. —Kenneth Blanchard
   • Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. —Publilius Syrus
   • Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. —Warren Bennis
   • You manage things; you lead people. —Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
   • Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. — General George Patton
   • You don’t need a title to be a leader. —Unknown
   • Earn your leadership every day. –Michael Jordan
   • What you do has far greater impact than what you say. —Stephen Covey
   • Never give an order that can't be obeyed. —General Douglas MacArthur
   • Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts. —Erskine Bowles
   • Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better. —Bill Bradley
   • The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. —Harvey Firestone
   • Whatever you are, be a good one. —Abraham Lincoln
   • A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. –George Patton
   • As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. —Bill Gates
   • Don't necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally, they are necessary to leadership. —Donald Rumsfeld
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Section 4 of 7:

Wise Quotes & Sayings about Leadership

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1. Be moved by these thoughtful meditations on leadership. As the French novelist André Malraux sagely noted, "To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less." If you're looking for more wise observations about the nature of leadership, keep reading:

   • Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow. —Chinese Proverb
   • A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men. —Stephen King
   • A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. —Max Lucado
   • He who has learned how to obey will know how to command. —Solon
   • To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult. —Friedrich Nietzsche
   • It is absurd that a man should rule others who cannot rule himself. —Latin Proverb
   • A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while, on the contrary, an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops. —John J. Pershing
   • A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit. —John Maxwell
   • A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward. —Ovid
   • In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. —Thomas Jefferson
   • The supreme quality of leadership is integrity. –Dwight Eisenhower
   • Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. —Jack Welch
   • He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. —Aristotle
   • Education is the mother of leadership. —Wendell Willkie
   • Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems. —Brian Tracy
   • So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. —Peter Drucker
   • People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. —John Maxwell
   • 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
   • Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. —General Dwight Eisenhower
   • The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. —Eric Hoffer
   • To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less. —André Malraux

Section 5 of 7:

Bible Quotes & Sayings about Leadership

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1. These Bible verses on leadership explain what it really means to guide others. If you're religious and are looking for spiritual wisdom on leadership, we've got you covered. Scripture actually has a lot to say about what makes a great leader—and what makes a poor one:

   • Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. —Philippians 2:3–4
   • Where there is no vision, the people perish. —Proverbs 29:18
   • With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand. —Psalm 78:72
   • But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. —Matthew 20:26–28
   • Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. —James 3:1
   • Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. —Acts 20:28
   • So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. —Matthew 7:12
   • The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. —Proverbs 16:9
   • Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. —Luke 12:48
   • You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. —John 13:13–17
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Section 6 of 7:

Funny Quotes & Sayings about Leadership

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1. The most successful leaders have a sense of humor. It's easier to inspire and uplift your crew when you can have fun together. As iconic fictional boss Michael Scott once said, "Sometimes you have to take a break from being the kind of boss who always tries to teach people things. Sometimes you just have to be the boss of dancing." These humorous and wise adages about what it means to lead are sure to make you crack a smile—which you can then pass on to your team:

   • In most cases, being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way. —Tina Fey
   • You don’t lead by hitting people over the head—that’s assault, not leadership. —Dwight Eisenhower
   • The problem with being a leader is you’re never sure if you’re being followed or chased. —Claire A. Murray
   • Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it. —John Naisbitt
   • Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too. —Robert Half
   • It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead — and find no one there. —Franklin D. Roosevelt
   • The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on. —Robert Bloch
   • Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men — the other 999 follow women. —Groucho Marx
   • Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. —George Carlin
   • Never follow someone else’s path unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path. Then, by all means, follow that. —Ellen DeGeneres
   • A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice. —James Callaghan
   • Leadership is your ability to hide your panic from others. —Lao Tzu
   • Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy—both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me. —Michael Scott, The Office
   • Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes. —Jim Carrey
   • I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people. —Mohandas K. Gandhi
   • I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early. —Charles Lamb
   • It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse. —Adlai E. Stevenson
   • I’m not bossy. I just have better ideas and a louder voice. —Tina Fey
   • If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk. —Benjamin Hooks
   • The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it. —Elaine Agather
   • Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream. —Malcolm Muggeridge
   • Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. —Will Rogers
   • People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything. —Thomas Sewell
   • Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders. —Sloan Wilson
   • By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day. —Robert Frost
   • You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can’t sit on it for long. —Boris Yeltsin
   • Always drink upstream from the herd. —Will Rogers
   • Life is like a dog sled team. If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes. —Lewis Grizzard
   • The question, "Who ought to be boss?" is like asking, "Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?" Obviously, the man who can sing tenor. —Henry Ford
   • First rule of leadership: everything is your fault. —A Bug's Life

Section 7 of 7:

What does it mean to be a good leader?

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1. 1
   A good leader is someone people follow because they want to. Senior manager Harish Chandran says, "If you want to be a good leader, then you need to figure out how you can inspire people." Good leaders, according to Chandran, inspire people to follow them, rather than "pushing [people] in a specific direction." If you have to force people to follow you, you're not a leader, you're a bully.
2. 2
   Good leaders are authentic and honest. "Authenticity is huge," says executive, strategic, and personal coach Lauren Krasny. "I think if you're being inauthentic, it is very evident to other people, and you're just not going to show up as the best version of yourself."
3. 3
   An effective leader is humble and respects others. Humility is about being open to new ideas, respecting your followers, and always being willing to grow. "The number one thing for leaders is that they never stop learning," communications coach Maureen Taylor insists. She adds that the ideal leader realizes that "it takes other people to help you build something to make the world a better place. You can't just do it by yourself."

   • According to Taylor, a good leader must "differentiate between self-awareness and self-absorption" (she equates self-awareness with humility and self-absorption with arrogance).
   • "It's interesting because no one's arrogant unless they're insecure," she muses. "Because why would you be arrogant unless you're insecure?"
   • Wondering how to be confident without being arrogant? We've got an article on just that topic!
4. 4
   Leadership is about making the tough decisions. Scholarship and admissions counselor Jake Adams defines leadership as the "ability to take action where it's needed and also to persuade others to follow you, and doing that in a meaningful way." A good leader doesn't have to take charge of every decision (and, in fact, should probably delegate as often as they can), but they don't hesitate to take action when it comes to the hard choices—even if it makes them unpopular.
5. 5
   A good leader plays to their strengths. Certain words might come to mind when you think of the word "leadership": "outgoing," "tough," "decisive," "powerful." But Krasny believes that anyone can be a good leader if they "play to their own strengths and try to build their confidence within that realm."

   • "For example," she says, "if someone's not a dynamic speaker, would it help them to plan out a presentation, [or] create a really detailed agenda…that would enable the person to demonstrate leadership, even if they're uncomfortable with some of the conventional methods associated with being a strong leader, like swift decision-making and being really vocal?"
6. 6
   Good leaders see themselves as serving their followers—not the other way around. An effective leader doesn't consider themselves more important than or "above" their followers. Instead, they view their purpose as to help their followers achieve their highest potential and to have their best interests at heart. "When leaders do their best work…the group understands that they are not just trying to push their own agenda and ramrod something through, they're there in service to the group," says negotiation and meditation coach Jessica Notini, JD.

   • Notini adds: "Your most effective servant leaders are really deferential to the concept that the wisdom lies in the group and that they want to empower their group members to [reach] their goals together and that [they're] going to work collaboratively."
   • As former UK prime minister Benjamin Disraeli once summed it up, "I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?"
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