I don’t do quagmires.
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.
The Secretary of Defense is not a super General or Admiral. His task is to exercise civilian control over the Department for the Commander-in-Chief and the country.
If you develop rules, never have more than ten.
See that the President, the Cabinet and staff are informed. If cut out of the information flow, their decisions may be poor, not made, or not confidently or persuasively implemented.
Treat each federal dollar as if it was hard earned; it was – by a taxpayer.
Don’t say “the White House wants.” Buildings can’t want.
Conscience is thoroughly well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear it.
Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.
All that appears is devoid of independent existence, just like a magical apparition or a dream.
What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.
He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.
I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.
We have a problem. Congratulations. But it’s a tough problem. Then double congratulations.
And all the while I thought I was drowning, I was actually the one holding my head under the water.
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
The generative energy, which, when we are loose, dissipates and makes us unclean, when we are continent invigorates and inspires us. Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed it.
Once we recognize that all things are impermanent, we have no problem enjoying them.
We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it.
Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.
People only see what they are prepared to see.
Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.
