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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.

-Colin Powell

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You Can Never Err

Colin Powell

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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.

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

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.

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.

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

Remain Calm, Be Kind.

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.

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.

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.

In The Military We Also Learn Principles Of War Which Also Work In A Corporate Setting: How Do You Concentrate As Much Of Your Force As Possible On A Critical Point And Take A Risk Elsewhere? In Business That Translates Into Focusing Your Investment On Marketing, Sales, Or R&d, Whichever Will Give You The Greatest Return.

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.

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

I Don't Want To Spend The Rest Of My Life Giving Speeches.

Happy Valentines Day

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.

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

Don't Be Buffaloed By Experts And Elites. Experts Often Possess More Data Than Judgment. Elites Can Become So Inbred That They Produce Hemophiliacs Who Bleed To Death As Soon As They Are Nicked By The Real World.

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

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

Always Do Your Best. Somebody Is Watching You.

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.

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

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.

The Best Method Of Overcoming Obstacles Is The Team Method

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

Nobody Is Ready To Leave Iraq To Be Interviewed.

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 Have Found That Leadership Is Leadership Is Leadership. It Applies Whether You Are In Government Or In Corporate Life Or In Non-profit Life.

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.

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.

I Went To Graduate School As A Lieutenant Colonel After I Had Been In The Army For 12 Or 13 Years. I Learned So Much From All The Great Management Theorists. It Gave Me A Greater Understanding Of My Army Experience And Showed Me The Gaps In My Knowledge.

Giving Back Involves A Certain Amount Of Giving Up.

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 Need To Understand That We As Citizens And As A Government In Any Community Throughout This Country Have No More Important Obligation Than To Educate Those Who Are Going To Replace Us.

Experts Often Possess More Data Than Judgment.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

At The Same Time I Think It Is Absolutely Necessary That There Be No Confusion, No Misunderstanding That If The Iraqis.. Do Not Comply, Then There Will Be Consequences And Those Consequences Will Involve The Use Of Military Force To Disarm Them Through Changing The Regime.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

The Great Leaders That I Have Worked With Are People Who Have A Good Sense Of Empathy With Other People. They Can Walk A Factory Floor, Or Walk Through A Battalion And Smell If There's Something Wrong.

Our Failure Was That Our Intelligence Community Thought [saddam Hussein ] Had Stockpiled Weapons Of Mass Destruction. That Was A Mistake. There Is Fallibility In Human Intelligence And In Human Decisions.

Mass Destruction

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

Being Kind Doesn't Mean Being Soft Or A Wuss. Kindness Is Not A Sign Of Weakness. It Is A Sign Of Confidence. If You Have Developed A Reputation For Kindness And Consideration, Then Even The Most Unpleasant Decisions Will Go Down Easier Because Everyone Will Understand Why You Are Doing What You Are Doing. They Will Realize That Your Decision Must Be Necessary, And Is Not Arbitrary Or Without Empathy. As The Old Saying Puts It, 'to The World, You May Be One Person, But To One Person You May Be The World.'

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.

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Politics Is Not Bean Bags. It's Serious, Tough Stuff.

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

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

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 Now Believe It Is Appropriate For Saddam Hussein To Be Forced To Change, Either By The Threat Of War, And Therefore That Compels Him To Cooperate. If He Cooperates, Then The Basis Of Changed Regime Policy Has Shifted Because His Regime Has, In Fact, Changed Its Policy To One Of Cooperation. So If He Cooperates, Then That Is Different Than If He Does Not Cooperate.

You Have Achieved Excellence As A Leader When People Will Follow You Anywhere If Only Out Of Curiosity.

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Excellence Is Not An Exception, It Is A Prevailing Attitude

It Takes More Courage To Send Men Into Battle Than To Fight The Battle Yourself.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Too Often We Act - Ask Our Schools To Be Truant Officers, Our Teachers To Be Truant Officers, Because We're Giving Them Children Who Have, You Know, They're Not Ready To Learn. And If They're Not Ready To Learn By The Third Grade, They Know They're Behind.

Diplomacy Never Stops, And, With Or Without An Election, It Never Stops.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

Luck Tends To Come To People Who Are Prepared.

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.

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

Trial And Error

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

Good Organization

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I Think Leadership Is Both A Trained Thing And A Natural Gift.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Unconditional Love

The President's Personal Staff Has A Unique Role.

In The Military We Are Always Looking For Ways To Leverage Up Our Forces. Having Greater Communications And Command And Control Over Your Forces Than Your Enemy Has Over His Is A Force Multiplier. Having Greater Logistics Capability Than The Enemy Is A Force Multiplier. Having Better-trained Commanders Is A Force Multiplier. Perpetual Optimism, Believing In Yourself, Believing In Your Purpose, Believing You Will Prevail, And Demonstrating Passion And Confidence Is A Force Multiplier. If You Believe And Have Prepared Your Followers, The Followers Will Believe.

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.

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

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 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

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.

I'm An American, First And Foremost, And I'm Very Proud - I Said, I've Said To My Beloved Friend And Colleague John Mccain, A Friend Of 25 Years, "john, I Love You, But I'm Not Just Going To Vote For You On The Basis Of Our Affection Or Friendship." And I've Said To Barack Obama, "i Admire You. I'll Give You All The Advice I Can. But I'm Not Going To Vote For You Just Because You're Black." We Have To Move Beyond This.

I Served 40 Years In Government, And I'm Not Looking Forward To A Position Or An Assignment. Of Course, I Have Always Said If A President Asks You To Do Something, You Have To Consider It. But I Am In No Way Interested In Returning To Government. But I, Of Course, Would Sit And Talk To Any President Who Wishes To Talk To Me.

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.

I Always Like To Take My Time And Examine The Two Candidates, See Not Only The Two Candidates But The Policies They Will Bring In, The People They Will Bring In, Who They Might Appoint To The Supreme Court, And Look At The Whole Range Of Issues Before Making A Decision.

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It' Is The Slogan Of The Complacent, The Arrogant Or The Scared. It's An Excuse For Inaction, A Call To Non-arms.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.'

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Being Responsible Sometimes Means Pissing People Off.

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

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

Have A Vision. Be Demanding.

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 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.

Let Me Blow That Up For You Again.

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.

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

The Healthiest Competition Occurs When Average People Win By Putting Above Average Effort.

It's Really Not A Number I'm Terribly Interested In.

It Is The Job Of Leaders To Eliminate Uncertainty.

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.

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.

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.

Don't Take Counsel Of Your Fears Or Naysayers.

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.

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.

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.

The Claims Made About Iraq's Wmd Capabilities Before The Invasion Were Inaccurate, Wrong, And In Some Cases, Deliberately Misleading.

It Ain't As Bad As You Think. It Will Look Better In The Morning.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

I Think Our Initiative With Respect To Education And Economic Development Can Work In Saudi Arabia And It Is Up To The Saudis To Decide How They Wish To Transform Their Society In Order To Make It Prepared For The Challenges Of The 21st Century.

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.

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.

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

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

It's A Disgrace That We Have Millions Of People Who Are Uninsured.

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

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.

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

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

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

I Think We Can Make A Contribution To Their [saudi Arabia] Thinking As They Decide How They Should Deal With The Economic And Social Challenges That They Are Facing.

We Believe, From Everything We Have Been Told By The Intelligence Community, By 12 Years Of History With Iraq, By The Experience Of The U.n. Inspectors And By Other Intelligence Agencies In Other Countries That Saddam Hussein Had The Intention To Develop Weapons Of Mass Destruction And To Have Such Weapons, And That Was A Sound Judgment Which I Still Believe To This Day Because He Had Had Them In The Past, He'd Used Them In The Past.

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

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.

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.

The Best Way To Create A Winning Team Is To Train Them, Give Them Everything They Need To Get The Job Done And Second, Make Sure They Know What The Job Is And What The Job Will Be. So You Connect Strategy To Resources.

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.

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.

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.

Maybe We Don't Put Our Young People In Situations Often Enough Where They're Allowed To Fail. When You Fail You Gain Experience, And With Enough Experience, You Don't Fail As Often.

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

It Is Good If Your Enemy Underestimates You. The Dumber They Think You Are The More Surprised They Are When You Kill Them.

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.

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

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

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

Being Optimistic

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.

Trust Is The Essence Of Leadership.

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

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