Quote

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.

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
Leadership
Command
Personal
Contact
System
Shape
Help
Experiences
President
Thus
Helping
Critical
Contacts
Must
Shapes
Persuade
Thinking
Lead
Consent

More quotes by Donald Rumsfeld

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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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There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact.
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When I served as US Ambassador to NATO in the 1970s, the center of gravity in Europe was France and Germany.
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Oh, Lord. I didn't mean to say anything quotable.
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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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Success tends to go not to the person who is error-free, because he also tends to be risk-averse. Rather it goes to the person who recognizes that life is pretty much a percentage business. It isn't making mistakes that's critical it's correcting them and getting on with the principal task.
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I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?
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Arguments of convenience lack integrity and inevitably trip you up.
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It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.
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There are things that we know, and there are things that we don't know. Then there are the things that we don't even know that we don't know. Those are the things that are the hardest.
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Oh my goodness gracious, what you can buy off the Internet in terms of overhead photography. A trained ape can know an awful lot of what is going on in this world, just by punching on his mouse, for a relatively modest cost.
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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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Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.
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Inspectors do not have the duty or the ability to uncover terrible weapons hidden in a vast country. The responsibility of inspectors is simply to confirm evidence of voluntary and total disarmament. Saddam Hussein has the responsibility to provide that evidence, as directed, and in full
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When cutting staff at the Pentagon, don't eliminate the thin layer that assures civilian control.
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One of your tasks is to separate the 'personal' from the 'substantive.' The two can become confused, especially if someone rubs the President wrong.
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There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something does exist does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist.
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Never assume the other fellow will not do something you wouldn't do.
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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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Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often focus on how much money or effort is spent, rather than whether the money or effort actually achieves the announced goal.
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