Donald Rumsfeld

Don’t say “the White House wants.” Buildings can’t want.

Don’t do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of The Washington Post.

Don’t be a bottleneck. If a matter is not a decision for the President or you, delegate it. Force responsibility down and out. Find problem areas, add structure and delegate. The pressure is to do the reverse. Resist it.

The way to do well is to do well.

Don’t blame the boss. He has enough problems.

One of your tasks is to separate the “personal” from the “substantive.” The two can become confused, especially if someone rubs the President wrong.

Often the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.

My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.

Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.

The measure of a great leader, is their success in bringing everyone around to their opinion twenty years later.

Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.

Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.

When any calamity has been suffered, the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped.

Nothing is black or white.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

The philosopher is Nature’s pilot. And there you have our difference: to be n hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.

We should come home from adventures and perils and discoveries with new experiences and character.

Count on it, if a person talks of their misfortune, there is something in it that is not disagreeable to them.