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Leaders and Leadership Quotes and Quotations
 He who would rule must hear and be deaf, see and be blind.  I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too. It is a characteristic of all movements and crusades that the psychopathic element rises to the top. It is much safer to obey than to rule. It is said that Mr. Gladstone could persuade most people of most things, and himself of anything. It is the characteristic excellence of the strong man that he can bring momentous issues to the fore and make a decision about them. The weak are always forced to decide between alternatives they have not chosen themselves. Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide. There are two levers for moving men - interest and fear. To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own. Achilles absent, was Achilles still. - Homer To lead the people, walk behind them. - Lao-Tzu I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people. When you come into the presence of a leader of men, you know that you have come into the presence of fire - that it is best not uncautiously to touch that man - that there is something that makes it dangerous to cross him. I've got to follow them - I am their leader. The reward of a general is not a bigger tent - but command. A leader may symbolize and express what is best in his people, like Pericles, or what is worst, like Hitler, but he cannot successfully express what is only in his heart and not in theirs. A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless. If I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me! If I advance, follow me! If I retreat, cut me down! If I die, avenge me! Follow me, if I advance; kill me if I retreat; revenge me if I die! A frightened captain makes a frightened crew. As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honour and praise. The next, the people fear, and the next the people hate. When the best leader's work is done, the people say, 'we did it ourselves!' - Lao-Tzu The slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown. He must dominate in his turn. A leader is a dealer in hope. To lead means to direct and to exact, and no man dares do either - he might be unpopular. What authority we are given now is a trinity: the grin, the generality, and God (the Word). Dictators are rulers who always look good until the last ten minutes. A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He says, 'I was beaten'; he does not say 'My men were beaten.' Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness and cunning. But all those things will be forgiven him, indeed, they will be regarded as high qualities, if he can make them the means to achieve great ends. Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers from which they dare not dismount. I have no family. My only responsibility is the welfare of Quebec. I belong to the province. It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep, than a sheep at the head of an army of lions. Where there are no tigers, a wildcat is very self-important. 'Ah, John A., John A., how I love you! How I wish I could trust you! I really believe my greatest service is in the many unwise steps I prevent. I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. I have never accepted what many people have kindly said, namely that I have inspired the nation. It was the nation and the race dwelling all around the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar. Winston has written four volumes about himself and called it 'World Crisis'. Winston Churchill - fifty per cent genius, fifty per cent bloody fool. If you shoot at a king you must kill him. The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. In Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada has at last produced a political leader worthy of assassination. Every woman's man, and every man's woman. 
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