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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

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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
Two
Pick
Think
Picks
Thinking
Rule
Questions
Answer
Ought
Answers
Asks

More quotes by Donald Rumsfeld

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General Boykin has requested that an inspector general review this matter. And I have indicated that if that's his request, I think it's appropriate.
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I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?
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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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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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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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If you can't solve a problem, make it bigger.
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Now, settle down, settle down. Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning and I'm gathering my thoughts here.
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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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The natural state of man is to want to be free. To have opportunities. To have choices.
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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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Listening to both sides does not necessarily bring about a correct judgment.
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Leave the President's family business to him. You will have plenty to do without trying to manage the First Family. They are likely to do fine without your help.
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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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When cutting staff at the Pentagon, don't eliminate the thin layer that assures civilian control.
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Do you have any regrets? Of course I do.
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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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It's a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy.
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Don't think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. As Charles De Gaulle said, the cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.
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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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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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