Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

Leadership is all about right and wrong.

I suppose that an honest man shines more in politics than he does elsewhere.

Leadership is not manifested by coercion, even against the resented. Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods.

It is not true that people of high principle are ill-suited for politics.

Jimmy Carter was unquestionably the most moral president of my lifetime, but he wasn't much of a president.

The leader for today and the future will be focused on how to be - how to develop quality, character, mind-set, values, principles, and courage.

We live under a prince who is an enemy to fraud, a prince whose eyes penetrate into the heart, and whom all the art of impostors can't deceive.

Our world is very dishonest, and our leaders encourage dishonesty by setting bad examples - by lying, being corrupt, and using political sleight of hand to sustain power.

Those who are successfully to lead their fellow-men, should have once possessed the nobler feelings. We have all known individuals whose magnanimity was not likely to be troublesome on any occasion; but then they betrayed their own interests by unwisely omitting the consideration, that such feelings might exist in the breasts of those whom they had to guide and govern: for they themselves cannot even remember the time when in their eyes justice appeared preferable to expediency, the happiness of others to self-interest, or the welfare of a State to the advancement of a party.

We need moral leadership and courage in our world.

Virtually everything I learned about leadership traits and core values, I learned in the Marine Corps. To this day, I keep a list of the traits in a little black book, 14 of them, including integrity, justice, bearing, enthusiasm, endurance - all indicators you aspire to when you're a leader.

Leadership, in short, is power governed by principle, directed toward raising people to their highest levels of personal motive and social morality.

To say America can have strong leadership without strong character is to say we can get water without the wet.

... the self respect of individuals ought to make them demand of their leaders conformity with an agreed-upon code of ethics and moral conduct.

To be a great leader, first become a great person.

When we're trying to decide whether a leader is a good leader or a bad one, the question to ask is: 'Is he with the Ten Commandments or is he against them?' Then you can determine if the leader is a true messiah or another Stalin.

Will and wisdom are both mighty leaders. Our times worship will.

I want people to hear what I think about these foundational American values of personal responsibility, resilience, family and faith, there are things that people can learn from somebody who leads a state like Ohio which is, frankly, a microcosm of the country.

The practice of leadership is not the same as the exercise of power.

There are three things about Barack that really stand out for me: strength, moral authority, and wisdom. ... He has pressed the reset button on the moral authority of the entire free world.

The true gentleman does not preach what he practices till he has practiced what he preaches.

The administration of government lies in getting proper men. Such men are to be got by means of the ruler's own character. That character is to be cultivated by his treading in the ways of duty. And the treading those ways of duty is to be cultivated by the cherishing of benevolence.

Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character.

Trust is equal parts character and competence... You can look at any leadership failure, and it's always a failure of one or the other.

For centuries, faith has helped us overcome problems and helped us work to achieve a more perfect union. It has inspired the many leaders who played a key role in abolishing slavery, protecting civil rights and, hopefully one day, becoming a nation where all life from conception to natural death is protected.