Top 89 Quotes & Sayings by John W. Gardner - Page 2

Renewal is not just innovation and change. It is also the process of bringing the results of change into line with our purposes.

We get richer and richer in filthier and filthier communities until we reach a final state of affluent misery - crocus on a garbage heap.

If the modern leader doesn't know the facts, he is in grave trouble, but rarely do the facts provide unqualified guidance.

When hiring key employees, there are only two qualities to look for: judgement and taste. Almost everything else can be bought by the yard.

We have to face the fact that most men and women out there are more stale than they know, more bored than they care to admit.

In the United States, to an unprecedented degree, the individual's social role has come to be determined not by who he is but by what he can accomplish.

It is not easy to be crafty and winsome at the same time, and few accomplish it after the age of six.

The best kept secret in America today is that people would rather work hard for something they believe in than live a life of aimless diversion.

The individual who has become a stranger to himself has lost the capacity for genuine self-renewal.

If our society continues at its present rate to become less livable as it becomes more affluent, we promise all to end up in sumptuous misery.

The ablest and most effective leaders do not hold to a single style; they may be highly supportive in personal relations when that is needed, yet capable of a quick, authoritative decision when the situation requires it.

If one defines the term 'dropout' to mean a person who has given up serious effort to meet his responsibilities, then every business office, government agency, golf club and university faculty would yield its quota.

Americans have always believed that-within the law-all kinds of people should be allowed to take the initiative in all kinds of activities. And out of that pluralism has come virtually all of our creativity. Freedom is real only to the extent that there are diverse alternatives.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the [nonprofit] sector is its relative freedom from constraints and its resulting pluralism.

Storybook happiness involves every form of pleasant thumb-twiddling; true happiness involves the full use of one's powers and talents.

It is one of the ironies of history that reformers so often misjudge the consequences of their reforms.

The man who once cursed his fate, now curses himself - and pays his psychoanalyst.

The [nonprofit] sector is the natural home of nonmajoritarian impulses, movements and values. It comfortably harbors innovators, maverick movements, groups which feel they must fight for their place in the sun, and critics of both liberal conservative persuasion.

What leaders have to remember is that somewhere under the somnolent surface is the creature that builds civilizations, the dreamer of dreams, the risk taker. And remembering that, the leader must reach down to the springs that never dry up, the ever-fresh springs of the human spirit.

Nothing can be more readily disproved than the old saw, "You can't keep a good man down." Most human societies have been beautifully organized to keep good men down.

Paralysis of leadership is due in part to the unseen grip of the special interests.

An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher.

But if we believe what we profess concerning the worth of the individual, then the idea of individual development within a framework of ethical purpose must become our deepest concern, our national preoccupation, our passion, our obsession. We must think of education as relevant for everyone everywhere - at all ages and in all conditions of life.

One generalization that is supported both by research and experience is that effective two-way communication is essential to proper functioning of the leader-follower relationship.

Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like weather.

The first and last task of aleader is to keep hope alive.

Excellence implies striving for the highest standards in every phase of life.

All that we know about the interaction between leaders and constituents or followers tells us that communication and influence flow in both directions; and in that two-way communication, nonrational, nonverbal, and unconscious elements play their part.

There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure-all your life.