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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.

-Colin Powell

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The Less You Associate

Colin Powell

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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.

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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.

You Can Never Err By Treating Everyone In The Building With Respect, Thoughtfulness, And A Kind Word. Everyone Of Our Employees Is An Essential Employee. Every One Of Them Wants To Be Viewed That Way. And If You Treat Them That Way, They Will View You That Way. They Will Not Let You Down Or Let You Fail. They Will Accomplish Whatever You Have Put In Front Of Them.

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.

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.

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.

I Think All Of The Attention Of The World, To Include The Attention Of The Arab World, Should Be On Saddam Hussein And Whether Or Not He Is Prepared To Give Up The Weapons Of Mass Destruction That He Has Used To Terrorise The Region.

Mass Destruction

Decision-making Is Lonely.

Decision Making

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

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

Leadership Is Solving Problems. The Day Soldiers Stop Bringing You Their Problems Is The Day You Have Stopped Leading Them. They Have Either Lost Confidence That You Can Help Or Concluded You Do Not Care. Either Case Is A Failure Of Leadership.

Every Human Endeavor Has Leaders And Followers, And Your Job As A Leader Is To Inspire.

Let Me Blow That Up For You Again.

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

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

When We Are Debating An Issue, Loyalty Means Giving Me Your Honest Opinion, Whether You Think I'll Like It Or Not. Disagreement, At This State, Stimulates Me. But Once A Decision Is Made, The Debate Ends. From That Point On, Loyalty Means Executing The Decision As If It Were Your Own.

War Should Be The Politics Of Last Resort. And When We Go To War, We Should Have A Purpose That Our People Understand And Support.

Bahrain Is Moving At One Pace, Morocco Another, Qatar At Another, Kuwait At Yet Another. And We Are There To Assist Our Friends.

Leadership Is Solving Problems.

Problem Solving

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

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.

I Think The American People Are Sophisticated Enough And Wise Enough To Make Judgments About The Candidates And Wade Through The Charges And Countercharges That Come With The [election 2004] Campaign.

When You Help The Poorest In The World, You Start To Move Them Up An Economic And Social Ladder, And They're Not Going To Be Moving Toward Violence Or Terrorism Of The Kind That We Worry About.

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

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.

The Freedom To Do Your Best Means Nothing Unless You Are Willing To Do Your Best.

Some Of The Generals Are Saying, 'we're Making Progress. We Are Clearing An Area.' But You Really Don't Defeat The Taliban By Clearing An Area. They Move.

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

First You Train The Followers To Accomplish The Mission. Second, You Resource Them: Make Sure That They Have The Tools To Do The Job. Third, You Reward Them: You Give Them Medals Or Bonuses.

Terrorism Really Flourishes In Areas Of Poverty, Despair And Hopelessness, Where People See No Future

A Mirror Reflects A Man's Face, But What He Is Really Like Is Shown By The Kind Of Friends He Chooses.

Company You Keep

Don't Be Afraid To Challenge The Pros, Even In Their Own Backyard.

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.

This Is About Americans Getting Off The Sidelines And Getting Onto The Playing Field, .. This Is About Each And Every One Of Us Who Have Been Blessed By The Wealth Of This Country Sharing That Blessing By Reaching Down And Reaching Back And Lifting Up Somebody In Need. That's What America Is All About. That's What Being American Is All About.

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

For All The Hardship, I Was Still Excited To Be On The Trail, Testing My Endurance, Feeling Especially Alive As Strength And Fatigue Flowed Alternately Through My Limbs.

Time Is Passing, ... We Have To Look At The Reality Of The Situation And ... Redouble Our Efforts And Get On With It.

Our Senior Officers Knew The War Was Going Badly. Yet They Bowed To Groupthink Pressure And Kept Up Pretenses. ...many Of My Generation, The Career Captains, Majors, And Lieutenant Colonels Seasoned In That War, Vowed That When Our Turn Came To Call The Shots, We Would Not Quietly Acquiesce In Halfhearted Warfare For Half-baked Reasons That The American People Could Not Understand.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The Long Bitter Years Of The Cold War Are Over. America And Her Allies Have Won; Totally, Decisively, And Overwhelmingly....so Thank You Sac. Job Well Done. Enjoy Your Retirement.

I Understand That And I Have Had Very Candid Discussions With Saudi Leaders In The Past. I Respect Their Culture And Their Heritage And Their Traditions, But I Think That They Now, As They Move Forward, Will Have To Start Examining These Traditions And These Practices To See Whether Or Not Change Is Appropriate.

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

The President's Personal Staff Has A Unique Role.

If You Are Going To Achieve Excellence In Big Things, You Develop The Habit In Little Matters. Excellence Is Not An Exception, It Is A Prevailing Attitude.

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.

This Is Something Else That Is Drilled Into Us In The Military: Make Sure You Know Who Your Replacement Is, In Case You Become A Casualty. So You Have To Have Depth Within An Organization.

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.

Experts Often Possess More Data Than Judgment.

Organization Doesn't Really Accomplish Anything. Plans Don't Accomplish Anything, Either. Theories Of Management Don't Much Matter. Endeavors Succeed Or Fail Because Of The People Involved. Only By Attracting The Best People Will You Accomplish Great Deeds.

War Is Never A Happy Solution, But It May Be The Only Solution. We Must Exhaustively Explore Other Possible Solutions Before We Make The Choice For War. Every Political And Diplomatic Effort Should Be Made To Avoid War While Achieving Your Objective.

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.

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.

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.

Remain Calm, Be Kind.

Don't Just Count Your Days, Make Your Days Count.

I Don't Know That There Is Much The United States Can Do Except Work With The International Community.

I Recommended To The President [george Bush] That Our Focus Had To Be On Al-qaida, The Taliban And Afghanistan. Those Were The Ones Who Attacked The United States Of America On 9/11.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The Most Important Thing I Learned Is That Soldiers Watch What Their Leaders Do. You Can Give Them Classes And Lecture Them Forever, But It Is Your Personal Example They Will Follow.

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

It Was Not The United States Who Invaded Kuwait; It Was Iraq. It Was Not The United States That Went To War With Iran; It Was Iraq. It Was Not The United States That Fired Chemical Weapons At Iran; It Was Iraq. And It Was Not The United States That Murdered Innocent Iraqi Citizens With Chemical Weapons; It Was Iraq.

If A Leader Doesn't Convey Passion And Intensity Then There Will Be No Passion And Intensity Within The Organization And They'll Start To Fall Down And Get Depressed.

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.

Almost Invariably, Whoever Doesn't Win The Argument Is Going To Be Unhappy.

We Are Not Shrinking From Talking To Saudis Or Anyone Else In The Region, But It Is Up To Each Nation In The Region To Decide On Its Own How It Will Proceed And At What Pace. There Are Other Nations In The Region That Had Similar Policies To Saudi Arabia That Are Starting To Make Changes, Such As Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Morocco. And So It Takes Time But When You See The Need For Such Changes, Then Changes Tend To Follow.

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.

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.

Have A Vision. Be Demanding.

You Have To Create Circumstances Where Your First-tier Leader Knows What You Are Trying To Accomplish, Because He Is The One Who's Going To Get It Done.

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.

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

You Can't Get It All Done Yourself. The Best Leaders Are Not Afraid Of Picking People Who Are Better Than They Are And Who May One Day Replace Them.

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

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.

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 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.

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

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.

Leadership Is All About People … And Getting The Most Out Of People.

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

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.

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

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 Can Think Of Nothing That Saddam Hussein Can Do Diplomatically (to Avoid War). I Think That Time Is Now Over. He's Had His Chance, He Has Had Many Chances Over The Last 12 Years And He Has Blown Every One Of Those Chances.

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

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.

The Troops May Whine And Moan, But When They Meet The Standard, There's A Sense Of Pride.

Be Careful What You Choose: You May Get It.

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?

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

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.

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.

I Worked With The Nato Military Committee. The Head Of The Luxembourg Armed Forces Had Equal Standing With Me, And I Had To Respect That. He Was The Leader Of The Armed Forces Of A Sovereign Country. I Had To Make Sure He Never Thought That I Was Looking Down On Them, Merely Because They Had Less Power Than We Did. With That Kind Of Approach You Can Develop Bonds Of Trust. I Tried To Do The Same Thing With My Colleagues When I Was Secretary Of State.

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.

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.

The Bottom Line In All Of It Is That, In Life, It's All About People.

We Know That Saddam Hussein Is Determined To Keep His Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Is Determined To Make More.

Mass Destruction

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.

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.

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

I Was Born In Harlem, Raised In The South Bronx, Went To Public School, Got Out Of Public College, Went Into The Army, And Then I Just Stuck With It.

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

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.

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.

When You Wrestle With A Pig, He Has Fun, And You Just End Up Dirty.

Excellence Is Not An Exception, It Is A Prevailing Attitude

Effective Leaders Are Made, Not Born. They Learn From Trial And Error, And From Experience.

Trial And Error

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 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.

Leadership Is All About People. It Is Not About Organizations. It Is Not About Plans. It Is Not About Strategies. It Is All About People-motivating People To Get The Job Done. You Have To Be People-centered.

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

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.

With Respect To Where We Are Now, We Have A Voluntary Army. And If We Ever Go Back To Conscription I Hope That At Time It Will Be The Kind Of Conscription That Was Put In At The End Of The Vietnam War. And That Is, Everybody Is Equally Liable To Be Called To Serve The Nation In Time Of Conflict.

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

One Of The Greatest Talents Of All Is The Talent To Recognize And To Develop Talent In Others.

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.

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.

We Knew That Al-qaida Was A Threat To Our Country. We Knew That The Clinton Administration Understood This And Was Working Against Al-qaida We Did Not Ignore Al-qaida. We Spent A Lot Of Our Time Thinking About Terrorism, What Should We Do About It.

The United States Presents A Value System To The World That Is Based On Democracy, Based On Economic Freedom, Based On Individual Rights For Men And Women, .. I Think That Is What Makes Us Such A Draw For Nations Around The World. People Come To The United States To Be Educated, To Become Americans. We Are A Country Of Countries And We Touch Every Country, And Every Country In World Touches Us.

Don't Take Counsel Of Your Fears Or Naysayers.

It Is The Job Of Leaders To Eliminate Uncertainty.

Over The Years, The United States Has Sent Many Of Its Fine Young Men And Women Into Great Peril To Fight For Freedom Beyond Our Borders. The Only Amount Of Land We Have Ever Asked For In Return Is Enough To Bury Those That Did Not Return.

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.

Perpetual Optimism Is A Force Multiplier. I Am Talking About A Gung-ho Attitude That Says 'we Can Change Things Here, We Can Achieve Awesome Goals, We Can Be The Best. 'spare Me The Grim Litany Of The 'realist;' Give Me The Unrealistic Aspirations Of The Optimist Any Day.

Being Responsible Sometimes Means Pissing People Off.

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

When I Was Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs Of Staff, I Would Still Have Junior Officers Brief Me. Usually These People Knew More About The Subject We Were Discussing Than I Did. I Had To Make Sure That They Felt Confident Enough To Tell Me Everything They Believed.

Some People Naturally Have A Sense Of Empathy And An Understanding Of How To Bring Their Followers To Do Things. They Become Great Politicians.

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

We All Hoped In 2001 That We Could Put In Place An Afghan Government Under President Karzai That Would Be Able To Control The Country, Make Sure Al-qaeda Didn't Come Back, And Make Sure The Taliban Wasn't Resurging. It Didn't Work Out.

I Would Sit And Talk To Any President Who Wishes To Talk To Me, But I'm Not Anxious To Rule It In.

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.

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.

You Can't Make Someone Else's Choices. You Shouldn't Let Someone Else Make Yours.

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.

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.

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

I Can't Deny That It Will Be A Historic Event For An African-american To Become President. And Should That Happen, All Americans Should Be Proud - Not Just African-americans, But All Americans - That We Have Reached This Point In Our National History Where Such A Thing Could Happen. It Will Also Not Only Electrify Our Country, I Think It'll Electrify The World.

African American

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

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.

No Matter How Significant Or Life-changing Your Greatest Hit Or Miss Might Be, Neither Even Begins To Define Who You Are. Each Of Us Is A Product Of All Our Experiences And All Our Interactions With Other People. To Cite Calculus, We Are The Area Under The Curve.

Interaction With Others

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.

It Remains Our Policy To Change The Regime Until Such Time As The Regime Changes Itself. So Far, We Cannot Be Sure That He Is Cooperating Or He [saddam Hussein] Is Acting In A Way That Could Give Us Comfort, Or Should Give The International Community Comfort, That He Is Giving Up His Weapons Of Mass Destruction. He Continues To Give Us Statements That Suggest He Is Not In Possession Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction When We Know He Is.

Mass Destruction

Trust Is The Essence Of Leadership.

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.

There Is Only One China. Taiwan Is Not Independent. It Does Not Enjoy Sovereignty As A Nation.

Nobody Is Ready To Leave Iraq To Be Interviewed.

You Don't Know What You Can Get Away With Until You Try.

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.

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

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

But Just As They Did In Philadelphia When They Were Writing The Constitution, Sooner Or Later, You've Got To Compromise. You've Got To Start Making The Compromises That Arrive At A Consensus And Move The Country Forward.

Ladies And Gentlemen, These Are Not Assertions. These Are Facts, Corroborated By Many Sources, Some Of Them Sources Of The Intelligence Services Of Other Countries.

Intelligence Services

Look For Intelligence And Judgment And, Most Critically, A Capacity To Anticipate, To See Around Corners. Also Look For Loyalty, Integrity, A High Energy Drive, A Balanced Ego And The Drive To Get Things Done.

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

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

Being Optimistic

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.

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.

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

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.

Always Focus On The Front Windshield And Not The Review Mirror.

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.

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.

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

Well, The Correct Answer Is He Is Not A Muslim, He’s A Christian. He’s Always Been A Christian. But The Really Right Answer Is, What If He Is? Is There Something Wrong With Being A Muslim In This Country?

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.

No War On The Face Of The Earth Is More Destructive Than The Aids Pandemic.

Get Mad, Then Get Over It.

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

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.'

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

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

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.

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

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 United States Is Still Seen As The Leader At The World That Wants To Be Free.

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.

Nobody Wants To Be In A Mediocre Organization. You Don't Have The Same Energy Flowing Through.

I Regret That The Presentation I Made At The Un Turned Out To Be Wrong. It Was Wrong On The Stockpiles Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction, But Pretty Much Right On Intentions And Capabilities.

Mass Destruction

We View Egypt As A Good Friend Of America. We Are In Constant Touch With Them. We Provide Them Economic And Military Assistance As Part Of Our Relationship.

But You Have To Understand, American Democracy Is Not Like The System You Have. We're Not An Ocean Liner That Sails Across The Ocean From Point A To Point B At 30 Knots. That's Not American Democracy. American Democracy Is Kind Of Like A Life Raft That Bobs Around The Ocean All The Time. Your Feet Are Always Wet. Winds Are Always Blowing. You're Cold. You're Wet. You're Uncomfortable -- But You Never Sink.

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Daniel Keys Moran

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