Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Enjoy your time in public service. It may well be one of the most interesting and challenging times of your life.
Now, settle down, settle down. Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning and I'm gathering my thoughts here.
We do have a saying in America: if you're in a hole, stop digging ..... erm, I'm not sure I should have said that.
Find ways to decentralize. Move decision making authority down and out. Encourage a more entrepreneurial approach.
A few. . . critics are the only people I ever heard use the phrase 'imminent threat.' I didn't, the president didn't.
If you look ahead 10 years, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the people of Russia had become fans of missile defence.
Keep your sense of humor. As General Joe Stillwell said, 'The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of his behind'.
We do know of certain knowledge that he [Osama Bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead.
To gain support in U.S. Congress and from other nations requires clarity, an acceptable mission and an explicit outcome.
When asked for your views, by the press or others, remember that what they really want to know is the President's views.
Work continuously to trim the White House staff from your first day to your last. All the pressures are to the contrary.
Any country on the face of the Earth with an active intelligence program knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
Simply because you do not have evidence that something exists does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist.
A politician would do well to remember that he has to live with his conscience longer than he does with his constituents.
Don't 'over-control' like a novice pilot. Stay loose enough from the flow that you can observe it, modify, and improve it.
It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.
After he saw what happened to Saddam Hussein, he (Gadhafi) did not want to be Saddam Hussein. He gave up his nuclear program.
The dead-enders are still with us, those remnants of the defeated regimes who'll go on fighting long after their cause is lost.
Make decisions about the President's personal security. He can overrule you, but don't ask him to be the one to counsel caution.
It is the photographs that gives one the vivid realization of what actually took place. (On photographs from Abu Ghraib prison.)
And there is, I am certain, among the Iraqi people a respect for the care and the precision that went into the bombing campaign.
Don't automatically obey Presidential directives if you disagree or if you suspect he hasn't considered key aspects of the issue.
Pieces of intelligence, scraps of intelligence...you run down leads and you run down leads, and you hope that sometimes it works.
Our goal is to defend the American people, and to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and to liberate the Iraqi people.
The United States isn't going to do anything that it's not capable of doing. And if we do something, we'll be capable of doing it.
The price of being close to the President is delivering bad news. You fail him if you don't tell him the truth. Others won't do it.
There's no debate in the world as to whether people have weapons of mass destruction... We all know that. A trained ape knows that.
I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past. I think the past was not predictable when it started.
Know that the immediate staff and others in the Administration will assume that your manner, tone and tempo reflect the President's.
Imagine, a September 11 with weapons of mass destruction. It's not 3,000. It's tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children.
A terrorist can attack any time, any place using any technique and you can't defend everywhere against every technique at every moment.
Move decisions out to the Cabinet and agencies. Strengthen them by moving responsibility, authority, and accountability their direction.
When there happens to be a weapon of mass destruction suspect site in an area that we occupy and if people have time, they'll look at it.
I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won't last any longer than that.
First rule of politics: you can't win unless you're on the ballot. Second rule: If you run, you may lose. And, if you tie, you do not win.
The press always wants to know how many people will be killed or how much it will cost, but the answers to those questions are not knowable.
Don't think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. As Charles De Gaulle said, the cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.
Every president when he is elected has to live with the pluses and minuses his predecessor leaves, which includes benefits as well as burdens.
Well, so be it. Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet.
At 78 years old, I am not surprised at much anymore. Germany has taken divergent positions before, so has France, so has England, so has the US.
Let your family, staff, and friends know that you're still the same person, despite all the publicity and notoriety that accompanies your position.
Strive to make proposed solutions as self-executing as possible. As the degree of discretion increases, so too does bureaucracy, delay, and expense.
There are people who in large measure have information that we need . . . so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country.
One of your tasks is to separate the 'personal' from the 'substantive.' The two can become confused, especially if someone rubs the President wrong.
... something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question.
We know where they are [Iraq's weapons of mass destruction]. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.
General Boykin has requested that an inspector general review this matter. And I have indicated that if that's his request, I think it's appropriate.
What will follow will not be a repeat of any other conflict. It will be of a force and scope and scale that has been beyond what has been seen before.
I suppose the implication of that is the president and the vice president and myself and Colin Powell just fell off a turnip truck to take these jobs.
Look for what's missing. Many advisors can tell a President how to improve what's proposed or what's gone amiss. Few are able to see what isn't there.