50 Leadership Journey Quotes to Inspire Your Path to Success

Everyone experiences a journey in life, and leaders are no exception. Whether they’re leading a team of employees, heading up an organization, or setting their own personal goals, their journey involves challenges and inspiration alike.

To help illustrate the idea of this ever-evolving process we call leadership, here are fifty meaningful quotes that capture the essence of what it takes to be an inspirational leader on every part of the journey.

1. 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

2. Where there is no vision, the people perish. —Proverbs 29:18

3. I must follow the people. Am I not their leader? —Benjamin Disraeli

4. You manage things; you lead people. —Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

5. 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

6. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. —Warren Bennis

7. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. — General George Patton

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. A leader is a dealer in hope. —Napoleon Bonaparte

10. Education is the mother of leadership. —Wendell Willkie

11. A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. —John Maxwell

12. Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out. —Stephen Covey

13. 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

14. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. —Margaret Mead

15. The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground. —Sir Winston Churchill

16. The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. —Warren Bennis

17. To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less. —Andre Malraux

18. He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. —Aristotle

19. Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position. —Brian Tracy

20. I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. —Ralph Nader

21. Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by

results not attributes. —Peter Drucker

22. Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. —Publilius Syrus

23. A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together. —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

24. The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. —Theodore Roosevelt

25. Leadership is influence. —John C. Maxwell

26. You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case. —Ken Kesey

27. When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out. —Napoleon Bonaparte

28. 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

29. People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. —John Maxwell

30. So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. —Peter Drucker

31. The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. —Tony Blair

32. 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. —Reverend Theodore Hesburgh

33. The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. —Kenneth Blanchard

34. A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible. —Polybius

35. A great leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position. —John Maxwell

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. —Douglas MacArthur

40. A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward. —Ovid

41. 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

42. Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. —General Dwight Eisenhower

43. The leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. —Eric Hoffer

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

45. A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. —Max Lucado

46. Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. —General George Patton

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

48. 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

49. Do what you feel in your heart to be right–for you’ll be criticized anyway. —Eleanor Roosevelt

50. Don't necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership. —Donald Rumsfel

Final Note

We hope that you have found these leadership quotes inspiring and thought-provoking. Whether you’re a leader in a business, school, or other organization, remember to stay positive and focused on your vision for success.

Leadership is about integrity, influence, and action; use these words of wisdom to become the best leader you can be.