Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Environment Pollution Panel NULL

The pervasive nature of pollution, its disregard of political boundaries including state lines, the national character of the technical, economic and political problems involved, and the recognized Federal responsibilities for administering vast public lands which can be changed by pollution, for carrying out large enterprises which can produce pollutants, for preserving and improving the nation’s natural resources, all make it mandatory that the Federal Government assume leadership and exert its influence in pollution abatement on a national scale.

Character | Government | Influence | Nature | Problems | Public | Wisdom | Government | Leadership |

Arianna Huffington, born Arianna Stassinopoulos

The answer to the accumulating casualties of the welfare state’s “war” on poverty is the home-grown, grass-roots, all-volunteer army of ordinary people armed with food, books, skills and a determination to make a difference. The entrepreneurial creativity that catapulted this nation to a position of global leadership can now be harnessed to do for community what it did for productivity. When we provide imaginative, entrepreneurial alternatives to the welfare state, we won’t need to confront it. It will simply wither away. And the rewards of this work are a bounty of spiritual renewal: an abundance of love, meaning and connectedness.

Abundance | Books | Creativity | Determination | Global | Love | Meaning | Need | People | Position | Poverty | War | Will | Wisdom | Work | Leadership |

James MacGregor Burns

Great leadership arises out of great conflict.

Leadership |

James MacGregor Burns

Transactional leaders approach followers with an eye to exchanging one thing for another: jobs for votes, or subsidies for campaign contributions… The transforming leader looks for potential motives in followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person of the follower. The result of transforming leadership is a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that converts followers into leaders and may convert leaders into moral agents.

Looks | Motives | Relationship | Leader | Leadership |

David Cooper, fully David Graham Cooper

Perhaps the most central characteristic of authentic leadership is the relinquishing of the impulse to dominate others.

Impulse | Leadership |

Cyril Bentham Falls

The very exercise of leadership fosters capacity for it.

Capacity | Leadership |

Antony Jay, fully Sir Antony Rupert Jay

The only real training for leadership is leadership.

Training | Leadership |

Malise Ruthven

Most religions are absolutist. Claims to revelation militate against rational argument and compromise. In this sense all religions contain totalitarian possibilities; for totalitarianism, which welds the state into a single body “knit together as one man” is really the religious impulse, the worship of leadership and ideology, the cult of Person or Book, directed towards secular ends.

Argument | Body | Cult | Ends | Impulse | Man | Revelation | Sense | Worship | Leadership |

Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge

It’s not about positional power; it’s not about accomplishments; it’s ultimately not even about what we do. Leadership is about creating a domain in which human beings continually deepen their understanding of reality and become more capable of participating in the unfolding of the world. Ultimately, leadership is about creating new realities.

Power | Reality | Understanding | World | Leadership |

Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe

A true leader does not seek followers, he wants to teach others how to be leaders. He does not want control, he wants the truth. He does not impose his leadership on others, nor does he take away anyone's autonomy. He inspires by love, not coercion. When it comes time to take credit, he makes himself invisible; but he is the first to arrive at the time of need, and he will never shrink away in fear. He is so passionate about your welfare that when you consult him for guidance, it is like coming face to face with yourself for the first time.

Coercion | Control | Credit | Fear | Guidance | Love | Need | Teach | Time | Truth | Wants | Will | Leader | Leadership |

Mao Tse-tung, alternatively Zedong, Ze dong, aka Chairman Mao

The cardinal responsibility of leadership is to identify the dominant contradiction at each point of the historical process and to work out a central line to resolve it.

Contradiction | Responsibility | Work | Leadership |

Author Unknown NULL

The essence of superior leadership is the inspired application of principle to circumstance.

Circumstance | Leadership |

Indira Gandhi, fully Indirā Priyadarśinī Gāndhī

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

Means | People | Time | Leadership |

Ralph Nader

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

Leadership |

Ralph Nader

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

Leadership |

Doris Kearns Goodwin, born Doris Helen Kearns

That is what leadership is all about: staking your ground ahead of where opinion is and convincing people, not simply following the popular opinion of the moment.

Opinion | People | Following | Leadership |