Quote

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

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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
Business
Accepts
Helping
Crush
Moments
Bed
Money
Warm
Government
Accepting
Going
Nice
Hippopotamus
Like
Help
Crushes
Moment
Rolls

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Certainty without power can be interesting, even amusing. Certainty with power can be dangerous.
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Amidst all the clutter, beyond all the obstacles, aside from all the static, are the goals set. Put your head down, do the best job possible, let the flak pass, and work towards those goals.
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No. That's someone else's business. Quagmire is - I don't do quagmires.
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Most of the 50 or so invitations you receive each week come from people inviting the President's Chief of Staff, not you. If you doubt that, ask your predecessor how many he received last week.
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A large number of people to begin crawling through those tunnels and caves looking for the bad folks.
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If you foul up, tell the President and correct it fast. Delay only compounds mistakes.
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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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Most US presidents since World War II have led military actions without a declaration of war by Congress, though most, if not all, have properly consulted and sought support from Congress. That is the wise thing to do.
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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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There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact.
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The worst mistake is to have the best ladder and the wrong wall.
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I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons.
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Reduce the layers of management. They put distance between the top of an organization and the customers.
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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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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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Any country on the face of the Earth with an active intelligence program knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
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When starting at the bottom, be willing to learn from those at the top.
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Don't divide the world into 'them' and 'us.' Avoid infatuation with or resentment of the press, the Congress, rivals, or opponents. Accept them as facts. They have their jobs and you have yours.
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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.
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Being Vice President is difficult. Don't make it tougher.
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