Quotes about Leadership

That's what the leadership was teaching me, day by day: that the self-interest I was supposed to be looking for extended well beyond the immediacy of issues, that beneath the small talk and sketchy biographies and received opinions, people carried with them some central explanation of themselves. Stories full of terror and wonder, studded with events that still haunted or inspired them. Sacred stories.

It [is] that courage that Africa most desperately needs.

I recalled a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called "The Drum Major Instinct." In it, he talks about how, deep down, we all want to be first, celebrated for our greatness; we all want "to lead the parade." He goes on to point out that such selfish impulses can be reconciled by aligning that quest for greatness with more selfless aims. You can strive to be first in service, first in love.

You have the ability and gifts to do whatever you want. It is your turn now to change the world. Yes we can!

Two hundred and thirty-two years and they wait until the country's falling apart before they turn it over to the brother!

what became abundantly clear as soon as Sarah Palin stepped into the spotlight was that on just about every subject relevant to governing the country she had absolutely no idea what the hell she was talking about.

We better win this thing or the country is screwed.

And I say to you today that we need more folks in this country who are a good crazy….You can't tell what will happen when you get folks with some good crazy…going to the polls to vote!

In few other professions are you required, each and every day, to weigh so many competing claims—between different sets of constituents, between the interests of your state and the interests of the nation, between party loyalty and your own sense of independence, between the value of service and obligations to your family. There is a constant danger, in the cacophony of voices, that a politician loses his moral bearings and finds himself entirely steered by the winds of public opinion.

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works

But know this America: we will meet them

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.