Quotes by John W. Gardner

Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities. There are quiet leaders and leaders one can hear in the next county. Some find strength in eloquence, some in judgment, some in courage.

Some people strengthen the society just by being the kind of people they are.

The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.

It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.

True happiness involves the full use of one’s power and talents.

When one may pay out over two million dollars to presidential and Congressional campaigns, the U.S. government is virtually up for sale.

For every talent that poverty has stimulated it has blighted a hundred.

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.

One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.