Ultimate List of Leadership Quotes Compiled by Truby Achievements
Last Updated on July 5, 2024 by Bill Truby
Throughout time, quotes have been used to educate, inspire, motivate, and even change behavior. Words have power. The use of relevant, well said, well-timed words make a quick and significant impact. Plus, not only do we honor the legacy of the person who has penned the words, sometimes from an ancient past, we also get to leverage those words with our use of modern distribution methods.
Quotes can be magical. Sometimes a person can mix wisdom together on a canvas of words that paint a picture never before seen. They can be beautiful. They can evoke emotion. They can stun. They can motivate.
Our collection is designed to give you many moments of pleasure, many moments of inspiration. They may work for you as a tool, providing a message you need to say to someone, or a team perhaps. YOU could speak your message. But if you use a quote, not only does it carry more credibility, it also carries more punch…and even deeper messages from the implications in how the words are said.
We are happy to share these quotes with you. Use them with no rationing. Let them help you change your world.
34 Quotes About Leadership
- “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker
- “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.” -Brian Tracy
- “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” -Harvey S. Firestone
- “In 30 years of travel and training leaders –164 nations – I’ve never met anyone who didn’t need massive doses of love.” – Rick Warren
- “In 35 yrs of leading I’ve been afraid at every major step but I DID IT ANYWAY since I REFUSE to let fear run my life.” – Rick Warren
- “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” -Ralph Nader
- “Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership.” -James Humes
- “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
- “All leaders are learners. The moment you stop learning, you stop leading. I learn as much as I can, from as many as I can, as often as I can.” – Rick Warren
- “The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been.” -Henry Kissinger
- “The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.” -Ray Kroc
- “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.”–Peter F. Drucker
- “Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” -Bill Bradley
- “A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them.”– M. D. Arnold
- “Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.” -Seth Godin
- “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
- “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
- “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” – John Zenger
- “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” -Arnold Glasow
- “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” -Warren G. Bennis
- “A leader is a person you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself.” -Joel Barker
- “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” -John Maxwell
- “Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.” -Brian Tracy
- “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” -John F. Kennedy
- “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
- “You manage things; you lead people.” -Grace Murray Hopper
- “A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs.” – Robert Townsend
- “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 F. Drucker
- “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
- “Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar.” -Orrin Woodward
- “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
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” –Mark Twain
- “Don’t hold people accountable. Lead accountable people.” – Bill Truby
15 Quotes About Management
- “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” – Henry Ford
- “Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.” – Henry Ford
- Management by objective works – if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you haven’t” – Peter Drucker
- “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” – Plato
- “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” – Stephen Covey
- “My style will be management by being on the street, management by walking around. Third persons won’t have to tell me what’s going on in our city. I’ll hear it, I’ll see it, I’ll touch it myself.”– Carl Stokes
- “Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.” – John C. Maxwell
- “Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.” ― Paul Hawken
- “Management is all about managing in the short term, while developing the plans for the long term.” – Jack Welch
- “Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.” – Tom Peters
- “Start with the end in mind.” – Steven Covey
- “What’s measured improves.” – Peter Drucker
- “In the minds of great managers, consistent poor performance is not primarily a matter of weakness, stupidity, disobedience, or disrespect. It is a matter of miscasting.” – Marcus Buckingham
- “Management is, above all, a practice where art, science, and craft meet.” – Henry Mintzberg
- “A man who wants to lead an orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.” – Max Lucado
21 Quotes About Business, Business Success, or Success In General
- “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill
- “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
- “Live like it’s your last day on earth, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching, work like you don’t need the money…’ – Tony Robbins
- “Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less. If you focus on others, you forget you.” – Rick Warren
- “Being rich is having money, being wealthy is having time.” – Margaret Bonnan
- “Victory belongs to the most persevering.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
- “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” – Henry Ford
- “I find life an exciting business – and most exciting when it is lived for others.” – Helen Keller
- “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.” – Kahlil Gibran
- “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
- “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs
- “There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them.” – Seth Godin
- “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt
- “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell
- “I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.” – Jeff Bezos
- “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” – Sam Walton
- “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” –Wayne Gretzky
- “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” – Scott Belsky
- “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs
- “You’ll never do anything creative, innovative or world changing if you fear criticism. Pioneers are easy targets for arrows!” – Rick Warren
- “Success isn’t about the end result; it’s about what you learn along the way.”– Vera Wang
15 Quotes About Knowledge
- “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” – Albert Einstein
- “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Ben Franklin
- “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” – Confucius
- “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” – Albert Einstein
- “Knowledge has a beginning but no end.” – Geeta Iyengar
- “Be a lifelong student. The more you learn, the more you earn and more self-confidence you will have.” – Brian Tracy
- “The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.” – Robert Greene
- “Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.” – Charlie Munger
- “Knowledge is like a garden; if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.” – Proverb
- “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. – Albert Einstein
- “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.” – Epictetus
- “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.” – Margaret Fuller
- “Know that you don’t know. That is superior.” – Lao Tzu
- “The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.” – Frank Herbert
- “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” – Albert Einstein
19 Quotes About Communication
- “Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we speak.” – Epictetus
- “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” – Mother Teresa
- “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss
- “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” – Mother Teresa
- “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” – Peter Drucker
- “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” – Anthony Robbins
- “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw
- “Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read.” – Mark Twain
- “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” – Mark Twain
- “Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “Communication is your ticket to success, if you pay attention and learn to do it effectively.” – Theo Gold
- “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” – Plato
- “A lot of problems in the world would be solved if we talked to each other instead of about each other.” – Nickey Gumbel
- “If A equals success, then the formula is A=XYZ. X is work, Y is play, Z is keep your mouth shut.” – Albert Einstein
- When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” – Ernest Hemingway
- “Communication works for those who work at it.” – John Powell
- Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.” – Brian Tracy
- “Communication sometimes is not what you first hear, listen not just to the words, but listen for the reason.” – Catherine Pulsifer
- “Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.” – Walt Disney
16 Quotes About Change
- “I believe each human being has the potential to change, to transform one’s own attitude, no matter how difficult the situation.” – Dalai Lama
- “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein
- “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can’ and wisdom to know the difference.” – Reinhold Niebuhr
- “If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said ‘Don’t change anything.’ ” – Henry Ford
- “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change” -Albert Einstein
- “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new” -Socrates
- “Things don’t have to change the world to be important” -Steve Jobs
- “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” -Nelson Mandela
- “Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past and present are certain to miss the future” -John F. Kennedy
- “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” -Leo Tolstoy
- “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” -Maya Angelou
- “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” -Harriet Tubman
- “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” -Barack Obama
- “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin
- “Love change, fear staying the same.” – Maxime Lagacé
- “Remember, brick walls let us show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who do not really want to achieve their dreams. Don’t bail.” – Randy Pausch
31 Quotes About Mindset
- “No one has the right, or the ability, to take away your power of choice.” – Bill Truby
- “If you can’t do anything about it, it doesn’t exist.” – Bill Truby’s Dad
- “The most important step you will ever take, is your next one. In truth, you are not walking from point A to Z, you are walking from point A to B. Be mindful of “Z” – but step to “B”.” – Bill Truby
- “It’s the frame of mind that enhances the picture of our experience.” – Bill Truby
- “Never has there been a tomorrow that hasn’t been affected by your today… Choose wisely.” – Bill Truby
- “Focus on what you want, and what you don’t want fades away. Focus on what you don’t want – the opposite is true.” – Bill Truby
- “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein
- “Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it.” – Salvador Dali
- “A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” – Gandhi
- “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” – Isaac Asimov
- “The Pessimist complains about the wind. The Optimist expects it to change. The Leader adjusts the sails.” – John Maxwell
- “It’s not what happens to you but how you react to it that matters.” – Epictetus
- “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.” – William James
- “You want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” – Dalai Lama
- “Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission.” – Zig Ziglar
- “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I do not believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they cannot find them, make them.” – George Bernard Shaw
- “Happiness doesn’t depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions.” – Dale Carnegie
- “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.” – William James
- “Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect.” – Leonardo da Vinci
- “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Persistence guarantees that results are inevitable.”– Paramahansa Yogananda
- “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
- “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them … into the impossible.” – Arthur C. Clarke
- “Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions.” – Tony Robbins
- If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.” – Thomas J. Watson
- “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” – Mary Kay Ash
- “Every day the clock resets. Your wins don’t matter. Your failures don’t matter. Don’t stress on what was, fight for what could be.“ -Sean Higgins
- “Lost time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin
- “Perseverance is not a long race. It’s many short races one after another.” – Walter Elliot
- “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin
- “Keys to happiness: Something to do. Someone to love. Something to look forward to.” – Unknown Author (attribute to multiple historical figures)
15 Quotes About Integrity
- “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.” – Richard Bach
- “The time is always right to do what is right.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
- “The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” – Socrates
- “Character is much easier kept than recovered.” – Thomas Paine
- “In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.” – Thomas Jefferson
- “Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.” -David Star Jordan
- “Doing what is right isn’t the problem. It is knowing what is right.” – Lyndon B Johnson“
- It is true that integrity alone won’t make you a leader, but without integrity you will never be one.” – Zig Ziglar
- In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.” – Warren Buffet
- “People of integrity and honesty not only practice what they preach, they are what they preach.” – David A. Bednar
- “Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” – Samuel Johnson
- “Honor your commitments with integrity.” – Les Brown
- “When you are able to maintain your own highest standards of integrity – regardless of what others may do – you are destined for greatness.” – Napolean Hill
- “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” – C. S. Lewis
- “Image is what people think we are. Integrity is what we really are.” – John C. Maxwell
17 Quotes About Mistakes, Failure, Anger or Quitting
- “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius
- “When I was young I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures, so I did ten times more work.” – George Bernard Shaw
- “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
- “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” – Henry Ford
- “Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.” – Henry Ford
- “I have failed many times, and that’s why I am a success.” – Michael Jordan
- “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.” – Lance Armstrong
- “One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.” – Henry Ford
- “A man’s life is interesting primarily when he has failed–I well know. For it’s a sign that he tried to surpass himself.” – Georges Clemenceau
- “I’d rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate.” – George F. Burns
- “The greatest remedy for anger is delay.” – Seneca
- “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein
- When angry, count to ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.” – Thomas Jefferson
- “In the midst of great joy do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger do not answer anyone’s letter.” – Chinese proverb
- “You cannot get ahead while you’re getting even.” – Dick Armey
- “Hating people is burning down your own house to get rid of the rat.” – Harry Emerson Fosdick
- “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” -Winston Churchill
25 Quotes About Inspiration or Life in General
- “When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Christopher Columbus
- “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller
- “So many people tiptoe through life, so carefully, to arrive, safely, at death.” – Jermaine Evans
- “From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.” – Arthur Ashe
- “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” – The Dalai Lama
- “Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.” – William James
- “We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls.” – Winston Churchill
- “Ninety percent of life is just showing up.” – Woody Allen
- “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “To reach a port we must sail – sail, not tie at anchor – sail, not drift.” – Franklin Roosevelt
- “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” – Samuel Johnson
- “While it is well enough to leave footprints on the sand of time, it is even more important to make sure they point in a commendable direction.” – James Branch Cabell
- “If Work and family are at the center of our lives, the foundation of our dignity as a free people.” – Ronald Reagan
- “The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty and truth.” – Albert Einstein
- “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.” – Mother Teresa
- “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, and then stand firm.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
- “A hundred times a day, I remind myself that my inner and outer life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am receiving.” – Albert Einstein
- “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” – Sir Isaac Newton
- “The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” – Chinese proverb
- “There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein
- “I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Resources to Improve Your Leadership or Management Skills
Quotes are one tool leaders use. But there are tons of other leadership tools, resources, teachings, and methodologies we can offer you. Here are two we would recommend.
1. The Power in the Chair
Like an inspirational quote, this video will move you. It is a short presentation by Bill Truby about the, often unknown, hidden power in the leadership role. This is a video you that will not only change you for the better, it is a message you will be talking about for a long time.
Watch the Power in the Chair Video Now
2. Leadership Masterclass – How to be a Confident & Respected Leader
Learn how to:
- Maximize the power in the leadership role so your team members KNOW what to do next, and collectively accelerate success. The sense of responsibility for reaching business goals broadens beyond just you.
- Implement our proven 8-step business system (Truby Management System) that analyzes, organizes, and energizes your business practices and team processes. Efficiency and smooth operations become a day-to-day reality.
- Build a high-performing team of accountable people, each feeling the pride of ownership in their role and achievements. Your time needed to deal with “petty people problems” falls to practically zero.
Learn More about the FREE Leadership Masterclass
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Bill Truby
Founder and President of Truby Achievements
