James MacGregor Burns Quotes

James MacGregor Burns — American Author born on August 03, 1918,

James MacGregor Burns was an American historian and political scientist, presidential biographer, and authority on leadership studies. He was the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Government Emeritus at Williams College and Distinguished Leadership Scholar at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1971 Burns received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in History and Biography for his work on America's 32nd president, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom... (wikipedia)

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.

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

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.

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

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