Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
Interpretation
Keep communication honest and to the point, then take your place and listen.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's quote emphasizes the importance of sincerity and brevity in effective communication. It suggests that when addressing an audience, one should be genuine and concise to hold their attention and convey the message clearly, followed by allowing others to contribute or respond, thus fostering a respectful and productive dialogue.
In practice
In a business meeting to emphasize the importance of concise presentations.
There has been one persistent theme through all Axis propaganda. This theme has been that Americans are admittedly rich, that Americans have considerable industrial power - but that Americans are soft and decadent, that they cannot and will not unite and work and fight. ... Let them tell that to the Marines!
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships. Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns.
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too.
Whether individuals or organisations, we follow those who lead not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead not for them, but for ourselves.
Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.
Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a "nervous system", to coordinate its actions.
It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavour to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him.
Leaders who master emotions can rob us of our capacities to reason. If their values are out of step with our own, the results can be devastating.
There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.
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