David Gergen Quotes

• A leader's role is to raise people's aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.

  David Gergen

  Inspirational, Leadership, People

  55 Copy quote

• Leadership is a journey. Each one of us has to take our own path, and get there our own way.

  David Gergen

  Journey, Way, Path

  22 Copy quote

• Morality in government begins with officials using words as honestly as possible to describe the truth.

  David Gergen

  Government, Using Words, Morality

  16 Copy quote

• At the heart of leadership is the leader's relationship with followers. People will entrust their hopes and dreams to another person only if they think the other is a reliable vessel.

  David Gergen

  Leadership, Dream, Heart

  David Gergen (2001). “Eyewitness To Power: The Essence of Leadership Nixon to Clinton”, p.177, Simon and Schuster

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• The proudest moment for [a teacher of leaders] is seeing not what students learn but what they do.

  David Gergen

  Teacher, Leader, Students

  17 Copy quote

• We are making politics a spectator sport in which our only duty is to vote somebody into office and then retire to the grandstands.

  David Gergen

  Sports, Office, Vote

  1993 In US News & World Report, 10 May.

  11 Copy quote

• It’s easy to confuse motion with progress.

  David Gergen

  Progress, Easy

  7 Copy quote

• Leadership is about calling people to do things beyond themselves.

  David Gergen

  People, Calling

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• Politics is like watching football. Yes, you can see it directly on your screen, but I think a lot of people want to have some understanding of what's happening, why the play is unfolding the way it is, and I think that's where it can help them, not to render judgments but to help people make their own judgments in a more informed way.

  David Gergen

  Football, Thinking, Yes You Can

  11 Copy quote

• It's very, very hard to speak truth to power when the truth is unpleasant. I think it's one of the toughest things especially a young person has to do and the only way you can do it is if you're willing to walk out the door if he doesn't take your advice. Or if you're willing to walk out the door if he goes over the line.

  David Gergen

  Thinking, Doors, Advice

  7 Copy quote

• Ronald Reagan rebuilt the American presidency; it was in trouble when he came into office as an institution, and he did through his communications and through his own inspiration, and his principles. I think he did lift our spirits about, and convince us that once again that the future of the best, our best days were always ahead of us.

  David Gergen

  Communication, Inspiration, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• We know from past history that when young people vote for one party a couple of times, they tend to vote for that party during their adult lifetimes in disproportionate numbers.

  David Gergen

  Couple, Party, Past

  Source: www.rollingstone.com

  6 Copy quote

• There is a cannibalism that's loose in our society in which public figures such as the Clintons could try to come into this town and do something good for this country and then they get hammered away even though they're trying to do the right thing.

  David Gergen

  Country, Trying, Politics

  4 Copy quote

• I think there's some generational difference between some of the older members of the press and this younger president [Bill Clinton]. I think the older members are not quite on the same wave length, and in general. I think it's been very devastating to the president.

  David Gergen

  Thinking, Differences, President

  "David Gergen and Mark Shields on Bill Clinton's 100 Days". "PBS Newshour" with Jim Lehrer, www.pbs.org. April 29, 1993.

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• One cannot underestimate how widely admired Tom Daschle is in Washington for his integrity.

  David Gergen

  Integrity, Underestimate, Toms

  "Daschle withdraws as HHS nominee", www.cnn.com. February 3, 2009.

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• If you've got some news that you don't want to get noticed, put it out Friday afternoon 4:00 pm.

  David Gergen

  Friday, Pms, News

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• If you look at history, every major realignment in our politics is a joining together of a new generation and emerging technologies. Obama has been a pioneer in joining the powers of the Internet with the principles of community organizing. Howard Dean used the Internet for meetups - Obama used it to create a movement.

  David Gergen

  Technology, Community, Together

  Source: www.rollingstone.com

  4 Copy quote

• I think it's particularly raw coming the day after the Electoral College, and Bill Clinton, he's taking this hard. It's been very hard to him. He thought his wife was gonna win. He believed she should have won. I think he believes, basically, it was an unfair result.

  David Gergen

  Believe, Winning, College

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

  4 Copy quote

• I don't have any problem with a reporter or a news person who says the President is uninformed on this issue or that issue. I don't think any of us would challenge that. I do have a problem with the singular focus on this, as if that's the only standard by which we ought to judge a president. What we learned in the last administration was how little having an encyclopedic grasp of all the facts has to do with governing.

  David Gergen

  Thinking, Issues, Judging

  16 Copy quote

• Ronald Reagan is clearly to television what Franklin Roosevelt was to radio.

  David Gergen

  Style, Television, Radio

  4 Copy quote

• There's a normal tendency in the campaign, during a crisis, for the country to rally around the White House. vThat may help Al Gore in this campaign, but on the other hand, George W. Bush handled himself so well the other night on foreign policy that I think it fortified him just before this crisis broke.

  David Gergen

  Country, Night, Thinking

  "Gore, Bush seek return to campaign themes, but international policy dominates". www.cnn.com. October 13, 2000.

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