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We Have To Fight The Terrorists As If There Were No Rules And Preserve Our Open Society As If There Were No Terrorists.
-Thomas Friedman
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We Have To Fight

Thomas Friedman
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We Have To Fight The Terrorists As If There Were No Rules And Preserve Our Open Society As If There Were No Terrorists.

Understanding the Quote: "we have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules..."

This quote by Thomas Friedman reflects deeply on the theme of fighting. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Fighting, Terrorist, Preserves, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Thomas Friedman interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Thomas Friedman

Thomas Friedman is celebrated for insightful thoughts on fighting and terrorist. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 47779
Topic
Fighting
Terrorist
Preserves
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Today, Natural Gas Now Outstrips Coal As The Leading Provider Of Electricity In America. If This Is As Big As People Believe It Is, Natural Gas Will Soon Be Powering Trucks And Marine Ships. Maybe Even Standard Commercial Cars That People Use At Home Through Compressed Natural Gas, Other Gas To Liquids. The Potential Is There For More Energy Independence By America And A Reliance On Cleaner Fuel - Natural Gas Emits Half As Much As Coal, In Terms Of Carbon Emissions. That's A Real Bounty.
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That's Right-the Striking Thing About Greenhouse Gases Is The Diversity Of Sources That Emit Them. A Herd Of Cattle Belching Can Be Worse Than Highway Full Of Hummers.
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Thinking
Our President's Latest Energy Initiative Was To Go To Saudi Arabia And Beg King Abdullah To Give Us A Little Relief On Gasoline Prices. I Guess There Was Some Justice In That. When You, The President, After 9/11, Tell The Country To Go Shopping Instead Of Buckling Down To Break Our Addiction To Oil, It Ends With You, The President, Shopping The World For Discount Gasoline.
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To Me The Smart Thing That Governments In The Middle East Would Be Doing Right Now Is Taking Their Oil And Gas Fountain - And The Smartest Ones Are To Some Degree - And Making Sure They're Investing In Their People To Unlock Their Potential - Men And Women.
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Men
Oil
When People Get Frustrated, It's When They Feel They Are Living In A Context That Deprives Them Of Dignity, Deprives Them Of Justice And Deprives Them Of The Freedom To Realize Their Full Potential, And That To Me Is What The Arab Awakening Was All About. I Think It Applied To Every Country, And So I Have Been An Unmitigated Supporter Of It.
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Thinking
People
Tap Into People's Dignity And They Will Do Anything For You. Ignore It, And They Won't Lift A Finger.
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People
Dignity
If You Don't Have An Ethic Of Conservation, You Basically Have A License To Drive A Hummer Through The Amazon.
Amazon
Ethics
Conservation
The Golden Straitjacket Is The Defining Political-economic Garment Of Globalization. [...] The Tighter You Wear It, The More Gold It Produces.
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Gold
Defining
When Widely Followed Public Figures Feel Free To Say Anything, Without Any Fact-checking, It Becomes Impossible For A Democracy To Think Intelligently About Big Issues.
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Issues
Democracy
I Was In Bangalore, India, The Silicon Valley Of India, When I Realized That The World Was Flat.
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Valleys
World
No Matter What Your Profession – Doctor, Lawyer, Architect, Accountant – If You Are An American, You Better Be Good At The Touchy-feely Service Stuff, Because Anything That Can Be Digitized Can Be Outsourced To Either The Smartest Or The Cheapest Producer.
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Matter
Stuff
America Is Interested In Change And Reform In The Middle East But In A Stable Way.
America
Middle East
Reform
You Always Have To Remember That Mother Nature Is A Lot Like Your Body. If Your Temperature Goes From 98.6 To 100.6, You Don't Feel So Good. If It Goes From 100.6 To 102.6, Well, You Call The Doctor. If It Goes From 102.6 To 104.6, You're In The Emergency Room At A Hospital. The Same With Mother Nature - Small Changes In Global Average Temperatures Have A Huge Climate Effect.
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Remember
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People
Full Potential
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Optimism
Strategy
We Are Entering A Hyperconnected World Where Every Boss Now Has More Access, Cheap Access To Cheap Labor, Cheap Genius, Cheap Robot, Cheap Software, And Then This World Averages Over. There Is Only One Answer To That, And That Is To Get Everyone As Close As Possible To Some Form Of Post-secondary Education, It Could Be Vocational, It Can Be Liberal Arts, It Can Be Science And Technology.
Art
Technology
Average
Pessimists Are Usually Right And Optimists Are Usually Wrong But All The Great Changes Have Been Accomplished By Optimists.
Change
Optimistic
Optimism And Pessimism
The Financial Crisis Just Made The Hole Deeper, Which Is Why Our Stimulus Needs To Be Both Big And Smart, Both Financially And Educationally Stimulating. It Needs To Be Able To Produce Not Only More Shovel-ready Jobs And Shovel-ready Workers, But More Google-ready Jobs And Windows-ready And Knowledge-ready Workers.
Jobs
Smart
Science
Everything I’ve Ever Gotten In Life Is Largely Due To The Fact That I Was Born In This Country, America, At This Time With These Opportunities For Its Citizens. It Is The Primary Obligation Of Our Generation To Turn Over A Similar America To Our Kids.
Country
Kids
Opportunity
I Don't Think The Arab Spring Had Much To Do With Energy. I Think It Was Just The Opposite, In Fact. I Think The Arab Spring Happened Because Particularly Young People Knew They Were Living In A Context Where They Could Not Realize Their Full Potential, That They Are Being Kept Down By Their Own Governments.
Spring
Thinking
Government
A 2011 Report Produced By Forrester Research Estimated That The Revenue Generated Through The Sales Of Smartphone And Tablet Applications Will Reach $38 Billion Annually By 2015. Think About That: An Industry That Did Not Exist In 2006 Will Be Generating $38 Billion In Revenues Within A Decade. . . .
Thinking
Smartphones
Tablets
I Love America. I Think It's The Best Country In The World. But I Also Think We're Not Tending To Our Sauce.
Country
Thinking
America
Water Is Our Next Great Environmental Challenge. It Is The New Oil. How Are We Going To Preserve This Sport Unless We Are Designing And Maintaining Golf Courses That Are Energy Net Zero, Carbon Net Zero And Water Net Zero? Or Ideally, Energy Positive, Carbon Positive And Water Positive, Where They Are Taking Out More Than They Are Using.
Sports
Golf
Water
What Is The Most Entrepreneurial Country In The Middle East Today? It's Lebanon. Which Country Has No Oil Or Gas? Lebanon. The Same Was True Of Israel, The Same Was Of Bahrain. You Could See A Real Gradation. Turkey, For Instance: No Oil And Gas, Very Entrepreneurial. You Can Either Dig Your Future Out Of The Ground Or You Can Unlock The Potential Of Your People.
Country
Real
Israel
The Dell Theory Of Conflict Prevention Argues That No Two Countries That Are Both Part Of The Same Global Supply Chain Will Ever Fight A War As Long As They Are Each Part Of That Supply Chain.
Country
War
Fighting
It Created A Global Platform That Allowed More People To Plug And Play, Collaborate And Compete, Share Knowledge And Share Work, Than Anything We Have Ever Seen In The History Of The World.
Play
People
World
Only If You Give The Palestinians Something To Lose Is There A Hope That They Will Agree To Moderate Their Demands.... I Believe That As Soon As Ahmed Has A Seat In The Bus, He Will Limit His Demands.
Believe
Giving
Demand
Sometimes, When My Wife And I Were Going Out To Dinner, I Would Take My Laptop With Me And Work In The Car, So As To Take Advantage Of The Half Hour Going And Coming.
Wife
Car
Laptops
I Attended Public School With The Same Group Of Kids From K Through 12.
School
Kids
Groups
Several Technological And Political Forces Have Converged, And That Has Produced A Global, Web-enabled Playing Field That Allows For Multiple Forms Of Collaboration Without Regard To Geography Or Distance - Or Soon, Even Language.
Distance
Political
Collaboration
What We Do Know Is That The Planet Is Going From 7 Billion People Today To 9 Billion. More People Want To Live Like Us, Drive American- Size Cars, Live In An American-size Home, And Eat American-size Big Macs. What Does That Mean? It Means That Energy Demand Is Going To Be Going Up.
Home
Mean
People
You'll Know The Green Revolution Has Been Won When The Word 'green' Disappears.
Green
Revolution
Disappear
A Golf Course Should Aspire To Generate As Much Energy As It Consumes - Golf Should Be Leading The Way Toward Energy Net Zero.
Zero
Golf
Energy
When You Can't Rely On Sticking A Pipe In The Ground, What You Have To Rely On Is Unlocking The Energy And Talent Of All Your People - Men And Women.
Men
People
Energy
Do You Know What My Favorite Renewable Fuel Is? An Ecosystem For Innovation.
Ecosystems
Innovation
Fuel
When You Study History And Look At Every Civilization That Has Grown Up And Died Off, They All Leave One Remnant: A Major Sports Colosseum At The Heart Of Their Capital. Our Fate Can Be Different; But Only If We Start Doing Things Differently.
Sports
Heart
Fate
Arnold Schwarzenegger Said It Best: "your Son Is Sick. Ninety-eight Doctors Give You One Diagnosis, Two Doctors Give You Another. Who Are You Going To Go With?" Well, Why Would It Be The Conservative Position To Go With The Two? That's Not Conservative, That's Crazy.
Crazy
Son
Giving
Scientists Tend To Focus On What They Don't Know More Than What They Do Know. And There Are A Lot Of Things We Still Don't Know About The Climate. But We Know The Difference Between Climate Variability And Climate Change, And Right Now The Amount Of Carbon In The Atmosphere Is Well Outside The Variability Pattern - And That's Quite Quantifiable.
Focus
Atmosphere
Scientist
What We Have In The Bush Team Is A Faith-based Administration. It Launched A Faith-based War In Iraq, On The Basis Of Faith-based Intelligence, With A Faith-based Plan For Iraqi Reconstruction, Supported By Faith-based Tax Cuts To Generate Faith-based Revenues.
War
Team
Cutting
The Reason That We Are Becoming Less Equal Is Because Of The Greater Requirements, Secure Requirements, For A Good Job. This Goes Back To The '80s Basically, This Started Changing As Globalization And The It Revolution Merged, And Each Started To Drive The Other.
Jobs
Requirements
Revolution
Something Really Big Happened In The World's Wiring In The Last Decade, But It Was Obscured By The Financial Crisis And Post-9/11. We Went From A Connected World To A Hyperconnected World. I'm Always Struck That Facebook, Twitter, 4g, Iphones, Ipads, High-speech Broadband, Ubiquitous Wireless And Web-enabled Cellphones, The Cloud, Big Data, Cellphone Apps And Skype Did Not Exist Or Were In Their Infancy A Decade Ago.
Change
Data
Ipads
I Have No Problem With A War For Oil-if We Accompany It With A Real Program For Energy Conservation. But When We Tell The World We Couldn't Care Less About Climate Change, That We Feel Entitled To Drive Whatever Big Cars We Feel Like, That We Feel Entitled To Consume However Much Oil We Like, The Message We Send Is That A War For Oil In The Gulf Is Not A War To Protect The World's Right To Economic Survival-but Our Right To Indulge. Now That Will Be Seen As Immoral.
Real
War
Oil
Even If America Tomorrow - And It Won't Happen Overnight - But If We Did Reduce Our Demand For Gas And Natural Gas And Crude Oil By A Significant Degree, That Does Have An Exponential Effect On Producers In The Middle East, Everything Else Being Equal. But If China's Demand Is Growing And India's Demand Is Growing, They Are Not Going Back.
Oil
America
East
Criticizing Israel Is Not Anti-semitic, And Saying So Is Vile. But Singling Out Israel For Opprobrium And International Sanction - Out Of All Proportion To Any Other Party In The Middle East - Is Anti-semitic, And Not Saying So Is Dishonest.
Party
Israel
Middle East
Remember, The Difference Between The World Frozen Over, In An Ice Ball, And The Warming Period We're In Now Is Just 6 Degrees Centigrade. A Change Of Just 1 Degree Can Have A Huge Effect.
World
Remember
If You Followed This Economic Crisis And You Do Not Think That The World Is Getting Flatter, You Are Not Paying Attention. We Saw The Entire Global Economy At One Time Acting Totally In Sync. The Real Truth Is The World Is Even Flatter Than I Thought. Our Mortgage Crisis Is Killing Deutsche Bank. You Still Don't Think The World Is Flat?
Real
Thinking
Acting
Combating Climate Change Requires Government Policy, And Most Conservatives Hate The Idea Of More Government Regulation. Because They Hate The Prescription, They Deny The Diagnosis.
Hate
Climate Change
Policy
Remember, In China When You Are One In A Million, There Are 1,300 Other People Just Like You.
Funny
Humor
People
If I Were Advising President Obama, Since He's The One Running, I Would Have Made His Campaign Very Simple. I Promise That In Four Years, I Will Get More Americans, As Many As I Possibly Can, The Opportunity And Access To Some Form Of Post-secondary Education. I Want More Of Them To Graduate High School With The Skill-set Of Post-secondary Education And I Want More Of Them To Be Able To Obtain That Post-secondary Education. This Is The Only Way We Are Going To Close The Income Gap.
Running
School
Opportunity
Basically All The World's Computer Parts Come From The Same Supply Chain That Runs From Korea, Down Through Coastal China, Over To Taiwan, And Down To Malaysia.
Running
Korea
Ties
The Thing You Have To Remember Is, Oil And Gas Are Commodities, And The More We Use Them The More The Price Goes Up, Like Any Commodity. Solar, Wind - They Are Technologies, So The More You Use Them, The More The Price Goes Down.
Technology
Remember
Commodity
My Mother-in-law Says If You Want To Live Like A Republican, Vote Like A Democrat. That If You Are A Part Of The Group That Is Doing Well In This System, You Owe It To Yourself And To Others To Look Out For Them And Make Sure You Are Always Building A Ladder For Others To Join You.
Mother
Law
Groups
Capitalism Makes People Unequally Rich. Communism Makes People Equally Poor.
People
Rich
Communism
I'm A Radical Pro-immigration Advocate. I'm Not Saying We Just Look At The Muslim World Or We Just Look At China, We Just Look At India As A Source Of Our Talent. But, One Thing We Know... First Or Second Generation Or New Immigrants Or Children Of Immigrants Have Started About 40% Of The Fortune 500 Companies. For Me It's Always Been A Really Very Important Issue That I Want America To Be Open To The Most Energetic And Talented People From Around The World.
Children
America
Issues
Why Is It Muslims From Pakistan Or From Egypt Come To America And Thrive, And They Are Frustrated Back Home? It's About Clean Government. It's About A Rule Of Law. It's About Intellectual Property Protection. They've Got All The Talent And Energy Of Anybody Else. As New Immigrants They May Have More Of It, So You Put Them In Our System And They Become Doctors, Lawyers, And Businessmen And Entrepreneurs.
Home
Doctors
Government
I Think That Competition Will Exist Even If We Discover More Oil. We're Never Going To Know How Much We Have, Or How Long Will It Last. You Are Always Going To Want To Have Diversity Of Supply. I Think The Middle East Will Remain A Region Of Competition, Of Global Competition, Fighting For A Long Time.
Fighting
Thinking
Oil
We Need To Become Energy Independent Or At Least Aspire To That.
Independent
Energy
Needs
Hillary Clinton Has Decided To Line Up With John Mccain In Pushing To Suspend The Federal Excise Tax On Gasoline, 18.4 Cents A Gallon, For This Summer's Travel Season. This Is Not An Energy Policy. This Is Money Laundering: We Borrow Money From China And Ship It To Saudi Arabia And Take A Little Cut For Ourselves As It Goes Through Our Gas Tanks. What A Way To Build Our Country.
Summer
Country
Cutting
I Would Say That In 2000, We Understand As Much About How Today's System Of Globalization Is Going To Work As We Understood About How The Cold War System Was Going To Work In 1946.
War
Today
Cold
There Is A Connection Between Energy, Climate, Food And Political Stability. That Has Played Out In The Arab Awakening And Is Not Done Playing Out.
Political
Energy
Climate
Your Boss Doesn't Care What You Know, Because The Google Machine Knows Everything. Your Boss Cares About What You Can Do With What You Know. That's The Only Thing Your Boss Will Pay For.
Boss
Google
Machines
C'mon Kids! Wake Up And Smell The Co2! Take Over Your Administration Building, Occupy Your University President's Office, Or Storm In On The Next Meeting Of Your College's Board Of Trustees Until They Agree To Make Your School Carbon Neutral.
School
Kids
College
In The Hyperconnected World, There Is Only “good” “better” And “best.
World
If We Don't Have A More Serious Energy Policy, The Difference Between A Good Day And Bad Day For America From Here On Will Hinge On How The 86-year-old King Of Saudi Arabia Manages...change.
Kings
Good Day
Bad Day
America Needs Rebooting.
America
Needs
What Is Al Qaeda? It's An Open Source Religious Political Movement That Works Off The Global Supply Chain.
Religious
Political
Movement
I Firmly Believe That The Next Great Breakthrough In Bioscience Could Come From A 15-year-old Who Downloads The Human Genome In Egypt.
Believe
Egypt
Years
If You Want To Get An Advance Machine Tool Job Today, You Need To Know Calculus. We Know A Lot Of People Don't, We Can't Expect Everyone To Know Calculus, What Do We Do? We Created A Huge Bubble That Created A Huge Number Of Jobs To Build Houses And To Be In Retail. You Don't Have To Have A Lot Of Skills To Work In The New Gap Store That Opened, At The Latest Starbucks Branch, Or To Hammer A Nail For A New House.
Jobs
Skills
Numbers
Mcdonald's Cannot Flourish Without Mcdonnell Douglas, The Builder Of The F-15.
Mcdonalds
Designer
What Every Employer Is Looking For Is Not Someone Who Can Do The Job, But Someone Who Can Reinvent The Job.
Jobs
Work
Job Well Done
Almost All The Students Who Make It To Caltech, One Of The Best Scientific Universities In The World, Come From Public Schools. So It Can Be Done.
School
World
Done
Communism Was A Great System For Making People Equally Poor - In Fact, There Was No Better System In The World For That Than Communism. Capitalism Made People Unequally Rich.
People
Facts
World
In China Today, Bill Gates Is Britney Spears. In America Today, Britney Spears Is Britney Spears-and That Is Our Problem.
America
Bills
Today
Iraq May Still Have A Decent Outcome...but Even If It Becomes Switzerland, We Overpaid For It.
Iraq
Switzerland
May
The Only Engine Big Enough To Impact Mother Nature Is Father Greed.
Mother
Father
Impact
Never Before In The History Of The Planet Have So Many People, On Their Own, Had The Ability To Find So Much Information About So Many Things And About So Many Other People.
People
Information
Planets
Trending Author
Shirin Ebadi
Mac Davis
Thomas Gray
Susan Sontag
Merlin Olsen
Venerable Bede
Category
Information