The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. All leaders whose fitness is questioned are clearly lacking in force.

Maurois’s remark frames leadership less as a formal title or a set of technical competencies than as a social fact: a leader is someone others recognize and follow. “Acknowledged as such” implies legitimacy conferred by the group—through trust, consent, or shared belief—rather than self-assertion. The second sentence sharpens the point: if a leader’s “fitness is questioned,” the problem is not merely external criticism but an absence of the persuasive authority, decisiveness, or moral weight (“force”) that makes leadership stable. The quote thus emphasizes perception, credibility, and the capacity to command assent as central to effective leadership.