Jordan has a strange, haunting beauty and a sense of timelessness. Dotted with the ruins of empires once great, it is the last resort of yesterday in the world of tomorrow. I love every inch of it.
King Hussein IRead
I will never work merely to make a reputation for myself, to be popular for appearances rather than for what I am. My task is to lead my country through service.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of genuine service over the pursuit of popularity and reputation.
King Hussein I expresses a commitment to leadership defined by selfless service rather than the superficiality of public approval. He prioritizes the welfare of his country over the fleeting nature of popularity, suggesting that true leadership stems from integrity and dedication to the greater good rather than striving for personal fame or acclaim.
Themes
LeadershipServiceIntegrityReputationPopularity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about community service, one might quote King Hussein I to emphasize the importance of serving others.
More from King Hussein I
All quotes →I want to say a simple thing, that the dividing line exists not between Jordan and Israel, but between the proponents of peace and the opponents of peace.
King Hussein IRead
God help us from those who believe that they are the sole possessors of truth. How we manage at times to agree willingly to become prisoners within our own minds and souls of beliefs and ideas on which we can never be flexible.
King Hussein IRead
The link between peace and stability on the one hand, and social and economic growth on the other, is dialectic. Peace, poverty, and backwardness cannot mix in one region.
King Hussein IRead
Without peace and without the overwhelming majority of people that believe in peace defending it, working for it, believing in it, security can never really be a reality.
King Hussein IRead
In this life struggle, here I am among you fully cognizant that a true believer has no fear of what God has ordained for him. Those who are visited by fear live only for their present, under the illusion that the world began with them and will end with their departure.
King Hussein IRead
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And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too.
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I am going to build the kind of nation that President Roosevelt hoped for, President Truman worked for, and President Kennedy died for.
Lyndon B. JohnsonRead