Paul Kagame Quotes

[Referring to his successor:] The present imbecile chief.

Politics and power is a realm of relative influence.

In most companies, the formal hierarchy is a matter of public record - it's easy to discover who's in charge of what. By contrast, natural leaders don't appear on any organization chart.

Of course it's not enough to be a good man to be an effective ruler and it never has been.

No one is king by his own power.

The trouble with modern democracy is that men do not approach to leadership until they have lost the desire to lead anyone.

I lead my party. He [John Major] follows his.

If Advaniji did not want, I would never have been Prime Minister.

It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country [America].

The smaller the number and the more permanent and conspicuous the station of men in power, the stronger must be the interest which they will individually feel in whatever concerns the government.

A leader leads from in front, by the power of example. A ruler pushes from behind, by means of the club, the whip, the power of fear.

No state, no government exists. What does in fact exist is a man, or a few men, in power over many men.

By the time you become the leader of a country, someone else makes all the decisions.

Putin doesn't conduct elections in the Western sense of elections. This is more accurately probably described as a plebiscite, where people are supposed to express their support for him. The Russian system is not unique in this respect, but it is rather interesting. Here, in the West, the impression that people have is that Putin runs the whole country. This is not so, at all. To a certain extent, you could say that he runs the Kremlin, and this means that it's, in some situations, hard to tell whether it's him running the Kremlin, or the people around him running him.

He (Gorton) is not fit to hold the great office of Prime Minister.

The leadership definitely have to come from the leaders.

I'm not a dictator who writes things to tell people what to do.

I'm not the type of guy to go out and just say, 'Hey, I'm raising my fist to do this and do that.' I don't think I'm that type of guy. I wasn't a leader the way other people may have wanted me to be.

Power is neither good nor evil.

Some are born leaders, some achieve leadership, and some have leadership thrust upon them. Which of these are you, or would you rather not bother?

Leadership is influence. To the extent we influence others, we lead them.

Governors should be defined not just by what they do and say, but who they surround themselves with.

Personally I have never been able to understand why the head of a big business, whether it be the Nation, the State or the Army, or Navy should not desire to have very strong and positive people under him.

I think Americans expect optimism in their leadership. The most popular and effective leaders, whether it was Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan or Jack Kennedy, brought to it a sense of optimism and possibility.

A man who tells you to follow him, will turn his followers into his company. While a true leader who does not tell you to follow him, will sit in the company of his followers.