John C. Maxwell Quotations

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.

Learn to say 'no' to the good so you can say 'yes' to the best.

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up.

Remember, man does not live on bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up.

Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.

Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.

There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. 'Good pride' represents our dignity and self-respect. 'Bad pride' is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.

Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them.

The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn't come alive until the leader models it.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to...failure.

Exceptionally hard decisions can deplete your energy to the point at which you finally cave in. If you mentally crumble and degenerate into negative thinking, you'll magnify the problem to the point where it can haunt you.

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That's not a guess, it's a guarantee. With pride, it's not a matter of 'if' we will fall, but 'when.' There are no exceptions.

Whenever a high-profile leader dies, people immediately attempt to summarize that person's life in a sentence. Often, critics and commentators get caught up looking at the leader's style, or which political or philosophical camp they represented.

Family and friendships are two of the greatest facilitators of happiness.

Every person has a longing to be significant; to make a contribution; to be a part of something noble and purposeful.

When you are full of pride on the inside, it makes you stiff, stubborn, and creates strife with others.

Success comes to those who have an entire mountain of gold that they continually mine, not those who find one nugget and try to live on it for fifty years.

Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure.

When your dream is bigger than you are, you only have two choices: give up or get help.

A minute of thought is greater than an hour of talk.

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful.

In the end, people are persuaded not by what we say, but by what they understand.

Children astound me with their inquisitive minds. The world is wide and mysterious to them, and as they piece together the puzzle of life, they ask 'Why?' ceaselessly.

The best way a mentor can prepare another leader is to expose him or her to other great people.

When a person starts to talk about their dreams, it's as if something bubbles up from within. Their eyes brighten, their face glows, and you can feel the excitement in their words.

Failed plans should not be interpreted as a failed vision. Visions don't change, they are only refined. Plans rarely stay the same, and are scrapped or adjusted as needed. Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible with your plan.

Everyone has the potential to become an encourager. You don't have to be rich. You don't have to be a genius. You don't have to have it all together. All you have to do is care about people and initiate.

Live to learn and you will really learn to live.

People who add value to others do so intentionally. I say that because to add value, leaders must give of themselves, and that rarely occurs by accident.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense.

Leaders who are kind of insecure or egocentric, they basically sabotage themselves.

As you get older, time speeds up but life slows down.

If you are a parent, you have probably already realized that your children are always watching what you do. And just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees who are watching their bosses.

Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it's almost always due to personal growth.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

Educators take something simple and make it complicated. Communicators take something complicated and make it simple.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

A lack of realism in the vision today costs credibility tomorrow.

Policies are many, Principles are few, Policies will change, Principles never do.

How do leaders serve their people? They may pay good wages and treat employees with respect.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn't. In fact, I didn't even know you were supposed to have one.

Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean giving up familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, and relationships that have lost their meaning.

The unsuccessful person is burdened by learning, and prefers to walk down familiar paths. Their distaste for learning stunts their growth and limits their influence.

If you are a leader, you should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it - young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous - is changed by it.

Enjoyment is an incredible energizer to the human spirit.

Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.

Self-centered leaders manipulate when they move people for personal benefit. Mature leaders motivate by moving people for mutual benefit.

People who use time wisely spend it on activities that advance their overall purpose in life.

All of the people in my life whom I consider to be close friends or colleagues are good thinkers.

Dividers seek to make themselves look or feel better by making others feel worse. They damage relationships, fracture teams and organizations, and create havoc in people's lives.

For more than a decade, I led an organization that put on an elaborate Christmas program each December. It was a big production, with over 250 people participating in more than 20 performances. By the end of the season, everyone who participated was exhausted.

Life can be boring unless you put some effort into it.

If you want to reach the top, don't run over others. Likely, the only way you'll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

You will never fulfill your destiny doing work you despise.

One of the roles of the Presidency is to lead a political party. Having a President in office is usually a huge advantage to a party because it gives the party a mouthpiece and an advocate at the highest level.

The first time you say something, it's heard. The second time, it's recognized, and the third time it's learned.

Ranking among the greatest Christmas movie classics, 'It's a Wonderful Life' tells a beautiful story about the priceless value of relationships.

Good executives never put off until tomorrow what they can get someone else to do today.

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.

The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force.

It seems the older you get, the more life comes into focus.

We don't mature momentarily, but over the long-term.

All good leaders are connectors. They relate well and make people feel confident about themselves and their leader.

To remain a credible leader, I must always work first, hardest, and longest on changing myself. This is neither easy nor natural, but it is essential.

Look at our society. Everyone wants to be thin, but nobody wants to diet. Everyone wants to live long, but few will exercise. Everybody wants money, yet seldom will anyone budget or control their spending.

To add value to others, one must first value others.

Have the humility to learn from those around you.

The dreams and passions stored within hearts are powerful keys which can unlock a wealth of potential.

Time is more valuable than money, because time is irreplaceable.

Positional leaders ignore the fact that every person has hopes, dreams, desires, and goals of his own. And leaders must bring their vision and the aspirations of the people they lead together in a way that benefits everyone.

Most people don't like change. They revolt against it unless they can clearly see the advantage it brings. For that reason, when good leaders prepare to take action or make changes, they take people through a process to get them ready for it.

We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it's a continuing choice.

Good thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started, because what you put in always impacts what comes out.

Talent grips us. We are overtaken by the beauty of Michelangelo's sculpture, riveted by Mariah Carey's angelic voice, doubled over in laughter by the comedy of Robin Williams, and captivated by the on screen performances of Denzel Washington.

The most talented do not always end up as celebrities, and those with less talent often do. Upsets are written into our history and occur around us every day.

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

Every time you make a mistake, don’t bring up everything that’s wrong with yourself; tell yourself that you’re paying the price for growth and that you will learn to do better next time. Every positive thing you can say to yourself will help.

Dont ever be impressed with goal setting; be impressed with goal getting. Reaching new goals and moving to a higher level of performance always requires change, and change feels awkward. But take comfort in the knowledge that if a change doesn't feel uncomfortable, then it's propably not really a change.

God gives us resources according to our dreams and according to our obedience. And God doesn't give those resources until we've started walking in obedience.

Leadership is taking responsibility while others are making excuses.

If you lack initiative, recognize that the problem comes from the inside, not from others. Determine why you hesitate to take action. Does risk scare you? Are you discouraged by past failures? Do you not see the potential that opportunity offers? Find the source of your hesitation, and address it. You won't be able to move forward on the outside until you can move forward on the inside.

So think long and hard about who you're spending the most time with, for wherever they are headed, so are you.

When somebody tells you he or she is leading something, a fair question is, "What is your vision?"

Life is like riding in a taxi. Whether you are going anywhere or not, the meter keeps ticking.

It's said that a wise person learns from his mistakes. A wiser one learns from others' mistakes. But the wisest person of all learns from others's successes.

Most people who decide to grow personally find their first mentors in the pages of books.

If a leader cannot give you a clear picture of what he or she sees in the future, that person is not the leader of that organization.

Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.

True success is obeying God.

If you want to be positive, upbeat, and passionate, you need to take responsibility for being that way.

You realize that we over-exaggerate yesterday, we over-estimate tomorrow and we underestimate today. We think, "Well, I'm going to kill time," "I'll get back to this tomorrow."

If your habits don't line up with your dream, then you need to either change your habits or change your dream

God chooses what we go through; we choose how we go through it.

At the beginning, all we have is the vision. At that point God expects us to begin walking in obedience according to the dream He has given us.