Jennifer Granholm Quotes

Learn how to grow out of yourself and into the world of others: Plant a shade tree under which you know you will never sit. Set some goals that may benefit your children or an orphanage or the employees of your company or future generations or your own city, fifty years from now.

Thinking good thoughts is not enough, doing good deeds is not enough, seeing others follow your good examples is enough.

Men of action, above all those whose actions are guided by love, live forever.

When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.

A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity.

The person who has inspired me my whole life is my Mom, because she taught me commitment. She sacrificed.

A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.

The future that I will not live to see is the one my children will live in. That's my immortality. And I shouldn't try to mortgage theirs for my benefit.

The strongest are those who renounce their own times and become a living part of those yet to come. The strongest and the rarest.

You have to know one big thing and stick with it. The leaders who had one very big idea and one very big commitment. This permitted them to create something. Those are the ones who leave a legacy.

Leaders should lead as far as they can and then vanish. Their ashes should not choke the fire they have lit.

The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.

The change in the world is always brought by one man, whom we call "the leader". Who has the vision and the force not only to make people dream, but to reach and live that dream. He is intelligent enough to foresee tomorrow. He is selfless and courageous to the extent of being ready to sacrifice everything and express truth even if it defames him. People fellow him where he takes them. He is the one who accelerates history …

True leadership—the sort of visionary leadership that Mandela is famed for—leaves a legacy that outlasts the originators mortal flesh.

The necessary thing for anyone to be happy and contented as long as he lives is working for the ones who will come after him rather than working for himself... One can reach the true delight and happiness in the life only by working for the existence, honor, and happiness of the future generations.

I have to take care of my family, my team, and my legacy.

Don't be so shortsighted that if it doesn't happen right now, you're not going to be happy. You are sowing seeds that will reap a great harvest for generations to come.

The great leaders in history were great not because of what they owned or earned but because of what they gave their lives to accomplish. They made a difference!

The diligent farmer plants trees, of which he himself will never see the fruit.

The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardner objected that the tree was slow growing and wouldn't reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, "In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!

The opportunist thinks of me and today. The statesman thinks of us and tomorrow.

One must care about a world one will not see.

Authorities act with themselves in mind. Leaders act with others in mind. Authorities take. Leaders give. Authorities die. Leaders live on.

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.

I would say a good leader brings results. A great leader writes a new story, it's different. Obviously a new story has to incorporate a lot of results. But a story is a chapter in the life of a company that people want to write and want to remember.