Article image

What It Means To Be a Leader, According to U.S. Presidents

To be President of the United States is to be many things: a representative of a country of more than 330 million people, the figurehead of a political party, commander in chief of the U.S. military, chief diplomat of the U.S., and economic and legislative manager. On any given day, the President’s many roles can be distilled into one critical task: lead.

Serving as the leader of a major world power is no small feat, and over the course of the United States’  two-plus centuries as a nation, U.S. Presidents have had countless approaches to the concepts of leadership and power.

These differing leadership styles can be attributed to individual differences as well as the context of their time in office, including social upheaval, war, the changing climate, and advances in technology and medicine, to name a few.

From the Civil War era to the mid-aughts, we’ve gathered quotes from Presidents that encompass their views on leadership: what it means, why it’s important, and what it takes to be a good captain of the third-most-populous nation on the planet.

The ultimate test of leadership is not the polls you take, but the risks you take … The greatest defeat of all would be to live without courage, for that would hardly be living at all.
Gerald Ford

Share Quote

America demands and deserves big things from us, and nothing big ever came from being small.
Bill Clinton

Share Quote

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one who gets the people to do the greatest things.
Ronald Reagan

Share Quote

A self-respecting man must insist on his rights; otherwise he neither deserves nor receives the respect of others.
Theodore Roosevelt

Share Quote

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Barack Obama

Share Quote

A good leader can’t get too far ahead of his followers.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Share Quote

Two commanders on the same field are always one too many.
Ulysses S. Grant

Share Quote

Our real luck lies within ourselves. It is a question of character. It depends on whether we follow the inward light of conscience. Such men rise above the realm of temporary circumstance. They are great even in defeat.
Calvin Coolidge

Share Quote

For courage, not complacency, is our need today. Leadership, not salesmanship. And the only valid test of leadership is the ability to lead and lead vigorously.
John F. Kennedy

Share Quote

The job of getting people really wanting to do something is the essence of leadership. And one of the things a leader needs occasionally is the inspiration he gets from the people he leads.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Share Quote

Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.
George W. Bush

Share Quote

We have to inspire our children and grandchildren to take on challenges and risks that at first may seem to be overwhelming or even impossible. They need to understand that the only failure is not trying.
Jimmy Carter

Share Quote

Do you covet honor? You will never get it by serving yourself. Do you covet distinction? You will get it only as the servant of mankind … You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.
Woodrow Wilson

Share Quote

Featured image credit: Images Press/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

Author image
About the Author
Melanie Davis-McAfee
M. Davis-McAfee is a freelance writer, musician, and devoted cat mom of three living in southwest Kentucky.
Play more header background
Play more icon
Daily Question
Who said, "It is important that the musician just lets the music be written"?

More Inspiration

happiness theme icon

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.

separator icon
Martin Buber
motivation theme icon

The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.

separator icon
Peter Drucker
hope theme icon

Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow.

separator icon
River Phoenix
love theme icon

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.

separator icon
Madeleine L'Engle
wisdom theme icon

Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures.

separator icon
Vincent van Gogh
happiness theme icon

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.

separator icon
Friedrich Nietzsche
motivation theme icon

In the depths of Winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

separator icon
Albert Camus
hope theme icon

The beginning of wisdom is to do away with fear.

separator icon
Yohannes Gebregeorgis
love theme icon

Only the ephemeral is of lasting value.

separator icon
Eugène Ionesco
wisdom theme icon

The best thing one can do when it is raining is to let it rain.

separator icon
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
happiness theme icon

If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot?

separator icon
Gloria Steinem