Donald Rumsfeld
If you try to please everybody, somebody's not going to like it.
Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers - they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up.
When you raise issues with the President, try to come away with both that decision and also a precedent. Pose issues so as to evoke broader policy guidance. This can help to answer a range of similar issues likely to arise later.
If the staff lacks policy guidance against which to test decisions, their decisions will be random.
The price of being close to the President is delivering bad news. You fail him if you don't tell him the truth. Others won't do it.
The way to do well is to do well.
Be yourself. Follow your instincts. Success depends, at least in part, on the ability to 'carry it off.'
Imagine, a September 11 with weapons of mass destruction. It's not 3,000. It's tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children.
The Secretary of Defense is not a super General or Admiral. His task is to exercise civilian control over the Department for the Commander-in-Chief and the country.
The Federal Government should be the last resort, not the first. Ask if a potential program is truly a federal responsibility or whether it can better be handled privately, by voluntary organizations, or by local or state governments.
Visit with your predecessors from previous Administrations. They know the ropes and can help you see around some corners. Try to make original mistakes, rather than needlessly repeating theirs.
Politics is human beings; it's addition rather than subtraction.
Make decisions about the President's personal security. He can overrule you, but don't ask him to be the one to counsel caution.
Many people around the President have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos.
Let your family, staff, and friends know that you're still the same person, despite all the publicity and notoriety that accompanies your position.
Public servants are paid to serve the American people. Do it well.
You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe.
In the execution of Presidential decisions work to be true to his views, in fact and tone.
Don't say 'the White House wants.' Buildings can't want.
When asked for your views, by the press or others, remember that what they really want to know is the President's views.
Prune - prune businesses, products, activities, people. Do it annually.
Oh my goodness gracious, what you can buy off the Internet in terms of overhead photography. A trained ape can know an awful lot of what is going on in this world, just by punching on his mouse, for a relatively modest cost.
Leave the President's family business to him. You will have plenty to do without trying to manage the First Family. They are likely to do fine without your help.
Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.
If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know.Collection: Knows
If you can't solve a problem, make it bigger.Collection: Problem
You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.Collection: War
The absence of evidence is not necessarily the evidence of absenceCollection: Absence
There are things that we know, and there are things that we don't know. Then there are the things that we don't even know that we don't know. Those are the things that are the hardest.Collection: Hardest
I believe what I said yesterday. I don't know what I said, but I know what I think and I assume it's what I said.Collection: Believe
To gain support in U.S. Congress and from other nations requires clarity, an acceptable mission and an explicit outcome.Collection: Support
The worst mistake is to have the best ladder and the wrong wall.Collection: Wall
You might be a cunning linguist, but I am a master debater.Collection: Funny
Success tends to go not to the person who is error-free, because he also tends to be risk-averse. Rather it goes to the person who recognizes that life is pretty much a percentage business. It isn't making mistakes that's critical; it's correcting them and getting on with the principal task.Collection: Success
You can have a broad popular democracy movement and have it end being taken over by the most vicious people and the result is you don't end up with free political systems or free economic systems, you end up with a handful of radicals controlling the country.Collection: Country
If you are working from your inbox, you are working on other people’s priorities.Collection: People
There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something does exist does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist.Collection: Mean
Never assume the other fellow will not do something you wouldn't do.Collection: Assuming
The reality is that terrorists can attack any time at any minute, 24 hours a day, using a variety of techniques, in any place at all. And it's not possible to defend in every place, against every technique, against every conceivable approach. It means that you can't stop every terrorist attack. Innocent men, women and children are going to be killed if terrorists are determined to do it.Collection: Children
Listening to both sides does not necessarily bring about a correct judgment.Collection: Judging
[on Osama bin Laden] He is either alive and well or alive and not too well or not alive.Collection: Alive
The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize. It's to change the behavior of the people that are being terrorized.Collection: People
Keep your sense of humor. As General Joe Stillwell said, 'The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of his behind'.Collection: Humor
... something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question.Collection: Country
I'm glad you asked. It has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil.Collection: War
Control your own time. Don't let it be done for you. If you are working off the in-box that is fed you, you are probably working on the priority of others.Collection: Time
We do know of certain knowledge that he [Osama Bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead.Collection: Country
It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.Collection: War