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Many interviewers when they come to talk to me, think they're being progressive by not mentioning in their stories any longer that I'm black. I tell them, 'Don't stop now. If I shot somebody you'd mention it.'

Colin Powell

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Colin Powell
Age: 87
Born: 1937
Born: April 5
Diplomat
Former United States Secretary Of State
Politician
Soldier
New York City
New York
Colin Luther Powell
Tell
Progressive
Stories
Shot
Come
Shots
Many
Longer
Think
Somebody
Thinking
Stop
Mentioning
Talk
Interviewers
Black
Mention

More quotes by Colin Powell

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President Kennedy didn't negotiate out of the Cuban missile crisis simply because he and Khrushchev got along well. Khrushchev didn't have the cards.
Colin Powell
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Some people naturally have a sense of empathy and an understanding of how to bring their followers to do things. They become great politicians.
Colin Powell
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As a leader you set the tone for your entire team. Communicate your vision.
Colin Powell
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War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.
Colin Powell
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One of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on Iraq's biological weapons is the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological agents.
Colin Powell
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Every human endeavor has leaders and followers, and your job as a leader is to inspire.
Colin Powell
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I think that military, corporate, and non-political organizations are pretty much similar.
Colin Powell
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It is good if your enemy underestimates you. The dumber they think you are the more surprised they are when you kill them.
Colin Powell
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Generally you should act somewhere between P40 and P70, as I call it. Sometime after you have obtained 40 percent of all the information you are liable to get, start thinking in terms of making a decision. When you have about 70 percent of all the information, you probably ought to decide, because you may lose an opportunity in losing time.
Colin Powell
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Even the greatest of all strategists must occasionally take into account the presence of an enemy.
Colin Powell
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The claims made about Iraq's WMD capabilities before the invasion were inaccurate, wrong, and in some cases, deliberately misleading.
Colin Powell
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I don't know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community.
Colin Powell
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None of us can change our yesterdays but all of us can change our tomorrows.
Colin Powell
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You have achieved excellence as a leader when people will follow you anywhere if only out of curiosity.
Colin Powell
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I don't think anyone would disagree with the conclusion that Saddam [Hussein] was a terrible dictator. He had gassed his own people and his neighbors. He had killed thousands of people, and he had started a couple of wars and destroyed his country.
Colin Powell
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Be careful what you choose: You may get it.
Colin Powell
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Maybe we don't put our young people in situations often enough where they're allowed to fail. When you fail you gain experience, and with enough experience, you don't fail as often.
Colin Powell
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Bahrain is moving at one pace, Morocco another, Qatar at another, Kuwait at yet another. And we are there to assist our friends.
Colin Powell
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The United States is not looking for a way to launch war.
Colin Powell
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Don't let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn't go with it.
Colin Powell