Donald Rumsfeld

When asked for your views, by the press or others, remember that what they really want to know is the President’s views.

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.

I can’t tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won’t last any longer than that.

Listening to both sides does not necessarily bring about a correct judgment.

The way to do well is to do well.

With the press there is no ‘off the record’.

Take a look at the British conquest of Ireland, the earliest of the Western colonial conquests. It was described in the same terms as the conquest of Africa. The Irish were a different race. They weren’t human. They weren’t like us. We had to crush and destroy them.

The Bush administration works closely with a network of rapid response digital brownshirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for ‘undermining support for our troops.’

Like most technology, the internet has mixed effects. It’s a neutral instrument.

The NRA have great power over you people. They have less power over me. I don’t need it. What do I need? But I’ll tell you, they are well-meaning

I am not an admirer or supporter of Putin’s foreign policy, or of Russian or anybody else’s expansion.- Jeremy Corbyn

It is necessary sometimes to take one step backward to take two steps forward.

You cannot put Russia down on its knees and hold it there because Russia will ultimately pull out.

Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union.

The probability of apocalypse soon cannot be realistically estimated, but it is surely too high for any sane person to contemplate with equanimity.

I was there because I wanted to see a fitting memorial to everyone who has died in every terrorist incident everywhere.

Firstly, the use of our armed forces in the battlefield is a unique experience, a unique tool by which to improve our armed forces. No amount of military exercise could compare with the use of force in combat conditions.

To choose one’s victims, to prepare one’s plan minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed … There is nothing sweeter in the world.

The chief evil is unlimited government…nobody is qualified to wield unlimited power.

When in 2007 I spoke in Munich…I spoke about the fact that the United States is widening the jurisdiction of its laws beyond its national borders, and that this is unacceptable. And that’s exactly what’s happening now, also to our European and other partners. Why is this happening? No one wanted to listen and no one did anything to stop this from developing.

I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.