In real life, the most practical advice for leaders is not to treat pawns like pawns, nor princes like princes, but all persons like persons.

- James MacGregor Burns

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

- James MacGregor Burns

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

- 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 can be lifted into their better selves is the secret of transforming leadership.

- 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