Donald Rumsfeld

Treat each federal dollar as if it was hard earned; it was – by a taxpayer.

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

If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.

Your performance depends on your people. Select the best, train them and back them. When errors occur, give sharper guidance. If errors persist or if the fit feels wrong, help them move on. The country cannot afford amateur hour in the White House.

In politics, every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it.

Don’t do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of The Washington Post.

NATO was built to counteract the Soviet Union in its day and time. At this point there is no threat coming from the Soviet Union, because there is no Soviet Union anymore. And where there was the Soviet Union once, there is now a number of countries, among them the new and democratic Russia.

Most problems of teaching are not problems of growth but helping cultivate growth. As far as I know, and this is only from personal experience in teaching, I think about ninety percent of the problem in teaching, or maybe ninety-eight percent, is just to help the students get interested. Or what it usually amounts to is to not prevent them from being interested. Typically they come in interested, and the process of education is a way of driving that defect out of their minds. But if children[‘s] … normal interest is maintained or even aroused, they can do all kinds of things in ways we don’t understand.

Because when you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military in your command, you can’t make snap decisions. You can’t have a thin skin or a tendency to lash out. You need to be steady and measured and well-informed.

If there was an observer on Mars, they would probably be amazed that we have survived this long.

No honest journalist should be willing to describe himself or herself as ’embedded.’ To say, ‘I’m an embedded journalist’ is to say, ‘I’m a government Propagandist.

It is because Russia is seen as a threat, because Russia is seen as becoming a competitor. I believe this approach is mistaken.

Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union.

Clever and attractive women do not want to vote; they are willing to let men govern as long as they govern men.

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.

Cromwell is just as much of a bloody dictator as was Stalin.

The female brain matures at maybe eighteen or so. The male brain doesn’t mature about until mid-twenties. In fact in some countries like Canada they’re thinking of treating young men in their early twenties as juveniles, because that’s basically what they are.

[living at the White House] This isn’t about us. There’s so much history here that no one family can claim this space as their own.

The core of the anarchist tradition, as I understand it, is that power is always illegitimate, unless it proves itself to be legitimate. So the burden of proof is always on those who claim that some authoritarian hierarchic relation is legitimate.

We will use funds returned from Brussels after Brexit to invest in our public services and jobs of the future, not tax cuts for the richest.

My personal position is that society must keep children safe.