Donald Rumsfeld

Think ahead. Don’t let day-to-day operations drive out planning.

Prune – prune businesses, products, activities, people. Do it annually.

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.

You’re thinking of Eurpoe as Germany and France. I don’t. I think that’s old Europe.

Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.

Our task, your task… is to try to connect the dots before something happens. People say, ‘Well, where’s the smoking gun?’ Well, we don’t want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction.

Worthless people love only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

Once you truly understand that it is okay to lose or fail, you are free, you have nothing to fear, and only then, can nothing in this world hold you back.

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

I heartily accept the motto,That government is best which governs least; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.

If I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.

The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.

Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.

There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.

It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.

One way of getting an idea of our fellow-countrymen’s miseries is to go and look at their pleasures.