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If you foul up, tell the President and correct it fast. Delay only compounds mistakes.

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
Mistakes
Fast
Mistake
President
Tell
Compounds
Foul
Delay
Correct

More quotes by Donald Rumsfeld

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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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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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I tend over the years to have developed a certain hesitancy about believing that headlines tell the whole story.
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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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Have a deputy and develop a successor. Don't be consumed by the job or you'll risk losing your balance. Keep your mooring lines to the outside world - family, friends, neighbors, people out of government, and people who may not agree with you.
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Preserve the President's options. He may need them.
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At 78 years old, I am not surprised at much anymore. Germany has taken divergent positions before, so has France, so has England, so has the US.
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When you raise issues with the President, try to come away with both that decision and also a precedent. Pose issues so as to evoke broader policy guidance. This can help to answer a range of similar issues likely to arise later.
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If you develop rules, never have more than ten.
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Many people around the President have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos.
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I am not going to give you a number for it because it's not my business to do intelligent work.
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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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Don't divide the world into them and us.
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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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If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't I'll just respond cleverly.
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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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You might be a cunning linguist, but I am a master debater.
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A few. . . critics are the only people I ever heard use the phrase 'imminent threat.' I didn't, the president didn't.
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Remember where you came from.
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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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