Cornel West Quotes

Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.

You can't be around Oprah and not have her influence you, and I don't mean that because she's doling out the free advice. I mean it because she is someone that leads with truth and follows her heart. She's a force.

Enlightened leadership is spiritual if we understand spirituality not as some kind of religious dogma or ideology but as the domain of awareness where we experience values like truth, goodness, beauty, love and compassion, and also intuition, creativity, insight and focused attention.

There is no force more liberating than the knowledge that you are fighting for others.

The highest ideals are human intelligence, creativity and love. Respect these above all.

Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth.

Remarkable contributions are typically spawned by a passionate commitment to transcendent values such as beauty, truth, wisdom, justice, charity, fidelity, joy, courage and honor.

Leadership is about being a servant first.

Leadership is service to others.

My purpose is to share in any way what I learned, like, 'Girl, I went through this, so now you don't have to go through the same thing.'

A mentor is someone with a willingness to help others, who has a capacity to inspire, a determination to work hard, a clear sense of vision, an inspiring purpose, a deep sense of integrity and an appreciation for joy.

I think every leader must possess vision, and they absolutely have to have a heart of service.

I saw the suffering and I let myself feel it… I saw the injustice and was compelled to do something about it. I changed from being a nun who only prayed for the suffering world to a woman with my sleeves rolled up, living my prayer.

People learn to lead because they care about something.

To be a teacher you have to have a very giving, selfless personality. I don't think I'm that selfless and giving.

Jesse Jackson is a leader and a teacher who can open our hearts and open our minds and stir our very souls.

The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.

The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenseless. He stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.

At the end of the day, we need a leader who thinks with his head but leads with his heart.

I learned that leadership is about falling in love with the people and the people falling in love with you. It is about serving the people with selflessness, with sacrifice, and with the need to put the common good ahead of personal interests.

My daughter is one of my greatest inspirations. She's an environmentalist, she plays piano, she's raising money for the earthquake victims in Nepal. Every day she surprises me and teaches me something.

Like you do about Nelson Mandela, you can't help feeling the guy's a good man.

Somebody has to stand when other people are sitting. Somebody has to speak when other people are quiet.

It's very important in a leadership role not to place your ego at the foreground and not to judge everything in relationship to how your ego is fed.

Obviously, Jay-Z is one of the greatest entertainers of the world today. Not only is he a remarkable rhetorical genius, he's also a man of deep sympathy and empathy for those who are lost and vulnerable, but especially under-educated youth of all cultures and stripes.