Donald Rumsfeld

In politics, every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it.

If in doubt, don’t. If still in doubt, do what’s right.

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.

Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often focus on how much money or effort is spent, rather than whether the money or effort actually achieves the announced goal.

Preserve the President’s options. He may need them.

Public servants are paid to serve the American people. Do it well.

Those who are quite satisfied sit still and do nothing; those who are not quite satisfied are the sole benefactors of the world.

These are our neighbours, our co-workers, friends’ children… the problem is closer than you think, but so is the solution.

You never miss what you’ve never had. I never had any other life. I didn’t know any other life.

Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.

Join the dance.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

The Smiths dream into my ear on this lost and lonely morning. I sing along like it is the only prayer I know (forgive me, Mother Mary).

Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is what happened on the banks.

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.

It’s hard to see your own face without a mirror.

Hard knocks have a place and value, but hard thinking goes farther in less time.

We tell lies when we are afraid, . . . afraid of what we don’t know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger.

I am from the planet of elegance.