The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.
Theodore HesburghRead
My basic principle is that you don't make decisions because they are cheap; you make them because they're right.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Make decisions based on what is morally right, not on convenience or cost.
In this quote, Theodore Hesburgh emphasizes that the foundation of decision-making should be rooted in ethical considerations rather than financial incentives or ease. True leadership and integrity demand that we prioritize what is right over what is easy or inexpensive, thereby aligning our actions with our values and principles.
Themes
Decision MakingEthicsIntegrityMoralityLeadership
In practice
Example use cases
During a leadership seminar to emphasize ethical decision-making.
More from Theodore Hesburgh
All quotes βAll of us are experts at practicing virtue at a distance.
Theodore HesburghRead
It is easier to exemplify values than teach them.
Theodore HesburghRead
I can think of no better way of redeeming this tragic world today than love and laughter. Too many of the young have forgotten how to laugh, and too many of the elders have forgotten how to love. Would not our lives be lightened if only we could all learn to laugh more easily at ourselves and to love one another?
Theodore HesburghRead
Anyone who refuses to speak out off campus does not deserve to be listened to on campus.
Theodore HesburghRead
Similar quotes
The hardness of a diamond is part of its usefulness, but its true value is in the light that shines through it.
B.K.S. IyengarRead
The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.
Erich FrommRead
One of the pervasive risks that we face in the information age, as I wrote in the introduction, is that even if the amount of knowledge in the world is increasing, the gap between what we know and what we think we know may be widening.
Nate SilverRead
This grieved me heartily ; and now I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.
Daniel DefoeRead
Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, but genius must be born; and never can be taught.
John DrydenRead
You can't buy a good reputation; you must earn it.
Harvey MackayRead