Leadership quotes, explained

A call to public service at the height of the Cold War. The very next sentence widens the same challenge to the whole world, which is the half most people never quote.

The last words of the Gettysburg Address, spoken at a cemetery for Union soldiers. Lincoln turned a funeral into a promise that the war was being fought to keep democracy itself alive.

Roosevelt's defense of people who try and fail over critics who never try. It was part of a long speech in Paris about the duties of citizens in a democracy.

Said to a country in the depths of the Great Depression, days before he closed the banks. It was a plea to stop a panic that was making the crisis worse, not a general saying about bravery.

Churchill's promise, right after the Dunkirk evacuation, that Britain would never surrender even if invaded. He paired it with a blunt warning that Dunkirk was a defeat, not a victory.

Lincoln's warning that the United States could not stay half slave and half free forever. He borrowed the image from the Gospels, where Jesus uses it to answer critics.

Churchill's first promise as Prime Minister was not victory but hardship. He told Parliament the truth about the war ahead and asked for its support anyway.

A direct challenge to the Soviet leader to prove his reforms were real by opening the Berlin Wall. Many of Reagan's own advisers wanted the line removed.

Churchill's tribute to the fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain, a few thousand airmen defending a nation of millions.

People who once ran their own government now only want two things, free food and entertainment. Rulers who supply both can keep power without being questioned.

Acton's argument that historians should not excuse popes and kings because of their office. He wrote “tends to” corrupt, a qualification usually dropped.

Latin for “Who will guard the guards themselves?” Today it asks who keeps the powerful honest when they are the ones meant to keep everyone else in line.

Roosevelt's rule for power: stay calm and polite, but have real strength ready. He called it a West African proverb, though no such proverb has been found.

Mothers shape the next generation, so their influence on the world is greater than any king's or general's. The poem praises motherhood as the strongest force for good.

Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Caesar used it to report a victory so fast and complete that three words were enough to tell the whole story.

A coach's line that only victory counts. UCLA coach Red Sanders said it first; Lombardi used it later and said he regretted how it was understood.