This July 4th holiday will mark the United States of America’s semiquincentennial, or the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Like many leadership enthusiasts, I enjoy examining the pivotal choices great leaders make during defining moments to discern how I can apply those winning strategies to my own life — often those great leaders are our presidents and those defining moments are ones that shaped the trajectory and character of a nation.
As a big fan of presidential biographies, I’ve rounded up four meaningful quotes on leadership from four presidents on knowing your worth, on the value of reading, on the unwavering resolve to a cause, and on purpose that will transform your leadership style.
“No person who regards his character will undertake a command without the means of preserving it, since his conduct is culpable for all misfortunes and never right but when successful.”
— George Washington, as quoted in Washington: A Life, by Ron Chernow
More words of wisdom on and from Washington
- The Surprising Story of the Founding Father’s Other Children
- 3 Things a Young George Washington Teaches Us about Leadership
- Are You Leading or Chasing Your Company’s Narrative?
- 3 Practices to Help You the Master the Art of Opinion
“I read my eyes out and can’t read half enough. . . . The more one reads the more one sees we have to read.”
— John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, Dec. 28, 1794
More to read from Adams
- Monday Playbook: Why You Should Defy the Odds and Be a Reader
- Independence Day Epic: The Pen, The Voice, and True Forgiveness
“Let none falter, who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But, if after all, we shall fail, be it so. We still shall have the proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed shade of our country’s freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment, and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we NEVER faltered in defending.”
— Abraham Lincoln, Speech of the Sub-Treasury, 1839
More inspiration from Lincoln
“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”
— John F. Kennedy, speech at Amherst College, October 26, 1963
