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Be precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small.

Donald Rumsfeld

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Donald Rumsfeld
Age: 88 †
Born: 1932
Born: July 9
Died: 2021
Died: June 29
Author
Businessperson
Diplomat
Former U.S. Secretary Of Defense
Military Officer
Politician
Chicago
Illinois
Donald Henry Rumsfeld
Errors
Lack
Dangerous
Margin
Small
Margins
Funny
Precision
Precise
Error

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Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.
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In our system leadership is by consent, not command. To lead a President must persuade. Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his persuasiveness and thus to his leadership.
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Don't 'over-control' like a novice pilot. Stay loose enough from the flow that you can observe it, modify, and improve it.
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There are known knowns there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know.
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I believe what I said yesterday. I don't know what I said, but I know what I think and I assume it's what I said.
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I don't know anybody that I can think of who has contended that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons.
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We do know that the Iraqi regime has chemical and biological weapons. His regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons - including VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gas. His regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of biological weapons—including anthrax and botulism toxin, and possibly smallpox.
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Don't be a bottleneck. If a matter is not a decision for the President or you, delegate it. Force responsibility down and out. Find problem areas, add structure and delegate. The pressure is to do the reverse. Resist it.
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I didn't advocate invasion...I wasn't asked.
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Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.
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Don't divide the world into them and us.
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The United States isn't going to do anything that it's not capable of doing. And if we do something, we'll be capable of doing it.
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When business accepts help from the government, it can be like going to bed with a hippopotamus. It's nice and warm for the moment, but then your bedmate rolls over and crushes you.
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If you develop rules, never have more than ten.
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I think it's very useful for you folks (reporters) to try your damndest to be precise. And don't repeat things that are inaccurate if you can possibly avoid it. And when you see things that are inaccurate, knock them down -- because there's a bucket of it floating around.
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In unanimity there may well be either cowardice or uncritical thinking.
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If you look ahead 10 years, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the people of Russia had become fans of missile defence.
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A terrorist can attack any time, any place using any technique and you can't defend everywhere against every technique at every moment.
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With the press there is no off the record.
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If there are people who yearn for the days when Saddam Hussein was in power, then I am not among them.
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