Leadership quotes
(...) when a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.
99% of failures come from people who make excuses.
A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things.
A conservative is a man who sits and thinks, mostly sits.
A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.
A disordered currency is one of the greatest political evils.
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
A government afraid of its citizens is a Democracy. Citizens afraid of government is tyranny!
A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments.
A leader leads by example, not by force
A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.
A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.
A politician divides mankind into two classes: tools and enemies.
A tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men, elected by no one, and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by government.
A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.
Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.
Action expresses priorities.
Actual aristocracy cannot be abolished by any law: all the law can do is decree how it is to be imparted and who is to acquire it.
All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.
Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last.
An aristocracy in a republic is like a chicken whose head has been cut off; it may run about in a lively way, but in fact it is dead.
An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.
Any cook should be able to run the country.
Any excuse will serve a tyrant.
Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.
Appearances matter and remember to smile.
As government expands, liberty contracts.
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.
Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
Before you can control conditions, you must first control yourself.
Better to die fighting for freedom than be a prisoner all the days of your life.
Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.
By 2000, politics will simply fade away. We will not see any political parties.
Can a nation be free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot.
Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.
Capitalists are no more capable of self-sacrifice than a man is capable of lifting himself up by his own bootstraps.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
Confronted with the choice, the American people would choose the policeman's truncheon over the anarchist's bomb.
Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
Democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.
Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who'll get the blame.
Democracy is the road to socialism.
Democracy is...the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.
Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.
Dictators never invent their own opportunities.
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock.
Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.
Don't fight forces, use them.
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people...they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune.
Enemies make you stronger, allies make you weaker.
Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption.
Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.
Every man who repeats the dogma of Mill that one country is no fit to rule another country must admit that one class is not fit to rule another class.
Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man's life.
Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women.
Example is leadership.
Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.
Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.
Fascism is capitalism in decay.
Fear is the foundation of most governments.
For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.
Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.
Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.
Getting people to like you is merely the other side of liking them.
Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself - that is my doctrine.
Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.
God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it.
Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.
Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. The course of history shows us that as a government grows, liberty decreases.
Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and fearful master.
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other.
Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.
He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it
He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.
He who talks more is sooner exhausted.
He who tampers with the currency robs labour of its bread.
Hence 'the overthrow of government' as a coercive power, thereby denying God in another form.
How do you tell a Communist? Well, its someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? Its someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.
I am not an Athenian nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.
I don't think marriage is a civil right, but I think that being able to transfer property is a civil right.
I fight on. I fight to win.
I never expect men to give us liberty. No, women, we are not worth it until we take it.
I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
I'm not a member of any organized party, I'm a Democrat.
I'm not hard, I'm frightfully soft. But I will not be hounded.
I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
If given the choice between Righteousness and Peace, I choose Righteousness.
If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else again.
If you ever injected truth into politics you would have no politics.
If you make peaceful revolution impossible you make violent revolution inevitable
If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed
If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.
Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another.
In a war of ideas, it is people who get killed.
In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.
In politics, If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.
In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.
In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.
Information is the currency of democracy.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
It has been said that Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
It is hardly possible to build anything if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevail.
It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.
It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.
It is not because men's desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.
It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.
It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you'll do things differently.
Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
Law and order are the medicine of the body politic and when the body politic gets sick, medicine must be administered.
Law describes the way things would work if men were angels.
Lead from the back and let others believe they are in front
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Let my enemies devour each other.
Let them call me a rebel and welcome. I feel no concern from it. But should I suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul.
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when youmove, fall like a thunderbolt.
Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality.
Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of government is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of government, not the increase of it.
Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.
Men are Moved by two levers only: fear and self interest
Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
More men have been elected between Sundown and Sunup than ever were elected between Sunup and Sundown.
Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.
Never exceed your rights, and they will soon become unlimited.
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
Never tell your enemy he is doing the wrong thing.
No government can be long secure without a formidable opposition.
No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.
No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.
Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
One revolution is like one cocktail, it just gets you organized for the next.
Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country.
Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
Political tyranny is nothing compared to the social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies Government.
Politics begin where the masses are, not where there are thousands, but where there are millions, that is where serious politics begin.
Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with.
Politics have no relation to morals.
Politics is more dangerous than war, for in war you are only killed once.
Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.
Purity of speech, of the mind, of the senses, and of a compassionate heart are needed by one who desires to rise to the divine platform.
Quitting is leading too.
Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.
Say what you have to say and the first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending - sit down.
So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you.
Sometimes opportunities float right past your nose. Work hard, apply yourself, and be ready. When an opportunity comes you can grab it.
Sometimes you have to pick the Gun up to put the Gun down
Speaking generally, punishment hardens and numbs, it produces concentration, it sharpens the consciousness of alienation, it strengthens the power of resistance.
Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.
That is why we fight - in hopes of a day when we no longer need to.
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.
The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.
The defence of our rights and our dignity, as well as efforts never to let ourselves to be overcome by the feeling of hatred - this is the road we have chosen.
The Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.
The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.
The lady's not for turning.
The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people.
The more you read about politics, the more you got to admit that each party is worse than the other.
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.
The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.
The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.
The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance.
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.
The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
The seed of revolution is repression.
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.
The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property
The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first and love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
The upward course of a nation's history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its average men and women.
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.
There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Think thousands time before taking a decision but - after taking decision never turn back even if you get thousands difficulties.
This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are.
Those of us who have been privileged to receive education, skills, and experiences and even power must be role models for the next generation of leadership.
Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.
Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
To lead the people, walk behind them.
Understanding can overcome any situation, however mysterious or insurmountable it may appear to be.
Universal education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for its own destruction.
Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.
Votes do not fall from the trees like ripe plums. They have to be fought for.
We are in bondage to the law in order that we may be free.
We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.
We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.
We have the means and the capacity to deal with our problems, if only we can find the political will.
We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.
We hold our heads high, despite the price we have paid, because freedom is priceless.
We know the road to freedom has always been stalked by death.
We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.
We tend to get what we expect.
We, and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees
What distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their inability to act according to their beliefs.
When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.
When everything has to be right, something isn't.
When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.
When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.
When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not Guilty'.
When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff.
Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.
While the State exists there can be no freedom; when there is freedom there will be no State.
Whoever controls the media, controls the mind
Wise men say nothing in dangerous times.
You can never stop and as older people, we have to learn how to take leadership from the youth and I guess I would say that this is what I'm attempting to do right now.
You can't let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.
You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.
You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.
You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker
You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.
