Top 40 Boss Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “A good boss makes his men realize they have more ability than they think they have so that they consistently do better work than they thought they could.”

— Charles Erwin Wilson

2. “Just because you are the boss doesn’t mean you are the source of all knowledge.”

— Jack Welch

3. “Every boss started as a worker.”

— Rick Ross

4. “The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.”

— John C. Maxwell

Also featured in: Leadership Quotes

5. “Bosses push, Leaders pull. Real leadership is servant leadership.”

— Dave Ramsey

Also featured in: Leadership Quotes

6. “Good thinkers are always in demand. A person who knows how may always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be his boss.”

— John C. Maxwell

7. “There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”

— Sam Walton

Also featured in: Startup Quotes, Business Quotes, Quotes About Work

8. “The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.”

— Lee Iacocca

9. “To help others develop, start with yourself! When the boss acts like a little god and tells everyone else they need to improve, that behavior can be copied at every level of management. Every level then points out how the level below it needs to change. The end result: No one gets much better.”

— Marshall Goldsmith

10. “Your own mental attitude is your real boss.”

— Napoleon Hill

Also featured in: Real Quotes

11. “By faithfully working eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.”

— Robert Frost

Also featured in: Hilarious Quotes, Clever Quotes

12. “In the past a leader was a boss. Today’s leaders must be partners with their people. They no longer can lead solely based on positional power.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

Also featured in: Past Quotes

13. “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

14. “I’m just ’bout that action boss.”

— Marshawn Lynch

15. “Being your own boss is much superior to working for the man. Including working for your father.”

— Nolan Bushnell

16. “The person who knows how will always have a job. The person who knows why will always be his boss.”

— Alanis Morissette

17. “Now, if your boss is a sadist, then you have a big problem. In that case, fire your boss and get a new job.”

— Donald Trump

18. “The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Also featured in: Government Quotes

19. “There is only one boss. The customer.”

— Sam Walton

20. “I let ballplayers yell back at me because I wasn’t trying to prove I’m boss. I know I’m boss.”

— Al McGuire

21. “If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.”

— Bill Gates

Also featured in: Teacher Quotes

22. “In my house I’m the boss, my wife is just the decision maker.”

— Woody Allen

Also featured in: Marriage Quotes

23. “It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter.”

— Alfred Eisenstaedt

Also featured in: Photography Quotes, Important Quotes

24. “Bob arum is Manny Pacquiao’s boss, Floyd Mayweather is his own boss.”

— Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

25. “Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.”

— Doug Larson

Also featured in: Funny Quotes

26. “I would be a billionaire if I was looking to be a selfish boss. That’s not me.”

— Alfred North Whitehead

27. “The joy about the recording is that you are your own boss. You don’t have a director telling you how to do it.”

— Jim Dale

28. “Divine love is the sublime boss of the universe.”

— John Muir

29. “Don’t blame the boss. He has enough problems.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

30. “Even the frankest and bravest of subordinates do not talk with their boss the same way they talk with colleagues.”

— Robert K. Greenleaf

31. “Well, what I tried to do is to just listen to my voice, because my voice is my boss. She decides.”

— Cecilia Bartoli

32. “Management by objective works – if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don’t.”

— Peter F. Drucker

Also featured in: Wise Quotes

33. “A different world cannot be built by indifferent people.”

— Peter Marshall

34. “The first thing the secretary types is the boss.”

— Donald Trump

Also featured in: Firsts Quotes

35. “No man goes before his time – unless the boss leaves early.”

— Groucho Marx

Also featured in: Quotes About Work

36. “Being the boss anywhere is lonely. Being a female boss in a world of mostly men is especially so.”

— Robert Frost

Also featured in: Lonely Quotes

37. “A Boss in Heaven is the best excuse for a boss on earth, therefore If God did exist, he would have to be abolished.”

— Mikhail Bakunin

Also featured in: Heaven Quotes

38. “The unfortunate thing about working for yourself is that you have the worst boss in the world. I work every day of the year except at Christmas, when I work a half day.”

— David Eddings

39. “It is reassuring for people to feel they have a boss, someone who knows the answers and has charted the course.”

— George Cukor

40. “It’s always better to deliver the news yourself rather than allow your boss to be surprised.”

— Mary Cheney