Donald Rumsfeld

Members of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate are not there by accident. Each managed to get there for some reason. Learn what it was and you will know something important about them, about our country and about the American people.

There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that’s just a fact.

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.

It isn’t making mistakes that’s critical; it’s correcting them and getting on with the principal task.

If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.

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

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.

At the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values, and your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you are.

Read, say, George Washington, a leading figure in the settler-colonial society we live in. His view was – his words – was that we have to ‘extirpate’ the Iroquois; they’re in our way. They were an advanced civilization.

Labour is the party of law and order in Britain today. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right.

The media may feel obligated to carry extremely dubious stories and mute criticism in order not to offend their sources and disturb a close relationship. It is very difficult to call authorities on whom one depends for daily news liars, even if they tell whoppers.

We’re no longer in the Cold War. Eavesdropping on friends is unacceptable.

A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.

What happened to the confidence and ideals of the European dream? The EU was set up to protect freedom. It was the Soviet Union that stopped people leaving.

The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead.

Much research, including a widely quoted Rand Corporation study of 1994, has shown that prevention and treatment are considerably more cost-effective than the coercive [drug war] measures that receive the bulk of funding. Such nonpunitive measures are also of course far more humane.

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

You’re having a lot of fun, right? Suppose Hillary got elected instead of Trump, you think it would be so exciting?

In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than advance.

Science is a bit like the joke about the drunk who is looking under a lamppost for a key that he has lost on the other side of the street, because that’s where the light is. It has no other choice.