Thought for the Week
Today is Presidents Day in my country, and also the birthday of our first president George Washington. And even while we celebrate it (or at least enjoy the day off), our country’s leaders and those in Europe are making decisions regarding our apparently not-so-former Cold War adversaries.
So, what makes a leader great? It may be argued that great leadership lies in the ability to make the right decisions—not popular decisions or expected ones, but wise ones. Only the latter requires courage; in fact, the former require something very close to its opposite: cowardice.
“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”
~George Washington
“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
~Peter F. Drucker
“You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.” ~Michelle Obama
“It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.”
~Adlai E. Stevenson
“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.”
~Robert Louis Stevenson
“In the space between yes and no, there is a lifetime. It’s the difference between the path you walk and one you leave behind; it’s the gap between who you thought you could be and who you really are; it’s the legroom for the lies you will tell yourself in the future.”
~Jodi Picoult
“Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men—the other 999 follow women.”
~Groucho Marx
“A decision unmade is still a decision. It won’t go away. Neither will problems or more options.”
~Emily Grabatin
“In the sunset on Watership Down, there was offered to General Woundwort the opportunity to show whether he was really the leader of vision and genius which he believed himself to be, or whether he was no more than a tyrant with the courage and cunning of a pirate.”
~Richard Adams
“Choose your leaders
with wisdom and forethought.
To be led by a coward
is to be controlled
by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool
is to be led
by the opportunists
who control the fool.
To be led by a thief
is to offer up
your most precious treasures
to be stolen.
To be led by a liar
is to ask
to be told lies.
To be led by a tyrant
is to sell yourself
and those you love
into slavery.”
~Octavia E. Butler
“If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.”
~Henry David Thoreau
Mitch Teemley 
Happy President’s Day. Here it is Islander Day…or Family Day or a few other names giving to it 😉
Honest Abe might have wanted to have a serious talk with Fox News getting involved in Canadian politics and worse yet, making it up…causing a lot of problems in your country. Canada stuck pretty much to facts …. which made them unpopular, but we do have a well defined journalistic integrity. https://www.arcadia.edu/library/guides/research-guides/news-research-guide/journalistic-integrity
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Mitch, I love this post, the pics, and the quotes. I appreciate you and your wisdom so much!
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Bless you, and ditto, Karla.
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Aww, thank you. 🥰
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Washington was born on the 22nd, my cousin Ken’s birthday. Hmm, these three-day weekends. I’d just jotted over the weekend that people get so fixated on the food that they forget “memorial” in Memorial Day. (Also the “thanks” in Thanksgiving, although I can’t blame a three-day weekend for that.)
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These are nice quotes you shared here, especially the ones on decision making and courage. Happy presidents Day to you and yours.
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Thank you, Victor.
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My vote of confidence in (potential/)leaders here took a number of hits since ’63, but it turns out that even the (also dead) non-Democrat one did not walk on water. It’s spooky times, but not the worst; I’m still praying with all for a casualty-less resolution…
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The “opportunists who control the fool” worry me most.
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Very appropriate comments about great leaders having courage as to making the right decisions. I think of Lincoln in that category as well as Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Nelson Mandela in their conduct of the Cold War and the ending of apartheid in their respective countries. Truman and Ike were ripped apart by critics at the end of their terms in office. Years later, historians rank them as good Presidents. Was in South Africa at the time when Mandela was in office, he was feared by the white population. Went back in 2013, different story in that Mandela was revered by everyone for all that he did to heal the wounds of apartheid. The great and good leaders have the vision and courage.
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I wrote these quotes down. Good selection and good content!
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The Octavia Butler poem sure struck a chord.
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It did for me too, Liz.
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This brings a recollection of the first books I read given by my mother. I could not remember the book anymore but I remember the stories whoch I loved so much. One story was about Abe Lincoln, so practicly, before I learned anything about our own Presidents in our country, I got to know about President Lincoln first. ☺️
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All inspiring quotes for Presidents’ Day. The poem by Octavia Butler (one of my favorite science fiction writers), for me, resonates with the current political situation in our country.
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I’ve been anxious to read Butler. Her ‘Parable of the Sower’ is downloaded on my tablet and TBR next.
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I read it and its sequel “Parable of the Talents,” a couple of years ago. They were good, but I enjoyed her “Xenogenesis” trilogy better. I’ve read other books of hers, and intend to eventually read all she wrote. She died in 2006 at the age of 59, but I didn’t discover her writing until probably five years ago.
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Thanks for the input, KT.
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KT, it appears you’ve been hacked. When I click on your name it takes me to a Chinese porn site!
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Every day in the classroom, I write a quote on the board that students are to copy into their notebooks. Got a couple here. Thanks and God bless, Mitch!
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All wonderful quotes!
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I have to save these quotes. Very good and powerful for the times we are in today. Thank you! So often I see good quotes that are shared, but forget to copy them. This time I am doing it right away, before my middle aged brain forgets! 🙂
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