Themistocles Quotes

The statesman wishes to steer, while the politician is satisfied to drift.

Politics is the art of knowing and leading a multitude ... not where they want to go but where they should go.

True statesmanship is the art of changing a nation from what it is into what it ought to be.

Whoso desireth to govern well and securely, it behoveth him to have a vigilant eye to the proceedings of great princes, and to consider seriously of their designs.

Leadership is always about change: it's not about mobilising people to do what they've always done well to continue to do it well.

With a little leadership, you'd get it in here very quickly, and it could be put to use on the inner cities and lots of other things, and it would be beautiful.

Who so taketh in hand to frame any state or government ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.

But look what we have built low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace. Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums. Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities.

The job of a leader today is not to create followers. It’s to create more leaders.

Destroy or build. Crazy or noncrazy. I'm not nostalgic about the old city. I don't enjoy it that much.

A leader without the vision, to strive to improve things, is no good. Then you will just stay put, you won't progress.

High politic is only common sense applied to great things.

Everybody in the world is capable of democratic development. Some people in the world are unlucky enough to get stuck with really bad political leadership and with really bad political institutions.

Politics is about moving forward, looking forward.

Progress does not occur without change.

"Government," says Swift, "is a plain thing, and fitted to the capacity of many heads."

The most important criteria for a DNC chair is going to be vision.

I have always believed in development over votebank politics.

Do you want to sell sugar water all your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?

The fact of the matter is, we need to have a very clear message. We haven't had that from the current president. And you've seen the violence in his home city of Chicago. This is just another example.

Leaders have followers, managers have employees. Managers make widgets, leaders make change.

Politics are the divine science, after all.

Progress requires change.

Jefferson refused to pin his hopes on the occasional success of honest and unambitious men; on the contrary, the great danger was that philosophers would be lulled into complacence by the accidental rise of a Franklin or a Washington. Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.

From Washington, proverbially "the city of distances," through all its cities, states, and territories, it is a country of beginnings, of projects, of designs, and expectations.