The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon.

Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led.

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born.

The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.

Leaders learn by leading, and they learn bestby leading in the face of obstacles. As weather shapes mountains, problems shape leaders.

You are your own raw material. When you know what you consist of and what you want to make of it, then you can invent yourself.

Find the appropriate balance of competing claims by various groups of stakeholders. All claims deserve consideration but some claims are more important than others.

Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.

Leaders must earn the trust of their teams, their organizations, and their stakeholders before attempting to engage their support.

Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.

Trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and leaders together.

The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men!

Failure is inevitable, and that the key to success is not dodging every bullet but being able to recover quickly.

There is a difference between eating and drinking for strength and from mere gluttony.

I would rather trust my child to a serpent than to a teacher who does not believe in God.

And if I didn’t, I’d spend the rest of my life wondering who I could have turned into if only I’d had the guts to try.

Consider the difference between the first and third person in poetry [...] It's like the difference between looking at a person and looking through their eyes.

Freedom is not doing what you want when you want. Freedom is the power to do what has to be done when it needs to be done.

The exhibitionist loves to flirt with shame

Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages.

There is no wisdom without mastery over the mystery of our internal world, the world that opens the door to understanding others.