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Top 20 James Stockdale Quotes (2025 Update)

James Stockdale Quote: “Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers.”

1. “Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “Do the right thing even if it means dying like a dog when no one’s there to see you do it.”

2. “Do the right thing even if it means dying like a dog when no one’s there to see you do it.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “It is in disaster, not success, that the heros and the bums really get sorted out.”

3. “It is in disaster, not success, that the heros and the bums really get sorted out.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “Great leaders gain authority by giving it away.”

4. “Great leaders gain authority by giving it away.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “The challenge of education is not to prepare a person for success, but to prepare him for failure.”

5. “The challenge of education is not to prepare a person for success, but to prepare him for failure.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “Entitlement and privelege corrupt.”

6. “Entitlement and privelege corrupt.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “The worst thing that can happen is death and that’s not the worst thing in the world either.”

7. “The worst thing that can happen is death and that’s not the worst thing in the world either.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “He’s a novice, but he’s had these – he’s experienced in leadership in tight circumstances. He started – he dropped the first bomb, led the first air strike into North Vietnam.”

8. “He’s a novice, but he’s had these – he’s experienced in leadership in tight circumstances. He started – he dropped the first bomb, led the first air strike into North Vietnam.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “A liberally educated person meets new ideas with curiosity and fascination. An illiberally educated person meets new ideas with fear.”

9. “A liberally educated person meets new ideas with curiosity and fascination. An illiberally educated person meets new ideas with fear.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “I think character is permanent, and issues are transient.”

10. “I think character is permanent, and issues are transient.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “I was commanding officer of a supersonic fighter squadron, F-8 Crusaders.”

11. “I was commanding officer of a supersonic fighter squadron, F-8 Crusaders.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “I was tortured fifteen times, thats total submission. They did that with shutting off your blood circulation with ropes, giving you claustrophobia and pain at the same time, bending you double.”

12. “I was tortured fifteen times, thats total submission. They did that with shutting off your blood circulation with ropes, giving you claustrophobia and pain at the same time, bending you double.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “I’m a grown man. You know, I’ve been in a lot of scrapes, but I never felt like I got so – there are probably a lot of things I should have done that I didn’t do.”

13. “I’m a grown man. You know, I’ve been in a lot of scrapes, but I never felt like I got so – there are probably a lot of things I should have done that I didn’t do.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “They can shout down the head of the physics department at Cal Tech.”

14. “They can shout down the head of the physics department at Cal Tech.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “I mean, I didn’t – I should have demanded attention of the boss maybe, or something like that that might have backfired. This I would just take as it came.”

15. “I mean, I didn’t – I should have demanded attention of the boss maybe, or something like that that might have backfired. This I would just take as it came.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “I never had a single conversation about politics with Ross Perot in my life; still haven’t.”

16. “I never had a single conversation about politics with Ross Perot in my life; still haven’t.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “Well, first of all, I was asked by Ross Perot on a telephone call in March of 1992 if, since he had committed on the Larry King Show to becoming a candidate for president, to get on all 50 ballots.”

17. “Well, first of all, I was asked by Ross Perot on a telephone call in March of 1992 if, since he had committed on the Larry King Show to becoming a candidate for president, to get on all 50 ballots.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “Half the issues they – are so polished they’re talking about – are dead by the time they get into the office, and into the midst of their tour where they’re really productive.”

18. “Half the issues they – are so polished they’re talking about – are dead by the time they get into the office, and into the midst of their tour where they’re really productive.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “This idea, as you know, that I have firm convictions that the idea of issues being a big deal where our mutual friend went back and he felt so strongly that the determining factor in electoral success should be a proven character.”

19. “This idea, as you know, that I have firm convictions that the idea of issues being a big deal where our mutual friend went back and he felt so strongly that the determining factor in electoral success should be a proven character.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “On the eighteenth of December 1972, when we thought we were getting another of the hundreds of little tactical air raids, we heard the bombs going in out there in the railroad yards and this went on for about thirty minutes.”

20. “On the eighteenth of December 1972, when we thought we were getting another of the hundreds of little tactical air raids, we heard the bombs going in out there in the railroad yards and this went on for about thirty minutes.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “Yeah. I mean, it just seemed to me that it was – I felt so helpless to this business of not having any papers. That seems like a throwback to a schoolboy.”

21. “Yeah. I mean, it just seemed to me that it was – I felt so helpless to this business of not having any papers. That seems like a throwback to a schoolboy.”

— James Stockdale

James Stockdale Quote: “The guy that just arranges things so that the stock market holds up is nobody in my – in my estimation.”

22. “The guy that just arranges things so that the stock market holds up is nobody in my – in my estimation.”

— James Stockdale

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