Quotes By James MacGregor Burns

Leaders are not pale reflectors of major social conflicts; they play up some, play down others, ignore still others.

Woodrow Wilson called for leaders who, by boldly interpreting the nation's conscience, could lift a people out of their everyday selves. That people can be lifted into their better selves is the secret of transforming leadership.

In real life, the most practical advice for leaders is not to treat pawns like pawns, nor princes like princes, but all persons like persons.

A revolution is an act of violence whereby one class shatters the authority of another.

Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics to mere technique.