Leadership quotes — Page 2

Cooper Union Address, February 27, 1860. The sentence appears in Lincoln’s closing argument about opposing slavery’s spread and should not be detached into a context-free command about every disputed duty.

Lyceum Address, January 27, 1838. This is a short clause from Lincoln’s extended call for reverence for law in homes, schools and public institutions, made in the immediate context of mob violence; it should not be read as a claim that every law is just.

The Federalist No. 70, reviewed against the Gideon-edition Wikisource transcription. Hamilton's 'Energy in the executive...' sentence introduces his constitutional case for executive unity, duration, support and competent powers; it remains eighteenth-century institutional argument rather than a timeless empirical rule about government.

An Essay on Criticism; original capitalization is lightly normalized elsewhere on the site.

An Essay on Criticism, in the passage warning against pride in judgment.

Ulysses, in the closing address to the mariners.

The Gospel of Wealth, first sentence of the 1889 essay “Wealth.” Carnegie’s position is a historical normative argument about concentrated wealth, not a neutral description of modern economics.

Politics: A Treatise on Government, Book III, Chapter XVI, William Ellis translation; represented through the 1912 Dent witness / Project Gutenberg #6762. In comparing rule by a person with rule by law, Aristotle says that passion can affect even the best rulers and concludes that law is reason without desire.

Character Building, “What Is To Be Our Future?”, Project Gutenberg #60484. Washington asks whether Tuskegee will remain worthy of public confidence and answers by requiring each student and worker to put conscience and full effort into every kind of work.

The Future of the American Negro, Chapter VIII; Project Gutenberg #26507. This short excerpt appears in Washington’s closing policy discussion, where he distinguishes ordinary political cooperation from cases involving a question of right or wrong and advises standing by principle in those cases.

Up from Slavery, Chapter XVII, “Last Words,” Project Gutenberg #2376. After recounting Harvard’s invitation to confer an honorary degree, Washington says he values fame only insofar as prominence can be used as an instrument for doing good.

Up from Slavery, Chapter III, “The Struggle For An Education,” Project Gutenberg #2376. Washington describes General Samuel Chapman Armstrong’s influence at Hampton and argues that sustained contact with exemplary people can itself be a powerful form of education.

De Officiis, Book II, section 32; Cicero lists kind services among the strongest ways of earning goodwill.

De Officiis, Book I, section 47; Cicero discusses how kindness already received creates a stronger duty of requital.

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book IV contrasts careful speech with earnest conduct.

Self-Made Men lecture, commonly dated to 1872 in edited versions. Library of Congress preserves undated manuscript, typescript and printed-copy materials, including a later Carlisle version; Douglass delivered and revised the lecture across his speaking career. The lecture also stresses social interdependence, so this line should not be reduced to a simplistic bootstrap claim.

Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, August 18, 1790, Founders Online. Washington follows this by saying the United States government gives “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” The record is historical civic-religious argument, not evidence that the period had already achieved equal liberty in practice.

The Education of Henry Adams, chapter on teaching at Harvard, Project Gutenberg #2044. Adams follows the sentence by stressing the moral and philosophical difficulty of teaching history; it is a reflective claim about educational influence, not a measurable promise of permanent impact.

Civil Disobedience, first published in 1849 as 'Resistance to Civil Government'; reviewed in the public-domain Miscellanies transcription. The obligation-to-do-right sentence occurs early in Thoreau's argument contrasting conscience with automatic deference to majority rule and law. It remains historical political philosophy rather than current legal advice or a blanket instruction to violate law.

Life Without Principle, The Atlantic Monthly, 1863; represented Wikisource text. The line follows Thoreau’s claim that a community cannot buy a wise person away from work that genuinely occupies him.

Isaiah 1:17 in the King James Version.

All These Things Added (1903), Part II, “The Heavenly Life,” chapter “Perfect Freedom,” printed page 140 / Wikisource scan leaf 146. “The tree of Freedom is rooted in Duty” introduces Allen’s claim that willing duty belongs to the inward freedom he is describing. The retained context is explicitly religious and moral rather than a universal clinical, legal or political rule.

Thoughts on Government, April 1776, represented by Founders Online / National Archives. Adams develops an eighteenth-century republican theory of government grounded in public virtue; the sentence is historical political philosophy, not a modern empirical law.

Lectures on Art, Lecture III, Project Gutenberg #19164. Ruskin makes a normative Victorian claim about workmanship and morality; this collection does not universalize it beyond that context.

Modern Painters, Volume III, Part IV, Chapter XVI, “Of Modern Landscape,” section 24, printed page 260, Project Gutenberg #38923. Ruskin calls humility the first test of a truly great man, then immediately distinguishes humility from doubting one’s real power or hesitating about one’s opinions; his point is proportion, not self-denial. This is Victorian art criticism and moral reflection, not modern clinical or psychological evidence about humility.

2 Corinthians 8:21 in the King James Version.

Proverbs 10:9 in the King James Version; the opening clause is quoted here.

Proverbs 11:3 in the King James Version; the opening clause is quoted here.

Proverbs 12:22 in the King James Version.

Proverbs 16:3 in the King James Version.

Proverbs 16:9 in the King James Version.

Tao Teh King, chapter 26, James Legge translation; the chapter applies this relation between gravity and stillness to the conduct of a ruler.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening pages; the sentence immediately follows her statement that she contends for the rights of men and liberty of reason.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men; this clause appears in Wollstonecraft’s contrast between habit, manipulated passion, and a character governed by principle.

Apology, Jowett translation; Socrates says he would continue practicing philosophy even if acquittal were conditioned on silence.

The Seaman's Friend, represented by Project Gutenberg #40958 (fifth edition, 1847; copyright entered 1841). Dana is discussing the master of a merchant vessel and the effect of his conduct on officers and crew. This is nineteenth-century maritime professional guidance, not current maritime law.

If—, opening line; the next line describes being blamed by those around you.

The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, “Pope”; Wikisource transcription of Johnson's Life of Pope. Johnson writes the sentence while discussing Alexander Pope's early estimate of his own abilities and immediately qualifies it by warning that isolated self-estimation can err.

Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Near the opening, Smiles contrasts admiration for genius with the more durable respect secured by character, framing the latter as a power of conduct rather than intellect alone.

Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. The sentence closes Smiles’s paragraph on truthfulness as veracity, rectitude and practical reliableness, explaining why dependable words and actions earn general confidence.

Men of Invention and Industry, Chapter X, “Industry in Ireland: Through Connaught and Ulster to Belfast”; Project Gutenberg #725. Period capitalization and gendered wording are preserved as source text.

Thrift, Chapter II, “Habits of Thrift,” Project Gutenberg #14418. The sentence summarizes Smiles’s preceding argument that social improvement begins with individual conduct, example and self-respect before one attempts to elevate others.

The Art of War, Chapter II “Waging War,” section 6, Lionel Giles translation (1910), printed page 12 / scan leaf 68 in Giles’s original full edition on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #17405. “There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare” closes the opening argument about weapons, strength, treasure and state resources being exhausted by a protracted campaign. It remains ancient military-strategy argument in translation, not a generic business, relationship or current geopolitical rule.

The New Nationalism, Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910. This is Progressive Era political argument about public welfare, economic power and government responsibility, not current policy guidance.

The New Nationalism, August 31, 1910. The sentence occurs in Roosevelt’s argument for regulation and graduated taxation of large fortunes; it is historical political-economic rhetoric rather than modern financial advice.

Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. IV “The New Downing Street”; Project Gutenberg #1140. The sentence occurs inside Carlyle’s controversial political argument about leadership; this collection uses it for work/responsibility while retaining that historical context.

Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801, reviewed against the public-domain Wikisource transcription. The error-of-opinion sentence follows Jefferson's distinction between differences of opinion and differences of principle during an appeal for republican political tolerance; it is historical political rhetoric rather than present-day legal doctrine.

Rights of Man, Part II; historical political argument about representative government and the rule of law.

Julius Caesar, Act IV, Scene 3, in the 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Lawrence Mason. Brutus argues for marching to Philippi and compares opportunity to a tide that must be taken at the flood; the metaphor belongs to a disputed military decision inside the play rather than a context-free guarantee of success.