Lakhdar Brahimi Quotes

The most important thing about power is to make sure you don't have to use it.

If you want respect, you earn it in politics. You don't get it because you are some form of bloody emperor in a toga.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

Influence is like a savings account. The less you use it, the more you've got.

Let them hate as long as they fear.

The influence of the leaders is due in very small measure to the arguments they employ, but in a large degree to their prestige. The best proof of this is that, should they by any circumstance lose their prestige, their influence disappears.

Authority may be as much injured by words as by actions.

To be vested with enormous authority is a fine thing; but to have the on-looking world consent to it is a finer.

You're not a leader if you haven't been elected.

I helped to restore America's leadership.

Trust comes before strength, and it becomes a conduit of influence. Your strength is a little bit threatening before people trust you.

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable.

When Shonda Rhimes calls, you feel like you get called into the principal's office a little bit, and you think, 'Maybe I better take that call.'

If your people don't really believe or respect you, if you don't have the moral authority to rule, then your goose is cooked.

It is a great matter to be in authority over others; for authority, if it be rightly used, will make you feared beyond your actual resources.

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. All leaders whose fitness is questioned are clearly lacking in force.

Force is legitimate where gentleness avails not.

I mean, there was a portion, of course, that I think, when I look back now, that there was a portion of what attracted me must have been the awe of him being a powerful man in this environment, not to take away from who he is as a real person.

In order to be respected, authority has got to be respectable.

A quotation in a speech, article or book is like a rifle in the hands of an infantryman. It speaks with authority.

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.

A titled leader relies heavily on positional power to get things done; a natural leader is able to mobilize others without the whip of formal authority.

I feel a lot of people listen to what I have to say.

The greatest power is not money power, but political power.