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All Nations That Are Civilized And Do Not Accept This Kind Of Action As Representing Any Sort Of Legitimate Political Cause Are Coming Together To Fight These Terrorists.

-Colin Powell

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All Nations That Are

Colin Powell

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All Nations That Are Civilized And Do Not Accept This Kind Of Action As Representing Any Sort Of Legitimate Political Cause Are Coming Together To Fight These Terrorists.

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I Think Whether You're Having Setbacks Or Not, The Role Of A Leader Is To Always Display A Winning Attitude.

In Terms Of The Legal Matter Of Creating A Contract Between Two People That's Called Marriage, And Allowing Them To Live Together With The Protection Of Law, It Seems To Me Is The Way We Should Be Moving In This Country.

Always Be Looking For That Which You Do Well And That Which You Love Doing, And When You Find Those Two Things Together — Man, You Got It.

I Have Always Admired The Linking Pin Theory Of Management Specialist Rensis Likert. It Says That In Every Organization There Are Leaders Who Link The Lower Level To The Upper Level. What Makes Somebody An Effective Link As A Leader Is That He Conveys Down Everything That Above Wants And He Conveys Up Everything That Below Needs.

Have Fun In Your Command. Don't Always Run At A Breakneck Pace. Take Leave When You've Earned It, Spend Time With Your Families.

Even Though The Numbers Are Down With Respect To Favorability Ratings, At Every Embassy And Consular Office Tomorrow Morning That We Have, People Will Be Lined Up, And They'll All Say The Same Thing, "we Want To Go To America." So We're Still The Leader Of The World That Wants To Be Free. We Are Still The Inspiration Of The Rest Of The World. And We Can Come Back.

I Consider Myself A Moderate Republican. I Have Very, Very Moderate Social Views, And I'm Pretty Strong On, On Defense Matters.

Every Organization Should Tolerate Rebels Who Tell The Emperor He Has No Clothes

Thee Are Such Horrible Weapons. And So No Sane Leader Would Ever Want To Cross That Line To Using Nuclear Weapons. And, If You Are Not Going To Cross That Line, Then These Things Are Basically Useless.

Our Model Of Politics Is One That It Is Inclusive Of All Members Of The Society; All Should Be Represented. That Is The Nature Of Our Democracy.

Treat People Kindly. When You Are Kind To Somebody And I Don't Mean Necessarily "buddy-buddy", Just Show Kindness And Consideration. Show That People Are Worthy And You Respect Them And You Are Glad They're With You.

The Commander In The Field Is Always Right And The Rear Echelon Is Wrong, Unless Proved Otherwise. In My Experience, The People Closest To The Problems Are Often In The Best Position To See The Solutions. The Key Here Is To Empower And Not Be The Bottleneck.

So Has The Strategic Decision Been Made To Disarm Iraq Of Its Weapons Of Mass Destruction By The Leadership In Baghdad? I Think Our Judgment Has To Be Clearly Not.

You Have To Comply, You Have To Obey - Or You'd Better Resign And Leave. But That Is Also The Mark Of A Great Leader - Somebody Who, In The Presence Of Inner Conflict, Will Do The Right Thing.

Get Mad, Then Get Over It.

We Hope That More Assistance Will Be Available To The Nations Of The Region, To Include Egypt, On The Three Pillars That I Discussed Today: Civic Society Development, Education And Economic Development.

Preferring Members Of Any One Group For No Reason Other Than Race Or Ethnic Origin Is Discrimination For Its Own Sake. This The Constitution Forbids.

The Purposes Of The United States Should Not Be Doubted. The Security Council Resolutions Will Be Enforced - The Just Demands Of Peace And Security Will Be Met - Or Action Will Be Unavoidable. And A Regime That Has Lost Its Legitimacy Will Also Lose Its Power.

What You’re Seeing With Occupy Wall Street And The Others Are People Who Are Unhappy And They’re Directing Their Unhappiness Now Toward Wall Street And Toward Those They Think Are Doing Too Well In Our Society.

Ambition And Hatred Are Enough To Bring Iraq And Al Qaeda Together.

Use The Formula P=40 To 70, In Which P Stands For The Probability Of Success And The Numbers Indicate The Percentage Of Information Acquired. Once The Information Is In The 40 To 70 Range, Go With Your Gut.

It Is Not The Role Of The United States To Dictate Change, But To Enter Into Discussions With Our Friends.

Free Speech Is Intended To Protect The Controversial And Even Outrageous Word; And Not Just Comforting Platitudes Too Mundane To Need Protection.

I Don't Know Who All Of His Advisers Are, But I've Seen Some Of The Names And Some Of Them Are Quite Far To The Right. And Sometimes They Might Be In A Position To Make Judgments Or Recommendations To The Candidate That Should Get A Second Thought.

People Get Work Done, Not Buildings, Not Staffs In A Generic Sense, And Not Plans, But People

Lying Offshore, Ready To Act, The Presence Of Ships And Marines Sometimes Means Much More Than Just Having Air Power Or Ship's Fire, When It Comes To Deterring A Crisis. And The Ships And Marines May Not Have To Do Anything But Lie Offshore. It Is Hard To Lie Offshore With A C-141 Or C-130 Full Of Airborne Troops.

All Children Need A Laptop. Not A Computer, But A Human Laptop. Moms, Dads, Grannies And Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles - Someone To Hold Them, Read To Them, Teach Them. Loved Ones Who Will Embrace Them And Pass On The Experience, Rituals And Knowledge Of A Hundred Previous Generations. Loved Ones Who Will Pass To The Next Generation Their Expectations Of Them, Their Hopes, And Their Dreams.

I Think That Military, Corporate, And Non-political Organizations Are Pretty Much Similar.

You Need To Learn What People Have Done, But You Need To Learn Where They Have Failed... Usually When They Fail It Is In The Execution.

I Have The Deepest Regret About 9/11. Sept. 11, 2001, Was One Of The Most Difficult Days I've Ever Had. I Was In Lima, Peru, And Had To Fly Back Eight Hours Not Knowing What Happened In My Own Country, Knowing Thousands Of My Fellow Citizens Had Died.

Everybody Makes Bad Decisions. I Am Sure I Have Made My Share Of Them Over 40 Years Of Service. Or I Have Made Good Decisions And Have Been Overruled. The Real Challenge, When You Are Overruled, Is To Remember Who The Boss Is And Don't Take It Personally.

I Have Never Seen A Good Organization Where The Standards Weren't High.

Good Organization

Baghdad Fell On April 9, 2003, Hussein And His Regime Were Brought Down, We Declared "mission Accomplished" And Celebrated Victory . . . And Chaos Erupted. We Did Not Assert Control And Authority Over The Country, Especially Baghdad. We Did Not Bring With Us The Capacity To Impose Our Will. We Did Not Take Charge. And Iraq Did Not In A Few Weeks Magically Transform Itself Into A Stable Nation With Democratic Leaders. Instead A Raging Insurgency Engulfed The Country.

Think Hard About It: I'm Running Out Of Demons. I'm Running Out Of Villians. I'm Down To Castro And Kim Il Sung.

You Can Be Sure That The American Spirit Will Prevail Over This Tragedy.

Let It [racism] Be A Problem To Someone Else... Let It Drag Them Down. Don't Use It As An Excuse For Your Own Shortcomings.

In My 35 Years In The Army I Was In School For 6 Years. I Think Corporations Should Take A Look At Whether They Are Investing Enough In The Development Of Their Human Capital.

Trust Is The Essence Of Leadership.

It Is Not Possible To Rule Out Anything Because We Don't Know What Will Happen.

My Responsibility, Our Responsibility As Lucky Americans, Is To Try To Give Back To This Country As Much As It Has Given Us, As We Continue Our American Journey Together.

I Try To Be The Same Person I Was Yesterday.

The Root Cause Of Poverty Is Social Injustice And The Bad Government That Abets It

Good Leaders Must Know How To Reward Those Who Succeed And Know When To Retrain, Move, Or Fire Ineffective Staff.

Nobody Has Ever Said In The United States Government That We Are Going To War Next Month. No Decision Has Been Made By The President Because, As He Said To The United Nations, He Wants The United Nations To Live Up To Its Responsibilities And He Wants Saddam Hussein To Cooperate.

I Think You Can Improve On That Natural Ability With Training And Exposure To Great Leaders Of The Past And To Management Theories.

My Two Jamaican Cousins ... Were Studying Engineering. 'that's Where The Money Is,' Mom Advised. ... I Was To Be An Engineering Major, Despite My Allergy To Science And Math. ... Those Who Preceded Me At Ccny Include The Polio Vaccine Discoverer, Dr. Jonas Salk ... And Eight Nobel Prize Winners. ... In Class, I Stumbled Through Math, Fumbled Through Physics, And Did Reasonably Well In, And Even Enjoyed, Geology. All I Ever Looked Forward To Was Rotc. Autobiographical Comments On His Original Reason For Going To The City College Of New York, Where He Shortly Turned To His Military Career.

You Know You're A Good Leader When People Follow You Out Of Curiosity.

Only When You Have Got A Clear Statement Of What You Want To Achieve, Do You Ask Yourself How You Are Going To Achieve It. In The Military We Are Taught Never To Go For A Single Answer, No Matter How Obvious That Might Be.

Service-learning Is A Particularly Fertile Way Of Involving Young People In Community Service, Because It Ties Helping Others To What They Are Learning In The Classroom. It Enables Them To Apply Academic Disciplines To Practical, Everyday Problems. In The Process, It Provides A Compelling Answer To The Adolescent's Perennial Question, 'why Do I Need To Learn This Stuff?

Everyday Problems

Always Find Different Ways To Accomplish The Mission. Then Run A Counter-analysis And List The Advantages And Disadvantages. When You Have Done That, You Are Ready To Make A Decision.

There Is No Question About The Fact That We Had Very Serious Disagreements With My German, French, And Russian Colleagues Over The Iraq War. But I Never Stopped Talking.

What We Would Be Committed To Would Be A Representative Government Where All The Iraqi People Decide Who Should Lead Their Nation, And Lead It In A Way That Keeps It Together As A Single Nation And Where All Parts Of The Nation - Shia, Sunni And Kurds - Are Able To Live Free And In Peace And Believe That Their Interests Are Represented By The Government.

Let Me Just Be Candid: My Party Is Full Of Racists. And The Real Reason A Considerable Portion Of My Party Wants President Obama Out Of The White House Has Nothing To Do With The Content Of His Character, Nothing To Do With His Competence As Commander-in-chief And President, And Everything To Do With The Color Of His Skin. And That's Despicable.

Pissing People Off Doesn't Mean You're Doing The Right Things, But Doing The Right Things Will Almost Inevitably Piss People Off.

Keep Looking Below Surface Appearances. Don't Shrink From Doing So Just Because You Might Not Like What You Find.

If Everybody Trusts One Another, Then The Person Who Didn't Prevail Will Faithfully Execute The Decision As If It Was Their Idea.

1. It Ain't As Bad As You Think. It Will Look Better In The Morning. 2. Get Mad, Then Get Over It. 3. Avoid Having Your Ego So Close To Your Position That When Your Position Falls, Your Ego Goes With It. 4. It Can Be Done! 5. Be Careful What You Choose. You May Get It. 6. Don't Let Adverse Facts Stand In The Way Of A Good Decision. 7. You Can't Make Someone Else's Choices. You Shouldn't Let Someone Else Make Yours. 8. Check Small Things. 9. Share Credit. 10. Remain Calm. Be Kind.

Change Of Regime With Respect To Iraq Had Nothing To Do With This; It Had Everything To Do With The Fact That Iraq Had Weapons Of Mass Destruction. And At The Time Change In Regime As A Policy Came Into Effect In 1998, It Was Seen As The Only Way To Compel Iraq To Get Rid Of Its Weapons Of Mass Destruction.

Mass Destruction

I Would Not Presume From This Distance, Nor Would America Presume To Say Who Should Be The Leader Of The Iraqi Nation.

The Best Leaders Are Those Who Break That Mission Down Into The Organization's Constituent Parts, So That Everybody Understands Their Role And How It All Builds Into The Whole.

With Respect To Our Friends In The [iraq] Region, Each Has Its Own System, Each Will Have To Make Its Own Judgment As To Whether It Will Change, How Fast It Will Change, And We Hope That We Can Help Influence Them As To How Change Comes About And What Change Might Be Better For Them Than Other Forms Of Change.

I'm Not Active In Politics. I Vote As A Citizen. And If Somebody Cares To Know What My Opinion Is At The Time Of The Election, I Might Or Might Not Share It Publicly.

The United States Is Looking At A Way To Launch Peace With A Disarmed Iraq. And So We Are Studying The Declaration That Iraq Submitted. Other Members Of The Security Council Are Studying The Declaration, As Is Unmovic And Iaea, And I Would Not Make A Judgment As To Whether Or Not The Declaration Will Be Found Deficient And Whether Or Not That Might Lead To A Material Breach And Whether Or Not, If It Did, That Would Lead To Action On The Part Of The United Nations.

It's Nice To Say Let's Be Bipartisan. But We're A Partisan Nation. We Were Raised As A Partisan Nation.

I'm Going To Be Bringing People Into The Public Diplomacy Function Of The Department Who Are Going To Change From Just Selling Us In The Old Usia Way To Really Branding Foreign Policy, Branding The Department, Marketing The Department, Marketing American Values To The World And Not Just Putting Out Pamphlets.

Terrorism Threat Is Serious, And Not Just To American Interests. The Assaults In Russia Against Two Airliners, Bringing Them Out Of The Sky, And Against A Subway Station, And Then That Horrible Scene At The School In Beslan. This Kind Of Terrorist Activity No One Is Immune From It. And So It Suggests That We Have To Do Even More Together To Make Sure The Civilized Worlds Join Together In The War Against Terrorism.

Bad News Isn't Wine. It Doesn't Improve With Age.

The Ties That Bind Us Are Stronger Than The Occasional Stresses That Separate Us.

Look At The World. There Is No Pure Competitor To The United States Of America.

We Can Seldom Get Our Children To Do What We Tell Them, But They Almost Never Fail To Imitate Us.

Nobody Is Ready To Leave Iraq To Be Interviewed.

We Are Not Dictating. We Are Not Telling Them [saudi Arabia] How They Should Do It Or Who They Should Look Like. We Are Their Friends. We Have Mutual Interests And We Will Help Them In Any Way That Is Possible.

Mutual Interest

It Was The Congress That Imposed 'don't Ask, Don't Tell,' It Was Certainly My Position, My Recommendation To Get Us Out Of An Even Worse Outcome That Could Have Occurred.

Recommendations

Actually, There Is No More Important Task For A Leader Than To Pick People. To Make Sure You Have The Very Best People Working For You.

I Will Look For A Candidate, Republican Or Democrat, Who Seems To Be On The Way Or Understands How To Resolve The Economic Difficulties We're Having, How To Do Something About Unemployment, How To Make Sure That We Free Up Our Businesses And We Don't Over-regulate Ourselves.

Always Be Looking For The Opportunities, And Always Be Optimistic About What You Can Do With That Opportunity.

Being Optimistic

Respect For Leaders By Followers Can't Be Mandated; It Must Be Earned. It Has To Be Given To Leaders By Their Followers.

Just Hit My 75th Birthday, I'm Feeling Great!

Give Me The Right People And I Don’t Much Care What Organization You Give Me. Good Things Will Happen. Give Me The Wrong People And It Doesn’t Matter What You Do With The Organization. Bad Things Will Happen.

Have A Vision. Be Demanding.

President Reagan Fueled The Spirit Of America. His Smile, His Optimism, His Total Belief In The Ultimate Triumph Of Democracy And Freedom, And His Willingness To Act On That Belief, Helped End The Cold War And Usher In A New And Brighter Phase Of History.

What Could Be More Important Than Equipping The Next Generation With The Character And Competence They Need To Become Successful

When You Decide To Get Involved In A Military Operation In A Place Like Syria, You've Got To Be Prepared, As We Learned From Iraq And Afghanistan, To Become The Government, And I'm Not Sure Any Country, Either The United States Or I Don't Hear Of Anyone Else, Who's Willing To Take On That Responsibility.

In The Army, All Combat Officers Are Taught The "estimate Of The Situation": When You Are Faced With A Problem - Take That Hill, Or In Business Maybe Grow Your Market Share - The First Thing You Do Is To Make An Analysis Of Your Environment.

There Is No Such Thing As An Unimportant Person In An Organization.

The Chief Condition On Which, Life, Health And Vigor Depend On, Is Action. It Is By Action That An Organism Develops Its Faculties, Increases Its Energy, And Attains The Fulfillment Of Its Destiny.

You Should Never Be So Involved With Your Position/job That When The Position Is Gone Your Entire Self Image Is Gone With It.

I Want To Scare The Hell Out Of The Rest Of The World.

It Is Not Our Place To Decide Who Should Lead The Iraqi People. If Saddam [hussein] Leaves Or Has To Be Forced Out Of Power And A New Regime Brought In, A New Leadership Brought In, I Am Confident It Will Be Some Combination Of People Inside The Country And Outside The Country.

My Own Experience Is That You Get As Much Information As You Can And Then You Pay Attention To Your Intuition, To Your Informed Instinct.

I Don't Think Anyone Would Disagree With The Conclusion That Saddam [hussein] Was A Terrible Dictator. He Had Gassed His Own People And His Neighbors. He Had Killed Thousands Of People, And He Had Started A Couple Of Wars And Destroyed His Country.

Policies That Emanate From Ivory Towers Often Have An Adverse Impact On The People Out In The Field Who Are Fighting The Wars Or Bringing In The Revenues.

When We Have Dealt With Bin Laden And His Network We Will Then Broaden The Campaign To Go After Other Terrorists All Around The World.

Finding The Russian Scientists May Be A Problem Being That Russia Does Not Have A Social Security System, As Here In America, That Allows Us To Monitor, Track Down And Capture An American Citizen.

Security Systems

We Have To Start Thinking Of America As A Family. We Have To Stop Screeching Screeching At Each Other, Stop Hurting Each Other, And Instead Start Caring For, Sacrificing For And Sharing With Each Other ... We Cannot Move Forward If Cynics And Critics Swoop Down And Pick Apart Anything That Goes Wrong, To A Point Where We Lose Sight Of What Is Right, Decent And Uniquely Good About America.

Leaders Honor Their Core Values, But They Are Flexible In How They Execute Them.

I Don't Think We Handled The Aftermath Of The Fall Of Baghdad As Well As We Might Have. But That's Now History.

The Best Method Of Overcoming Obstacles Is The Team Method

All Values Are Important, Everyone Who Has Ever Touched My Life In Some Way Was A Mentor For Good Or Bad. Life Is A Blend, And A Person Is A Blend Of All The Influences That Have Touched Their Lives.

I Would Caution My Republican Friends That [obama Has] Three Years To Go, And In That Three Years The American People Are Going To Want To See Some Progress And Not Just Claims That This Guy Is Out Of Office And We're Going To Do Everything To Destroy Him Or That Somehow He Is A 'socialist' Taking Over The Country. Have We So Lost Our Faith In This Country That We Think One Person, One Man Can Be Can Suddenly Change Our Entire System? That's Kind Of Absurd.

Fit No Stereotypes. Don't Chase The Latest Management Fads. The Situation Dictates Which Approach Best Accomplishes The Team's Mission.

The United Nations Will Spearhead Our Efforts To Manage The New Conflicts (that Afflict Our World)... Yes The Principles Of The United Nations Charter Are Worth Our Lives, Our Fortunes, And Our Sacred Honor.

The United States-israeli Relationship Is Based On The Broadest Conception Of American National Interest In Which Our Two Nations Are Bound Forever Together By Common Democratic Values And Traditions. This Will Never Change.

He (saddam Hussein) Has Not Developed Any Significant Capability With Respect To Weapons Of Mass Destruction. He Is Unable To Project Conventional Power Against His Neighbours.

Mass Destruction

I'll Tell You What They're All Going To Face, Whichever One Of Them Becomes President On January 21st Of 2009. They Will Face A Military Force - A United States Military Force That Cannot Sustain - Continually Sustain 140,000 People Deployed In Iraq And The 20-odd Or 25,000 People We Have Deployed In Afghanistan And Our Other Deployments.

Trying To Get Everyone To Like You Is A Sign Of Mediocrity.

Don't Be Afraid To Challenge The Pros, Even In Their Own Backyard. Learn From The Pros, Observe Them, Seek Them Out As Mentors And Partners. But Remember That Even The Pros May Have Leveled Out In Terms Of Their Learning And Skills. Sometimes Even The Pros Can Become Complacent And Lazy.

I Have Seen Many Organizations Where There Is This Sense Of Purpose In The Headquarters But It Never Gets Cascaded Down To Everybody Within The Organization.

There Is No Suggestion Of Regime Change; Quite The Contrary, This Is An Initiative To Help People And To Help Governments Who Are Inclined Toward Change.

I Respect The Fact That Many Denominations Have Different Points Of View With Respect To Gay Marriage And They Can Hold That In The Sanctity In The Place Of Their Religion And Not Bless Them Or Solemnize Them.

I Want To See Policies That Encourage Every American To Vote, Not Make It More Difficult To Vote.

I Have Always Held The View That Decisive Force Should Be Used In Addressing A Military Conflict. The Reason Is Simple: Why Wouldn't You, If You Could?

That's Why The Army Sends All Its Future Generals To What We Call "charm School." As Soon As You Are A General, People Think That You Know Everything. You Think Yourself That You Have Become Omniscient And Omnipotent. Be Careful, Because People Want To Do Everything They Can To Please The General, And You Need To Guard Against This.

Excellence Is Not An Exception, It Is A Prevailing Attitude

Sometimes What My Analytical Mind Says To Me Is Not What I'll Do.

The Information That The Intelligence People Used Was A Combination Of Satellite Information, Signals Intelligence, And Human Intelligence. We Are Not Sure To What Extent Saddam [hussein] Was Trying To Convey An Incorrect Picture To Us.

I Strongly Believe That At This Point In America's History, We Need A President That Will Not Just Continue, Even With A New Face And With Some Changes And With Some Maverick Aspects, Who Will Not Just Continue, Basically, The Policies We Have Been Following In Recent Years. I Think We Need A Transformational Figure. I Think We Need A President Who Is A Generational Change.

I've Voted For Republicans Who Were Strong On Defense, Who Believed In A Free And Open Economy But Who Also Understood That There's A Place For Government In Our Lives, That Government Has A Responsibility To Those Of Our Citizens Who Are In Need And Those Of Our Citizens Who Are Needy Of Health Care.

Always Show More Kindness Than Seems Necessary, Because The Person Receiving It Needs It More Than You Will Ever Know.

Never Neglect Details. When Everyone's Mind Is Dulled Or Distracted The Leader Must Be Doubly Vigilant.

My Own Experience Is Use The Tools That Are Out There. Use The Digital World. But Never Lose Sight Of The Need To Reach Out And Talk To Other People Who Don't Share Your View. Listen To Them And See If You Can Find A Way To Compromise.

Experts Often Possess More Data Than Judgment.

The Burden Is On Saddam Hussein. And Our Policy, Our National Policy - Not The Un Policy But Our National Policy - Is That The Regime Should Be Changed Until Such Time As He Demonstrates That It Is Not Necessary To Change The Regime Because The Regime Has Changed Itself.

Don't Just Show Kindness In Passing Or To Be Courteous. Show It In Depth, Show It With Passion, And Expect Nothing In Return. Kindness Is Not Just About Being Nice; It's About Recognizing Another Human Being Who Deserves Care And Respect.

The Less You Associate With Some People, The More Your Life Will Improve. Any Time You Tolerate Mediocrity In Others, It Increases Your Mediocrity. An Important Attribute In Successful People Is Their Impatience With Negative Thinking And Negative Acting People.

I'm Absolutely Sure That There Are Weapons Of Mass Destruction There And The Evidence Will Be Forthcoming. We're Just Getting It Just Now.

Mass Destruction

I Think The American People Want To See What We Want To See, And That Is For The Iraqi People To Have A Free, Open, Fair Election, For Their Forces To Be Built Up, For Our Reconstruction Money To Be Used Well, And For Iraqi Security Forces To Take Over So We Can Start Bringing Our Troops Home.

Don't Let Adverse Facts Stand In The Way Of A Good Decision.

Have A Sense Of Humor To Break The Tension In Times Of Great Toil.

Leaders Have Followers. The Primary Role Of A Leader Is To Convey To Those Followers A Sense Of Purpose, Vision, And Mission.

Poverty Arises And Persists Where Corruption Is Endemic And Enterprise Is Stifled, Where Basic Fairness Provided By The Rule Of Law Is Absent. In Such Circumstances, Poverty Is An Assault Against Human Dignity, And In That Assault Lies The Natural Seed Of Human Anger

The United States Is Not Stingy. We Are The Greatest Contributor To International Relief Efforts In The World.

The Essence Of Leadership Is Building Bonds Of Trust In Your Organization.

Even The Greatest Of All Strategists Must Occasionally Take Into Account The Presence Of An Enemy.

It Is The Us Government's Desire For The Iraqi People To Lead Themselves, Not For Any Outside Power To Be The Leadership For Iraq In The Future. There May Be Some Transition Period Where The International Community Would Have To Help The Iraqi People Put In Place A Representative Government. But That Is The Goal, Not For The United States, Or Any Other Nation, For That Matter, Who Might Be In Such A Coalition, If One Is Formed, To Serve As The Leader Of The Iraqi Nation.

Good And Solid Analysis And A Formal Way Of Looking At A Problem [are The Core Ingredients Of Good Decisions].

There Are Lots Of Countries That Are Having These Kinds Of Internal Civil Wars In Other Parts Of The World And Nobody Is Talking About Intervening.

A Dream Doesn't Become Reality Through Magic; It Takes Sweat, Determination And Hard Work.

The Person Who Will Decide Whether Or Not There Will Be War Or Peace Is Saddam Hussein, And All He Has To Do Is Give Up These Terrible Weapons That He Has Used To Kill Fellow Arabs, Fellow Muslims In That Part Of The World, And To Step Away From His Past Behaviour Which Invaded Neighbouring Countries.

The Day Soldiers Stop Bringing You Their Problems Is The Day You Have Stopped Leading Them.

Wouldn't It Be Great If We Could Look Forward To A Whole World In Which No Child Will Be Left Behind?

I Have Always Gone Through Public Life And Saying That With Respect To Political Candidates, I Always Measure Each Candidate Against What I Think The Country Needs At That Time, And I Will Vote For The Person I Think Who Is Most Qualified To Serve The Nation At That Time.

Our Strategy In Going After This Army Is Very Simple. First We Are Going To Cut It Off, And Then We Are Going To Kill It.

Today I Can Declare My Hope And Declare It From The Bottom Of My Heart That We Will Eventually See The Time When That Number Of Nuclear Weapons Is Down To Zero And The World Is A Much Better Place.

Let's Not Forget That Congress Bears A Lot Of Responsibility For Many Of The Problems We Have Now

In The Army We Are Drilled Into Execution And Then Supervision, To Make Sure Everything Goes The Way You Planned It. But There Is Another Thing That We Do In The Military, That I Think Perhaps Isn't Done Enough In Corporate Life: As Soon As You Have Made That Decision, You Start On The Contingency Planning. Because There Is, As We Like To Say, A Thinking, Breathing Enemy Out There, Who Is Not Going To Let You Do Just What You Want.

Saudi Arabia Will Have To Decide Its Own Path, And I Don't Know If It Will Decide A Path Like Any Other Nation In The Region Or If It Will Design Something That Is Unique To Saudi Arabia.

You Should See What Our Founding Fathers Used To Say To Each Other And In The Early Part Of Our Nation. But What They Were Able To Do, Especially In Philadelphia In 1787, Four Months, They Argued About What A House Should Be, What A Senate Should Be, The Power Of The President, The Congress, The Supreme Court. And They Had To Deal With Slavery.

There's No Doubt In My Mind, Though, That The Iraqi People Would Be Better Off With A Different Leader Who Did Not Waste Their Oil On Weapons, As Opposed To Education, As Opposed To Healthcare, As Opposed To Food, As Opposed To Roads, As Opposed To Clean Water. It Is Really Sinful, A Crime, What Saddam Hussein Has Done With The Wealth Of The Iraqi People Over The Last 30 Years.

How Often Have We Seen Politicians Take A Principle Position Only To Give It Up Three Days Later? That Is What Makes Democracy So Fascinating.

As I've Thought About Gay Marriage, I Don't See Any Reason Not To Say That [couples] Should Be Able To Get Married.

Marriage Equality

America Has A Terrible Educational Problem In The Sense That We Have Too Many Youngsters Not Finishing School. A Third Of Our Kids Don't Finish High School, 50 Percent Of Minorities Don't Finish High School.

Every Organization Needs To Be Introspective, Transparent, And Honest With Itself. This Only Works If Everyone Is Unified On The Goals And Purposes Of The Organization And There Is Trust Within The Team. High-performing, Successful Organizations Build Cultures Of Introspection And Trust And Never Lose Sight Of Their Purpose.

90 Percent Of My Time Is Spent On 10 Percent Of The World.

There Can Be No Doubt That Saddam Hussein Has Biological Weapons And The Capability To Rapidly Produce More, Many More.

Generally You Should Act Somewhere Between P40 And P70, As I Call It. Sometime After You Have Obtained 40 Percent Of All The Information You Are Liable To Get, Start Thinking In Terms Of Making A Decision. When You Have About 70 Percent Of All The Information, You Probably Ought To Decide, Because You May Lose An Opportunity In Losing Time.

Trust Is The Glue That Holds An Org Together & The Lubricant That Moves It Forward.

It Is The Fault Of The United States That These Terrible People, These Insurgents And Terrorists Are Out There. They Are The Ones That We Ought To Be Focusing Our Energy On Defeating And Not Just Wring Our Hands About The Fact That It's Going To Be Difficult.

Fear Is A Normal Human Emotion. It Is Not In Itself A Killer. We Can Learn To Be Aware When Fear Grips Us, And Can Train To Operate Through And In Spite Of Our Fear. If, On The Other Hand, We Don't Understand That Fear Is Normal And Has To Be Controlled And Overcome, It Will Paralyze Us And Stop Us In Our Tracks. We Will No Longer Think Clearly Or Analyze Rationally. We Prepare For It And Control It; We Never Let It Control Us. It If Does, We Cannot Lead.

Being In Charge Sometimes Means Making People Mad. Some Days You Have To Overrule Even The Best Advice, Because You Think It Is Not Right.

The United States Stands Willing To Work With A Transformed Palestinian Authority With New Leaders Coming To The Front.

You Can't Just Have Slogans, You Can't Just Have Catchy Phrases. You Have To Have An Agenda. And I Think What The Republican Party Has To Do, If It's Going To Incorporate The Tea Party Efforts In It, Is To Come Up With An Agenda That The American People Can See, Touch, And Actually Believe In, And Something They Believe In.

The One Thing The Terrorists Cannot Do -- Not One Of Them, Not 10 Of Them, Not 10,000 Of Them -- They Cannot Change Who We Are.

The Greatest Gifts My Parents Gave To Me...were Their Unconditional Love And A Set Of Values.

Unconditional Love

One Important Element Of Leadership Is Taking Care Of The Troops.

Many Interviewers When They Come To Talk To Me, Think They're Being Progressive By Not Mentioning In Their Stories Any Longer That I'm Black. I Tell Them, 'don't Stop Now. If I Shot Somebody You'd Mention It.'

Good Leaders Set Vision, Missions, And Goals. Great Leaders Inspire Every Follower At Every Level To Internalize Their Purpose, And To Understand That Their Purpose Goes Far Beyond The Mere Details Of Their Job. When Everyone Is United In Purpose, A Positive Purpose That Serves Not Only The Organization But Also, Hopefully, The World Beyond It, You Have A Winning Team.

Giving Back Involves A Certain Amount Of Giving Up.

One Of The Fondest Expressions Around Is That We Can't Be The World's Policeman. But Guess Who Gets Called When Suddenly Someone Needs A Cop.

We Want To Approach This In A Multilateral Way, Talking With Our Friends, Consulting With Our Security Council Colleagues In The United Nations, Hoping To Find A Way To Solve This Peacefully, But At The Same Time Recognising That Unless The Threat Of Military Force Is There, Iraq Will Not Disarm.

Is There Something Wrong With Being A Muslim In This Country? The Answer Is "no." That's Not America.

Don't Bother People For Help Without First Trying To Solve The Problem Yourself.

Once The Information Is In The 40 To 70 Range, Go With Your Gut.

There Is A War On Terror That Must Be Fought. Nobody's Immune... And So Rather Than Finding Fault With What Spain Has Done By Being Aggressive In The War On Terror, This Should Redouble Everyone's Efforts To Go After Terrorist Organizations Of Any Kind... Terror Has To Be Brought To An End.

We Are Not Sure To What Extent Saddam's [hussein ] Own People Were Conveying An Incorrect Picture To Him. But This Body Of Evidence Was Believed Not Only By President George W. Bush. President Bill Clinton Used That Same Body Of Intelligence Before Bombing Iraq In 1998.

So Like Any Football Or Basketball Coach, You Always Always Believe You're Going To Win.

The Commander In The Field Is Always Right And The Rear Echelon Is Wrong, Unless Proved Otherwise.

One Thing The Military Does Far Better Than Business Is Train Its Own Leaders. I Can't Go To Ibm And Hire A Battalion Commander. They Don't Have Any.

An Organization That Is Not Facing Up To People Who Are Not Getting The Job Done, Is Going To Have Difficulties.

We Are Not Going To Dwell On Those Things That Divide Us. We Are Going To Rejoice In Those Things That Keep Us Together To Make This A Better Country - To Reach Down And Back To Touch Every Young Person In Need!

Leadership Is The Art Of Accomplishing More Than The Science Of Management Says Is Possible.

Economy's Got To Get Moving, We've Got To Get The Unemployment Rate Down. That May Be The Defining Issue Of The Campaign.

Another Rule I Have Is: Don't Let Your Ego Get Tied Up In A Policy Dispute. Otherwise, If Things Don't Go Your Way, You Can End Up Breaking A Relationship With Somebody With Whom You Can't Afford To Break.

The Media Only Report Stupid Or Careless Answers, Not Stupid Or Unfair Questions.

Let Me Blow That Up For You Again.

We Have To Be On Guard That We Don't Spend So Much Time Worrying About Terrorism And Guarding Ourselves That We Start To Lose The Essence Of Who We Are As An Open, Freedom-loving People, Welcoming To The Rest Of The World.

I Think The Iranians Are Clearly Determined To Have A Nuclear Program. And We Have To Assume That With A Nuclear Program They Have The Capability And The Will To Create A Nuclear Weapon.

If You Are Black, If You Are Puerto Rican Or Hispanic, Be Proud Of That. But Don't Let It Become A Problem. Let It Become Somebody Else's Problem.

The United States Has Every Intention Of Continuing To Do The Kind Of Reconnaissance And Surveillance Work We Have Done For Decades, Well Known To Everyone, That Is Essential To Protect Our National Security, And Frankly, The Security Of Our Friends In Various Regions Of The World. It Is Part Of Our Collection System.

We Have Gone Forth From Our Shores Repeatedly Over The Last Hundred Years And We've Done This As Recently As The Last Year In Afghanistan And Put Wonderful Young Men And Women At Risk, Many Of Whom Have Lost Their Lives, And We Have Asked For Nothing Except Enough Ground To Bury Them In, And Otherwise We Have Returned Home To Seek Our Own Lives In Peace.

I Have Always Tried To Do My Job In A Way That I Have People Give Me Different Points Of View.

We Are Rather Candid With Them About The Nature Of Their Political Processes And The State Of Development Of Their Institutions, But They Are Looking To The West Because They Know That's Where Success Lies.

None Of Us Can Change Our Yesterdays But All Of Us Can Change Our Tomorrows.

Each Of Us Must Work To Become A Hardheaded Realist, Or Else We Risk Wasting Our Time And Energy On Pursuing Impossible Dreams. Yet Constant Naysayers Pursue No Less Impossible Dreams. Their Fear And Cynicism Move Nothing Forward. They Kill Progress. How Many Cynics Built Empires, Great Cities, Or Powerful Corporations?

We Got Rid Of A Terrible Dictator. We Gave The Iraqi People An Opportunity For A New Life Under A Representative Form Of Government.

I'm Sleeping Like A Baby, Too. Every Two Hours, I Wake Up, Screaming.

Surround Yourself With People Who Take Their Work Seriously, But Not Themselves, Those Who Work Hard And Play Hard.

Failure Is A Part Of Life And You Have To Learn To Deal With It. Failure Is Something That Is Part Of Life's Cycle And It's From Failure That You Gain Life Experience.

Life Experience

We Need Stable Regimes In This Part Of The World [the Mideast] Who Will Be Partners And Friends Of Ours, Because The Fact Of The Matter Is We Do Rely On Imported Oil To Fuel Our Economy And To Fuel Our Nation.

Politics Is Different, Because The Mission Is Always To Get The Necessary Votes. A Good Politician Goes Through Everything In Terms Of Mission And Vision, And Resourcing, But At The End Of The Day Politicians Have To Make Compromises In Order To Achieve Consensus.

The End Of The Day

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Michelle Shocked

Katherine Anne Porter

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