If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are. — John W. Gardner Copy Share Image
Perhaps the most promising trend in our thinking about leadership is the growing conviction that the purposes of the group are best served when the leader helps followers develop their own initiative, strengthens them in the use of their own… — John W. Gardner Copy Share Image
“We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” — John W. Gardner Copy Share Image
Tax reduction has an almost irresistible appeal to the politician, and it is no doubt also gratifying to the citizen. It means more dollars… — John W. Gardner Copy Share Image
We get richer and richer in filthier and filthier communities until we reach a final state of affluent misery - crocus on a garbage… — John W. Gardner Copy Share Image
At home we have lost the capacity to see what is before us. Travel shakes us out of our apathy, and we regain an… — John W. Gardner Copy Share Image
Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Few have excellence thrust upon them ... They achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly by… — John W. Gardner Copy Share Image
Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities. There are quiet leaders and leaders one can hear in the next county.… — John W. Gardner Copy Share Image
The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursuing his education. — John W. Gardner Copy Share Image
An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. — John W. Gardner Copy Share Image