Stepping into a leadership role is rewarding. You’re entrusted to shape culture, chart a strategic direction, and inspire those around you.
Yet, it can also be lonely at the top. You might assemble a circle of confidants, but the ultimate responsibilities and pressures are uniquely yours. The good news is you’re not alone—even if it feels like it. You’re part of a rich lineage of leaders who’ve navigated similar challenges, and many have passed down practical wisdom. Their words can help you embrace the complexities of your position—stay motivated and celebrate your power to make positive change.
68 leadership quotes for business owners
These leadership quotations distill what some of history’s greatest leaders have learned about how to lead—and why authentic leadership matters. Look to them all for inspiration or browse by category to find motivational quotes that resonate:
Quotes that define leadership
1. “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
2. “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower
3. “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” —Bill Bradley
4. “Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.” —Seth Godin
5. “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
6. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” —Steve Jobs
7. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” —Warren Bennis
8. “The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.” —Tony Blair
9. “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
10. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” —Napoleon Bonaparte
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Quotes about leadership qualities
11. “Knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can do.” —Lucille Ball
12. “Mastery is great, but even that is not enough. You have to be able to change course without a bead of sweat, or remorse.” —Tom Peters
13. “Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see, whether anyone is following them.” —John Holt
14. “If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
15. “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” —Arnold Glasow
16. “Becoming a great leader doesn’t mean being perfect. It means living with your imperfections.” —Lolly Daskal
17. “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” —Kenneth Blanchard
18. “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” —Jim Rohn
19. “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” —John Peter Zenger
20. “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.” —Peter Drucker
21. “All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: It was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.” —John Kenneth Galbraith
22. “To lead people, walk beside them. As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.”—Lao Tzu
23. “A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible.” —Polybius
24. “The greatest leader is the one who recognizes how small he/she is, extracts strength from humility and experience from weaknesses.” —Augusto Cury
Leadership and collaboration
25. “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
26. “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” —Arnold H. Glasow
27. “Without community, there is no liberation.” —Audre Lorde
28. “A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary, an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops.” —John J. Pershing
29. “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
30. “You cannot manage men into battle. You manage things; you lead people.” —Grace Murray Hopper
31. “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt
32. “A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
33. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”
—Albert Schweitzer
34. “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” —Nelson Mandela
Leadership and perseverance
35. “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” —Publilius Syrus
36. “Go over, under, through, and opinions will change organically when you’re the boss. Or they won’t. Who cares? Do your thing, and don’t care if they like it.” —Tina Fey
37. “The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.” —John Maxwell
38. “The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action—an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign—even as the rest of the world wonders why you’re not marching in step with the status quo.” —Bill Taylor
39. “Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.” —Stephen Covey
40. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
Leadership quotes about wisdom and passion
41. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” —John F. Kennedy
42. “Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.” —Diogenes of Sinope
43. “You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.” ―Steve Jobs
44. “Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” —Madam C. J. Walker
45. “The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born—that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” —Warren Bennis
46. “Isn’t this the purpose of education, to learn the nature of your own gifts and how to use them for good in the world?” —Robin Wall Kimmerer
47. “A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.” —John Maxwell
48. “Men make history and not the other way around. 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
Leadership and inspiring others
49. “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
50. “No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.”—Abraham Lincoln
51. “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
52. “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” —Sam Walton
53. “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” —Ralph Nader
54. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” —William Arthur Ward
55. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” ―John Quincy Adams
56. “The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.” —Ken Blanchard
57. “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 Drucker
Leadership and integrity
58. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
59. “He who has great power should use it lightly.” —Seneca
60. “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” ―Peter Drucker
61. “The best form of saying is being.” ―Che Guevarra
62. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead
63. “Great leaders instill a sense of meaning and belonging in their followers by putting the personal imprint of who they are and what they stand for on their people.” ―Kevin Leman
64. “Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day.” —Jesse Jackson
65. “Positive leaders stay grounded in ethical values and use a human growth mindset. They are fixed and flexible at the same time, never straying from ethics but always willing to change with the times.” —Linda Fisher Thornton
66. “We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.” —Whoopi Goldberg
67. “Give light and people will find the way.” —Ella Baker
68. “Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.” —Chinese Proverb
Leadership quotes FAQ
What is a strong quote about leadership?
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams
How can leaders find inspiration?
Find inspiration studying leaders you admire, networking with other business leaders, and reading leadership books like Alfred Lansing’s Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage or Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration.
What makes a good leader?
Good leaders possess the following skills:
- Competence
- Clear communication
- Sound judgment and decision-making
- Resilience for adversity and uncertainty
- Self-awareness
- The ability to turn your vision into decisive action
