David Gergen famous quotes

04-14-2025

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

#People #Leader #Vision
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
The proudest moment for [a teacher of leaders] is seeing not what students learn but what they do.
-- David Gergen

#Teacher #Leader #Students
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 #Play
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
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
There's a normal tendency in the campaign, during a crisis, for the country to rally around the White House. That 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
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
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
One cannot underestimate how widely admired Tom Daschle is in Washington for his integrity.
-- David Gergen

#Integrity #Underestimate
Ronald Reagan is clearly to television what Franklin Roosevelt was to radio.
-- David Gergen

#Television #Radio #Franklin
Leadership is about calling people to do things beyond themselves.
-- David Gergen

#People #Calling
Itâ€™s easy to confuse motion with progress.
-- David Gergen

#Progress #Easy
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
Morality in government begins with officials using words as honestly as possible to describe the truth.
-- David Gergen

#Government #Using Words #Morality

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