A Supreme Leader typically refers to a figure in the highest leadership position of an entity, group, organization, or state, who exercises strong or all-powerful authority over it. In religion, the supreme leader or supreme leaders is God or gods. In politics, a supreme leader is typically an all-powerful figure who has a cult of personality associated with them, such as Adolf Hitler as Führer in Germany, Benito Mussolini as Duce in Italy, Joseph Stalin as vozhd in the Soviet Union, the Supreme Leader of Iran, or the Supreme Leader of North Korea.
There have been many dictators and political party leaders who have assumed such personal and/or political titles to evoke their supreme authority. Particularly during the Second World War, many fascist and other comparable right-wing figures directly modelled these after Hitler's Führer and Mussolini's il Duce. During and after the Cold War, several socialist and communist leaders also assumed such titles, as did some other politicians at different points in time.
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Famous quotes containing the words supreme and/or leader:
“As every pool reflects the image of the sun, so every thought and thing restores us an image and creature of the supreme Good. The universe is perforated by a million channels for his activity. All things mount and mount.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader.”
—Bernard Baruch (1870–1965)