David Gergen Quotes

#1. Leadership is a journey. Each one of us has to take our own path, and get there our own way.

David Gergen

#2. There is a cannibalism that's loose in our society in which public figures such as the Clintons could try to come into this town and do something good for this country and then they get hammered away even though they're trying to do the right thing.

David Gergen

#3. We are making politics a spectator sport in which our only duty is to vote somebody into office and then retire to the grandstands.

David Gergen

#4. When he hung up on Nancy Reagan, that's when he crossed his final threshold.

David Gergen

#5. The proudest moment for [a teacher of leaders] is seeing not what students learn but what they do.

David Gergen

#6. How in heaven's name can a nation with a $1 trillion surplus threaten so much scientific research so vital to its future?

David Gergen

#7. Ronald Reagan is clearly to television what Franklin Roosevelt was to radio.

David Gergen

#8. 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

#9. We've seen the hubris. And now we're seeing the scandals.

David Gergen

#10. At the heart of leadership is the leader's relationship with followers. People will entrust their hopes and dreams to another person only if they think the other is a reliable vessel.

David Gergen

#11. One cannot underestimate how widely admired Tom Daschle is in Washington for his integrity.

David Gergen

#12. Morality in government begins with officials using words as honestly as possible to describe the truth.

David Gergen

#13. 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

#14. Trust remains the coin of the realm in politics. A President who is trusted, by the people, by the congress, by the press, by foreign countries, is a President who can get a lot of good things done.

David Gergen

#15. It's easy to confuse motion with progress.

David Gergen

#16. Leadership is about calling people to do things beyond themselves.

David Gergen

#17. If you've got some news that you don't want to get noticed, put it out Friday afternoon 4:00 pm.

David Gergen

#18. We know that second terms have historically been marred by hubris and by scandal.

David Gergen