Every third Monday in February, the U.S. celebrates Presidents’ Day. Originally to commemorate Washington’s birthday (February 22), the holiday now offers an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of all the presidents — and score a three-day weekend as well. If you’re spending your Monday off focusing on your career, these quotes might offer a little inspiration:
“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to appellation.” – George Washington
“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“There is an old saying that things don’t happen, they are made to happen.” – John F. Kennedy
“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” – Ronald Reagan
“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln
“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“Now I think, speaking roughly, by leadership we mean the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it, not because your position of power can compel him to do it, or your position of authority. A commander of a regiment is not necessarily a leader. He has all of the appurtenances of power given by a set of Army regulations by which he can compel unified action. He can say to a body such as this, ‘Rise,’ and ‘Sit down.’ You do it exactly. But that is not leadership.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” – Harry Truman
Sources: Brainy Quote, GoodReads, University of North Dakota, Monticello, Eisenhower Archives
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