Donald Rumsfeld

“Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.”

“Remember where you came from.”

“Don't divide the world into 'them' and 'us.' Avoid infatuation with or resentment of the press, the Congress, rivals, or opponents. Accept them as facts. They have their jobs and you have yours.”

“If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.”

“See that the President, the Cabinet and staff are informed. If cut out of the information flow, their decisions may be poor, not made, or not confidently or persuasively implemented.”

“You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe.”

“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.”

“Don't automatically obey Presidential directives if you disagree or if you suspect he hasn't considered key aspects of the issue.”

“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 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.”

“The way to do well is to do well.”

“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.”

“Presidential leadership needn't always cost money. Look for low- and no-cost options. They can be surprisingly effective.”

“It isn't making mistakes that's critical; it's correcting them and getting on with the principal task.”

“You will launch many projects, but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan, develop, launch and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.”

“In the execution of Presidential decisions work to be true to his views, in fact and tone.”

“There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don't know.”

“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.”

“Know that the amount of criticism you receive may correlate somewhat to the amount of publicity you receive.”

“If you try to please everybody, somebody's not going to like it.”