If you want to be important -- wonderful. If you want to be recognized -- wonderful. If you want to be great -- wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant. --Martin Luther King Jr. (in Untitled)

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. --Albert Einstein (in Sacred Gift of the Intuitive Mind)

The term "power" comes from the Latin posse: to do, to be able, to change, to influence or effect. To have power is to possess the capacity to control or direct change. All forms of leadership must make use of power. The central issue of power in leadership is not Will it be used? But rather Will it be used wisely and well? --Al Gini (in In Good We Trust)

The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first.
--Robert Greenleaf (in 7 Principles of Meaningful Relationships for Servant Leaders)

He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. --Matthew 23:11 (in Untitled)

He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. --Matthew 23:11 (in Healing Power of Doing Good)

Where are those leaders who have the necessary scientific competence, the vision, the common sense, the social consciousness, the qualities of leadership and the persistent determination to convert the potential benefactions into real benefactions for mankind in general and for the hungry in particular? --Norman Borlaug (in Unknown Nobel Laureate)

Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching. --George Van Valkenburg (in Forty Thousand Dollar Reward)

Everybody can be great because everybody can serve ... You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant. --Martin Luther King Jr. (in Karma Tycoon: Incubating Compassion)

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. --Peter F. Drucker (in 12 Principles of Spiritually Intelligent Leadership)

One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you. --Dennis A. Peer (in What Leaders Should Know About Followers)

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. --Max DePree (in Are You a Servant Leader?)

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. --Harold S. Geneen (in Leadership Lessons from a Dancing Guy)

Effective leadership isn't about having power over people, it's about doing good for people. --Bill Treasurer (in Leaders Open Doors)

Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master. --Christian Lous Lange (in How to Kick Your Digital Addiction)

Sane leadership...is the deep knowing that, even in the most dire circumstances, more becomes possible as people engage together with compassion and discernment, self-determining their way forward. --Margaret Wheatley (in Bringing Life to Organizational Change)

Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master. --Christian Lous Lange (in Human Scale Revisited)

The soul might be silent but the servant of the soul has always got a voice and it has got one for a reason. --Cormac McCarthy (in Losing His Voice Led Him to Helping Others Strengthen Theirs)

My definition for "leadership" is anyone who wants to take responsibility for their influence in the world. --Diana Chapman (in How Conscious Leadership Can Unlock a Better Workplace)

Leadership is about the capacity of the whole system to sense and actualize the future that wants to emerge. --Otto Scharmer (in Vertical Literacy: Reimagining the 21st-Century University)

We see cleaning not just as a job but as art, as a learning opportunity, a chance to experience the world differently, a chance to clean up our minds and be inspired while cleaning up physical spaces, a chance to move our bodies, a chance to learn humility and be better servant leaders. --Tolu Ilesanmi (in Tolu Ilesanmi: Cleaner and Life Artist)

In a self-organizing system, leadership is distributed-- it can come from anywhere, from anyone, at any time, manifesting in ways that may stretch beyond some people's narrow definition of the word. --David Ehrlichman (in Fostering Self-Organization)