Donald Rumsfeld

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

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.

Oh my goodness gracious, what you can buy off the Internet in terms of overhead photography. A trained ape can know an awful lot of what is going on in this world, just by punching on his mouse, for a relatively modest cost.

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

Make decisions about the President’s personal security. He can overrule you, but don’t ask him to be the one to counsel caution.

Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers – they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up.

If you do what you believe in, you’re strong. It’s when you don’t do what you believe in that you’re weak. And we are strong.

Homelessness in the UK is wholly unnescessary.

I have been very happy in the House of Representatives.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

There is talk … of our constructing Dnieprostroy through our own means. The means needed are great, several hundred millions. Let us not get into the position of the peasant who, after accumulating a nest-egg, instead of repairing his plough and renewing his equipment, buys a gramophone and goes bankrupt.

You do not lament the loss of hair of one who has been beheaded.

My guess is that you would find that the intellectual elite is the most heavily indoctrinated sector [of society], for good reasons. It’s their role as a secular priesthood to really believe the nonsense that they put forth. Other people can repeat it, but it’s not that crucial that they really believe it. But for the intellectual elite themselves, it’s crucial that they believe it because, after all, they are the guardians of the faith. Except for a very rare person who’s an outright liar, it’s hard to be a convincing exponent of the faith unless you’ve internalized it and come to believe it.

The problem with me is that I am fifty or one hundred years ahead of my time. My speed is very fast. Some ministers have had to drop out of my government because they could not keep up.

I have to keep law and order and it means that I have to kill my enemies before they kill me.

Well, the Washington consensus – which is basically designed for the Third World to make it that way, and keep it that way – it’s now being applied not just to the Third World countries, but to the rich industrial societies, with the United States and Britain in the lead.

I’m just thinking to myself right now, we should just cancel the election and just give it to Trump, right?

There should be no unemployment. There is large percentage of labor now which cannot make a living because wages are not high enough. That is industry’s 2nd job. 1st job is to make good product. 2nd pay a good wage.

I think our Russian Football Union must play an active part in this… and develop a new generation of sportsmen and soccer players.

Terrorism has once again shown it is prepared deliberately to stop at nothing in creating human victims. An end must be put to this. As never before, it is vital to unite forces of the entire world community against terror.

I feel like everyone else in this country today. I am utterly devastated.