The practice of leadership is not the same as the exercise of power.

- James Macgregor Burns

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

- James Macgregor Burns

Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics to mere technique.

- James Macgregor Burns

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

- James Macgregor Burns

Woodrow Wilson called for leaders who, by boldly interpreting the nation's conscience, could lift a people out of their everyday selves. That people …

- James Macgregor Burns

To elevate the goals of humankind, to achieve high moral purpose, to realize major intended change, leaders must thrust themselves into the most intr…

- James Macgregor Burns

A revolution is an act of violence whereby one class shatters the authority of another.

- James Macgregor Burns

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

- James Macgregor Burns

Let us face reality. The framers (of the Constitution) have simply been too shrewd for us. They have outwitted us. They designed separate institution…

- James Macgregor Burns