In order to be a great leader, you need to be able to motivate and inspire those who are following you. These leadership quotes will help get you started on the right foot. They provide valuable insight into what it takes to be an effective leader, and will remind you of the importance of your role.

The best leadership quotes

1. Life isn’t easy, and leadership is harder still. — Walter Russell Mead

2. I wake up starving for success, and no matter how much I accomplish I go to sleep striving for improvement; I refuse to let my enemies outwork me. — Noel DeJesus, 44 Days of Leadership

3. I have always had confidence in our front line F.B.I. personnel as well as the F.B.I. leadership. — Tom Cotton

4. But 85 percent of the mosques have extremist leadership in this country. Most Muslims, the overwhelming majority of Muslims, are loyal Americans. — Peter T. King

5. Great leadership is not the visit of an unexpected fate but rather a flame which is kept burning in spite of the winds of risk and opposition. — Mary Anne Radmacher

6. Teach For America is working hard to be one significant source of the leadership we need. — Wendy Kopp

7. Earn your leadership every day. — Michael Jordan

8. It’s mystifying to me why the House leadership will not allow a straight up–or–down vote on a pay raise. I vote against every pay raise because taxpayers deserve better. — Sam Graves

9. I think playing cricket taught me more about working in teams and leadership that has stayed with me throughout my career. — Satya Nadella

10. There is no greater name for a leader than mother or father. There is no leadership more important than parenthood. — Sheri L. Dew

11. Remember that mentor leadership is all about serving. — Tony Dungy

12. What are you doing for others is the ultimate end of true leadership. — kamil Toume

13. Leadership is not about control but service. Its not about power but empowerment — Myles Munroe

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

15. Francis Ford Coppola is completely unconventional. He has a strong sense of loyalty. Great eyes. It’s a diabolical undertaking in terms of organization and leadership. — Tom Waits

16. I understand from experience that unity is easy to call for, but it takes the right kind of leadership to achieve. — Steve Scalise

17. I think playing cricket taught me more about working in teams and leadership that has stayed with me throughout my career. — Satya Nadella

18. If a guy is intimidated by a woman in leadership, he has real problems with his own concepts of masculinity. That’s a harsh statement, but I believe it to be true. — Tony Campolo

19. Nobody in a leadership level in American politics is trying to inspire the American people. Everybody needs to be goosed. The vast majority of people are not self–starters. — Rush Limbaugh

20. This is not a political issue. I know Florida’s leadership has talked about a real commitment to helping our veterans. Now it’s time for them to show it. — Ted Deutch

21. I believe most of the public should be involved in the election of the leadership. — Tzipi Livni

22. The art of effective leadership is about navigating the dynamics of growth and success… holding a vision and leading a team, but arriving at the same time. — Steve Maraboli

23. The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. — Theodore M. Hesburgh

24. We need not just a new generation of leadership but a new gender of leadership — William J. Clinton

25. True leadership is measured by what happens after you die. — Myles Munroe

26. When a leader replaces the value of selfless service with selfish ambition they have officially regressed back into a boss. — Noel DeJesus, 44 Days of Leadership

27. A wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. — Mike Huckabee

28. Choice is the grease in the gears of success. — Todd Stocker, Becoming The Fulfilled Leader: 10 Personal Leadership Principles Learned Through An Unlikely Friendship

29. Be Chris LeDoux, Not Garth Brooks — Miles Anthony Smith, Why Leadership Sucks™ Fundamentals of Level 5 Leadership and Servant Leadership

30. Next time you’re about to call your daughter bossy, take a deep breath and say, ‘My daughter has executive leadership skills.’ — Sheryl Sandberg

31. Well, I think that–I think leadership’s always been about two main things: imagination and courage. — Paul Keating

32. The greatest challenge of Leadership maintaining personal conviction in a globalized world. — Myles Munroe

33. In leadership, skills may take you where character won’t keep you. — Mike Ayers, Power to Lead: Five Essentials for the Practice of Biblical Leadership

34. In many ways, Mitt Romney and I are very different. Different starts in life. Different paths to leadership. Different cultures. — Susana Martinez

35. As a country and as a world, we are not comfortable with women in leadership roles. We call little girls bossy. — Sheryl Sandberg

36. Leadership is not about the next election, it’s about the next generation. — Simon Sinek

37. In a servant leadership culture we learn by choice or example that if we want to be great, we have to serve others respectfully. — Vern Dosch, Wired Differently

38. Leadership is bringing people into new realms of excellence and challenging them to become distinguished in their chosen field. — Onyi Anyado

39. Real leadership is not seeking the applause from followers — real leadership is applauding the followers who become leaders.

40. Well, I’ve ruffled a few feathers at all the institutions I’ve led. But I think that’s part of leadership. — Robert M. Gates

41. The purpose of leadership is to change the world around you in the name of your values, so you can live those values more fully. — Stan Slap

42. The shortest distance to leadership is service. — Myles Munroe

43. There’s a conspiracy going on online every day between these top U.K. individuals within ISIS leadership out of Syria. — Mike McCaul

44. Real leadership is not seeking the applause from followers — real leadership is applauding the followers who become leaders.

45. Leadership matters and solving things before a crisis is important. — Newt Gingrich

46. I wake up starving for success, and no matter how much I accomplish I go to sleep striving for improvement; I refuse to let my enemies outwork me. — Noel DeJesus, 44 Days of Leadership

47. True leadership is measured by what happens after you die. — Myles Munroe

48. Leadership success is measured by the success of your successor. — Myles Munroe

49. More and More I come to loathe any dominion of one over another; any leadership, any imposition of the will. — Virginia Woolf

50. When I was growing up, we were taught in school that North Koreans, and especially the North Korean leadership, were all devils. — Park Chan–wook

Conclusion

Leadership is not about being in charge; it’s about taking care of those in your charge. Leadership is about inspiring others to believe in themselves and to strive for greatness. It’s about having the courage to take risks and the willingness to put yourself in uncomfortable positions. Great leaders understand that it’s not about them, it’s about what they can do to help those they lead. We can all learn from these wise words of leadership and strive to embody them in our own lives.