Swami Vivekananda's Quotes On Leader And Leadership. ~ Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda's concept of leader or leadership is not merely a position where someone gets the necessary power to give command over a group of other men and women, or treat them like servants. From Swami Vivekananda's point of view, leadership is a work of responsibility, it is a duty. If the common concept of leadership attaches the words like "respect", "fame", "social status" etc with it, then Swami Vivekananda asks "sacrifice", "dedication", "service" from a leader. In this page we'll make a collection of Swami Vivekananda's quotes on leader or leadership.

It is a very difficult task to take on the role of a leader. —
One must be accommodate a thousand minds.

—Swami Vivekananda

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

A leader must be impersonal.^[Source]
Can a leader be made my brother? A leader is born. Do you understand? And it is a very difficult task to take on the role of a leader. — One must be accommodate a thousand minds. There must not be a shade of jealousy or selfishness, then you are a leader. First, by birth, and secondly, unselfish — that's a leader. Everything is going all right, everything will come round. He casts the net all right, and winds it up likewise best instrument. Love conquers in the long run. It won't do to become impatient — wait, wait — patience is bound to give success. . . .^[Source]
Do not try to be a ruler. He is the best ruler who can serve well.^[Source]
Do not try to "boss" others, as the Yankees say.^[Source]
Everyone can play the role of a master, but it is very difficult to be a servant.^[Source]
Everybody wants to be a leader, but it is the failure to grasp that he is born, that causes all this mischief.^[Source]
Have fire and spread all over. Work, work. Be the servant while leading. Be unselfish, and never listen to one friend in private accusing another. Have infinite patience, and success is yours.^[Source]
He never becomes a leader in whose love there is a consideration of high or low. He whose love knows no end, and never stops to consider high or low, has the whole world lying at his feet.^[Source]
He who knows how to obey knows how to command. Learn obedience first.^[Source]
How often does a man ruin his disciples by remaining always with them! When men are once trained, it is essential that their leader leaves them; for without his absence they cannot develop themselves!^[Source]
I am persuaded that a leader is not made in one life. He has to be born for it. For the difficulty is not in organisation and making plans; the test, the real test, of the leader, lies in holding widely different people together along the line of their common sympathies. And this can only be done unconsciously, never by trying.^[Source]
In India, everybody wants to become a leader, and there is nobody to obey. Everyone should learn to obey before he can command. There is no end to our jealousies; and the more important the Hindu, the more jealous he is. Until this absence of jealousy and obedience to leaders are learnt by the Hindu, there will be no power of organization. We shall have to remain the hopelessly confused mob that we are now, hoping and doing nothing. India has to learn from Europe the conquest of external nature, and Europe has to learn from India the conquest of internal nature. Then there will be neither Hindus nor Europeans — there will be the ideal humanity which has conquered both the natures, the external and the internal. We have developed one phase of humanity, and they another. It is the union of the two that is wanted. The word freedom which is the watchword of our religion really means freedom physically, mentally, and spiritually.^[Source]
Nobody will come to help you if you put yourself forward as a leader. . . . Kill self first if you want to succeed.^[Source]
Some people do the best work when led. Not every one is born to lead. The best leader, however, is one who "leads like the baby". The baby, though apparently depending on everyone, is the king of the household. At least, to my thinking, that is the secret. . . . Many feel, but only a few can express. It is the power of expressing one's love and appreciation and sympathy for others, that enables one person to succeed better in spreading the idea than others. . . .^[Source]
The leaders are not usually men of character. Perfect love, the heart never reacting, this is what builds character. There is no allegiance possible where there is no character in the leader, and perfect purity ensures the most lasting allegiance and confidence.^[Source]
The leaders of our societies have never been either generals or kings, but Rishis.^[Source]
The man who has much Ojas is the leader of men. It gives a tremendous power of attraction.^[Source]
You will have to take charge of the whole movement, not as a leader, but as a servant. Do you know, the least show of leading destroys everything by rousing jealousy?