Jack Schlossberg Quotes

It's hard to be a leader when you have to make hard choices and when you have to do what's right, even though people are not going to like you for it.

Leadership is about doing what you know is right - even when a growing din of voices around you is trying to convince you to accept what you know to be wrong.

This idea that you can't be an honest man and a Washington politician is a myth, a crock made up by sellouts and careerist hacks who don't stand for anything and are impatient with people who do. It's possible to do this job with honor and dignity.

I came into office to do what was correct, not to see what was politically expedient to get re-elected.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today - and in fact we have forgotten.

There are, believe it or not, good politicians.

But on the big things, I'm not going to trim in order to win public opinion. Because I really don't want to serve in the Senate if I arrive there without permission to do the things I think need to be done.

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

We were elected to lead and sometimes we just have to do the right thing.

Men say that I am a saint losing myself in politics. The fact is that I am a politician trying my hardest to be a saint.

People hold elected officials to a higher ethical standard than most others.

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

To me, leadership has always been about doing what's right. Because when you've had to write your blood type on your boots, you aren't afraid to make the right calls.

In 'Profiles in Courage,' my grandfather, John F. Kennedy, praised leadership that put country above party, elevated principles over petty politics and promoted progress before personal interests.

It isn't polls or public opinion at the moment that counts. It is right and wrong and leadership--men with fortitude, honesty, and a belief in the right that makes epochs in the history of the world.

Leadership is not about popularity, it is about doing what is right.

A leader is useless when he acts against the promptings of his own conscience.

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.

One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.

I think the greater responsibility, in terms of morality, is where leadership begins.

You must always do what you feel is right.

If in doubt, don't. If still in doubt, do what's right.

Every time you make the hard, correct decision you become a bit more courageous, and every time you make the easy, wrong decision you become a bit more cowardly. If you are CEO, these choices will lead to a courageous or cowardly company.

In any ethical situation, the thing you want least to do is probably the right action.

The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.