Donald Rumsfeld Quotes

There are known knowns; there are things we know we 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.

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

I don’t do quagmires.

You can’t write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.

The test of a leader is not whether you can overwhelm those you disagree with, it’s whether you can rally those who do agree.

Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.

If you try to please everybody, somebody’s not going to like it.

There are chances worth taking and risks not worth taking.

If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.

You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.

Be slow to conclude, and quick to change.

Reward people for being right early.

If you’re not walking on thin ice, you’re taking up too much space.

Cocksure is good, oversure is not.

Do not fear mistakes, but prioritize your worries. Worry about the ones that will kill you and die laughing about the ones that won’t.

You must have the ability to not be paralyzed by the complexity and ambiguity of it all.

Take your work seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously.

You don’t save paper by not reading classified documents; you save paper by not writing them.

If you are working in a strategic business, few things are more important than having a plan.

It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.

Saying we are fighting twenty-first century problems with twentieth-century weapons and mindsets is not rhetoric.

It doesn’t take a genius to spot a goat in a flock of sheep.

You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

If I know the answer I’ll tell you the answer, and if I don’t, I’ll just respond, ‘Jim Shamp, a knowledgeable official said it.’

I’m going to stop the anecdotal and go to the facts.

You can have the best technology in the world, but if you’re not prepared to use it, then you’re not prepared to use it.

If you cannot persuade someone to do something, that does not mean you bundle him into the trunk and knife him until he is persuaded.

Looking back, I see what I could have done differently. It’s not something I dwell on, but I acknowledge it.

You cannot win if you’re not willing to lose occasionally.

One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.

Leadership in today’s world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and alliances of convenience.

If you’re not confident, you’re never going to make the kinds of tough, quick decisions you have to make in a world that’s as dangerous as this one is.

A strategy that our enemies are intent upon killing more of us than they themselves will end up losing, we simply have to prevent, and we will.

If we’re going to put people in harm’s way, then we keep objective military decisions out of the political process.

We have our young men and women in harm’s way protecting the people and the territory of the United States of America.

A successful country ought not to concentrate only on internal affairs but take vigorous efforts to develop openings wherever outside opportunities may exist.

You don’t put new wine in old bottles until you have gotten the intellectual integration right.

America’s support for human rights helps to define our foreign policy.

Think ahead, plan ahead, and try to move your forces in a fashion so as not to contact the enemy prematurely.

Ontology is far more important than epistemology.

You can’t blow a whistle on a mushroom cloud.

Power is not tyranny; it’s the essence of leadership.

Wars do not end; they typically lay the foundation for the next one.

War is a messy business. It’s difficult to predict.

Begin with the end in mind.

You can’t defend everything, so you have to decide what’s worth defending and what’s not.

The hardest thing is to listen when you’re not quite sure what you’re listening for.