31 Best Leadership Quotes that will inspire you as a leader

“Leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge.” – Simon Sinek

Leaders are people who can influence and guide others, holding various leadership roles in workplaces, volunteer organizations, and other settings. Extracting inspiration from both current and historical leaders, reading Leadership Quotes can be a valuable source. Here, we present 100 inspirational Leadership Quotes to assist you in shaping or enhancing your leadership style.

leadership quotes in English

The following are the leadership quotes in English:

“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

“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” – Warren Bennis

“The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.” – Tony Blair

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor but without folly.” – Jim Rohn

“Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.” – John C. Maxwell

“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell

“Leadership is not about being the best. It’s about making everyone else better.” – Unknown

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Unique Leadership Quotes

• “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” —Gen. Colin Powell

• “Leadership is the capacity to translate a vision into reality.” —Warren Bennis

• “To have long-term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way.” —Pat Riley

• “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage.” —Chan Master Fuchan Yuan

• “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionable integrity.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower

• “The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.” —Walter Lippmann

• “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” —Steve Jobs

• “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” —John C. Maxwell

• “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” —John Peter Zenger

Powerful Leadership Quotes

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” —John F. Kennedy

“Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.” —Brian Tracy

“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

“Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else—through hard work.” —Vince Lombardi

“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” —Henry Kissinger

“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

“Leadership is the key to 99% of all successful efforts.” —Erskine Bowles

“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” —Bill Gates

“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” —Harvey S. Firestone

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” —Margaret Fuller

“One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” —Arnold H. Glasow

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams

“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people.” —Mahatma Gandhi

“Education is the mother of leadership.” —Wendell Willkie

“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” —Jordan Belfort

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Inspiring Leadership Quotes

• “The art of communication is the language of leadership.” —James Humes
• “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” —Theodore Roosevelt
• “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.” —Bernard Baruch
• “You have to have your heart in the business and the business in your heart.” —An Wang
• “Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.” —Peter Drucker
• “Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.” —Warren Bennis
• “People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.” —Thomas Sowell
• “The greatest gift of leadership is a boss who wants you to be successful.” —Jon Taffer
• “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

Short Inspiring Leadership Quotes

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.” —Abraham Lincoln

“Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” —Bill Bradley

“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 don’t manage people, you manage things. You lead people.” —Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

“The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” —James Buchanan

“Earn your leadership every day.” —Michael Jordan

“Where there is no vision, there is no hope.” —George Washington Carver

“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 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.” —Theodore Hesburgh

“The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.” —Ken Blanchard

Leadership Quotes for Students

• “To do great things is difficult, but to command great things is more difficult.” —Friedrich Nietzsche
• “Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.” —David Joseph Schwartz
• “Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.” —Harold S. Geneen
• “Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise.” —Woodrow Wilson
• “Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.” —Jesse Jackson
• “In matters of style, swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.” —Thomas Jefferson
• “Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.” —Donald Rumsfeld
• “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” —Ken Blanchard
• “Leadership is an action, not a position.” —Donald McGannon
• “A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.” —Henry Kissinger
• “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” —the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
• “The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.” —Ray Kroc
• “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
• “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
• “A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.” —Stephen King

Humble Inspiring Leadership Quotes

“In the simplest terms, a leader is one who knows where he wants to go, and gets up and goes.” – John Erskine

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” – Gen. Colin Powell

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward

“A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see and who sees before others see.” – Leroy Eimes

“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.”– President Ronald Reagan

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – President John Quincy Adams

“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” – Bill Gates

“The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.” – George Orwell

“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

Leadership Quotes for Work

1. “What you do has far greater impact than what you say.” — Stephen Covey
2. “Make sure you’re not just waiting for someone else to fix things, or hoping that things will improve … Figure out what’s going on and make a plan to improve things.” – Kenneth W. Thomas
3. “Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy.” – U.S. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
4. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” – Gen. George S. Patton
5. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
6. “To lead people, walk beside them. As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence … When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’” – Lao Tzu
7. “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” – Arnold Glasow
8. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch
9. “Leadership is the capacity to transform vision into reality.” – Warren G. Bennis, founding chairman of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California
10. “The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.” – Walter Lippmann
11. “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” – Henry Kissinger
12. “Earn your leadership every day.” – Michael Jordan
13. “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” – President Theodore Roosevelt
14. “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” – John Buchan
15. “Always do right. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” – Mark Twain

Praising a Leader Quotes

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs

“You do not lead by hitting people over the head. That’s assault, not leadership.” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob.” – Oscar Wilde

“If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk.” – Benjamin Hooks

“You manage things; you lead people.” – Grace Murray Hopper

“The led must not be compelled. They must be able to choose their own leader.” – Albert Einstein