James Macgregor Burns

The ultimate test of practical leadership is the realization of intended, real change that meets people's enduring needs.

To elevate the goals of humankind, to achieve high moral purpose, to realize major intended change, leaders must thrust themselves into the most intractable processes and structures of history and ultimately master them.

Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.

Leaders are not pale reflectors of major social conflicts; they play up some, play down others, ignore still others.

Woodrow Wilson called for leaders who, by boldly interpreting the nation's conscience, could lift a people out of their everyday selves. That people can be lifted into their better selves is the secret of transforming leadership.