Forceful Leadership Quotes

In politics and in trade, bruisers and pirates are of better promise than talkers and clerks.

A commander in chief with military experience might be able to prod a conservative military into thinking more imaginatively.

You must be ruthless, relentless, and remorseless! Sack the lot!

Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces. The men become every year more and more creatures of force, masses about central powerhouses. The conflict is no longer between the men, but between the motors that drive men [i.e. governments], and the men who succumb to their own motive forces.

To get an Army that's already fighting a war to change in stride to a total different military strategy on the ground - and to get everybody on the same page - was accomplished by the sheer force of Dave Petraeus' will.

Men display less self-doubt and lead with what seems always like a sense of force and direction. We are not as familiar with women leaders, and so we question their skills. As women, we always need to work harder to prove our competence.

In nations composed of both cultured and uncultured elements, the uncultured will govern because it is their habit to attack and resolve doubts with their fists in cases where the cultured have failed in the art of governing. The uncultured masses are lazy and timid in the realm of intelligence, and they want to be governed well. But if the government hurts them, they shake it off and govern themselves.

That very aggressive, unapologetic leadership style is needed in Washington, D.C., and I'm not afraid to tackle big issues.