The Chains of Commanding/Quotes
The folly of leadership is knowing that no matter what you do, behind your back, there's hundreds certain that their own solution is the sounder one and that your decision was the by-product of a whimsical dart toss. I pronounce the blast sentence, and I soak the critical fallout. I make the decisions no-one else will. Leadership... I wear the albatross and the bullseye. —Sebastian LaCroix, Vampire Bloodlines
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You know, there are days when I really hate this job. —Admiral William Adama, Battlestar Galactica
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Must be a nice place to sit, at the top of the pyramid. And also pretty uncomfortable. —Anthony Dinozzo, NCIS
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Worker bees can leave —Narrator, Fight Club
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"Uneasy lies the head that wears a Throne." —1066 and all that
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I'm telling you - all of you - that I am sick of being responsible for the preservation of the universe and its outlying suburbs! —Hot Rod, Transformers
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Dr. Boyce: Chris, you set standards for yourself no one can meet. You treat everyone on board like a human being except yourself. And now you're tired and... |
Rawne considered his troops chess pieces, but that was because he understood that if he saw them as faces, then it would become personal, and he couldn't do his job if it became personal. Jose had been forced to look into the faces of men and women who trusted him, and who had looked up to him and followed him, before he ended their lives. |
"Poor boy. He's a perator now. He can't lavish praise upon you and beg you to teach him all you know." —Iella Wesseri and Wedge Antilles, Starfighters of Adumar
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I am your leader —Iron Savior, "Never Say Die"
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He cursed himself for his refusal of their offer, even while his stubborn manhood revolted at the thought, and he knew that were he taken forth and given another chance, his reply would be the same. He would not sell his subjects to the butcher. And yet it had been with no thought of anyone's gain but his own that he had seized the kingdom originally. Thus subtly does the instinct of sovereign responsibility enter even a red-handed plunderer sometimes. |
"Being a leader isn't easy," Parker continued. "You get all these speeches asking 'Are you worthy' or 'know yourself to lead others' and that nonsense, but ultimately, it boils down to a simple question: can you live with condemning sons and daughters and fathers and mothers to their deaths?" —Tiberium Wars, Chapter XVIII
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Lennier: Then you were not thinking clearly, Delenn. The fault is not yours. The humans misinterpreted the gesture of respect. They thought it to be a prelude to an attack. You were... |
Dammit. She was sure there were thousands of people simply dying to be King or Queen! Why couldn't she just pick one of them and pass the job to someone who actually wanted it. |
It's not fair. I never asked them to make me Emperor. |
I look out my window each day. I look out my window at people who live and breathe. At people who have not been devoured by civil war. At people who have not been ravaged by disease. At people who have not starved to death, who have not been hacked apart by enemies of humanity, at people who are free to lie and steal and plot and complain and accuse and behave in all manner of repugnant ways because the Realm stands. Because law and order stands. Because something other than simple violence shapes the course of their lives. And I look...at a very few decent people who have had the luxury of living their lives without being called upon to make hideous decisions I would not wish upon my worst enemies, and who consequently find such matters morally appalling when they consider them — because they have not had to be the ones who dealt with them. —Gaius Sextus, Codex Alera
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Joan: It's not easy, is it? Making decisions that affect your friends' safety? |
Mrs Johnson: My husband is, um. Well, he's required to speak publicly. |
Williams. Listen to me. I'm in command. I chose to leave Alenko behind, not you. He's dead because of me. —Commander Shepard, Mass Effect
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No. [Ruling] gives me no pleasure. Politics always annoyed me. Now I do it every day. I haven't seen my wife in years. My old friends are gone. I haven't travelled or explored. At least with the Heterodynes we had the adventures. The occasional fight. Now it's send in the armies, then the bureaucrats with mops. It's become an old formula. Well, we do what we must. |
My personal opinion says 'yes' but the government policies underwhich I must weight my decision say 'no'. —General Hammond Stargate SG 1
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Drilan: No, I was given the crown by my people. |
Kaff Tagon: When I said I don't know how to run a large company, I should have also said I don't like writing reports. — Schlock Mercenary, 2015 November 10
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