What are some of your favorite Leadership quotes? One of mine is "I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum. "~ Bishop Desmond Tutu

Winston Churchill's inaugural speech in the House of Commons on May 13, 1940 - "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat"

1. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead.

I consider this a leadership quote because it is aimed at telling ordinary citizens that they have the power to make a difference in the world. Sometimes leadership is about telling you that you matter, and telling you how you can make a difference.

2. "My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan at the House Watergate hearings in the early 1970's.

3. "Without hope, not just the gays, but blacks, the Asians, the seniors, the disabled...the Us's...without hope the Us's give up. I know you cannot live on hope alone, but without it life is not worth living. And you. And you. And you - gotta' give 'em hope." Harvey Milk

4. "I have sworn eternal hostility toward every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Thomas Jefferson

5. “It is easy enough to vote right and be consistently with the majority. But it is more often more important to be ahead of the majority and this means being willing to cut the first furrow in the ground and stand alone for a while if necessary.” Congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink of Hawai'i.

Patsy was the first woman of color ever elected to a federal office in the United States. She'd intended to be a doctor, but no medical school would admit her because she was a woman. She became a lawyer and a Member of Congress, where she authored Title IX of the Higher Education Act, which banned discrimination against women in education. The year that Patsy passed away was the first year that women were a majority (slightly) of the nation's first year law students and medical students.

Abraham Lincoln:

"So Grant gets drunk, does he?" queried Lincoln, addressing himself to one of the particularly active detractors of the soldier, who, at that period, was inflicting heavy damage upon the Confederates.


"Yes, he does, and I can prove it," was the reply.


"Well," returned Lincoln, with the faintest suspicion of a twinkle in his eye, "you needn't waste your time getting proof; you just find out, to oblige me, what brand of whiskey Grant drinks, because I want to send a barrel of it to each one of my generals."

Herbert B. Swope:
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: which is: Try to please everybody.