Quote

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.

Donald Rumsfeld

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Rather
Spent
Whether
Congress
Often
Achieve
Money
Focus
Achieves
Much
Effort
Announced
Politics
Bureaucracy
Goal
Presses
Actually
Press

More quotes by Donald Rumsfeld

Image
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.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
Being Vice President is difficult. Don't make it tougher.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
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.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
Make decisions about the President's personal security. He can overrule you, but don't ask him to be the one to counsel caution.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
Listening to both sides does not necessarily bring about a correct judgment.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
No. That's someone else's business. Quagmire is - I don't do quagmires.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
Do you have any regrets? Of course I do.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
If there are people who yearn for the days when Saddam Hussein was in power, then I am not among them.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
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.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
I think we ought to have a new rule: You can ask two questions, and then we can pick the one we want to answer.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
Don't automatically obey Presidential directives if you disagree or if you suspect he hasn't considered key aspects of the issue.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
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.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
When starting at the bottom, be willing to learn from those at the top.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
Imagine, a September 11 with weapons of mass destruction. It's not 3,000. It's tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
... something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
Oh, Lord. I didn't mean to say anything quotable.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
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.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
We have an orientation that tends to make us think that everything is our responsibility and that we should be doing this. It is the Iraqis' country, 28 million of them. They are perfectly capable of running that country.
Donald Rumsfeld
Image
The reality is that [Barack] Obama has some 15 countries in the current Libya coalition. President Bush put together close to 50 countries for the Afghan coalition, some 40 countries for the Iraqi coalition, more than 90 countries for the Proliferation Security Initiative and over 90 countries in the Global War on Terror.
Donald Rumsfeld