Top 100 Colin Powell Quotes
#1. Maybe we don't put our young people in situations often enough where they're allowed to fail. When you fail you gain experience, and with enough experience, you don't fail as often.
Colin Powell
#2. It was President [Bill] Clinton and the United States congress in 1998 which said that the regime has to be changed because the regime would not give up its weapons of mass destruction. We came into office in 2001 and kept that policy because Saddam Hussein had not changed.
Colin Powell
#3. I recommended to the president [George Bush] that our focus had to be on al-Qaida, the Taliban and Afghanistan. Those were the ones who attacked the United States of America on 9/11.
Colin Powell
#5. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.
Colin Powell
#6. Officers have been trying for hundreds of years to outsmart soldiers and have still not learned that it cannot be done. We can always count on the native ingenuity of the American GI to save us from ourselves, and to win wars.
Colin Powell
#7. I try to be the same person I was yesterday.
Colin Powell
#8. Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut.
Colin Powell
#9. A sense of shame is not a bad moral compass.
Colin Powell
#10. We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.
Colin Powell
#11. I respect the fact that many denominations have different points of view with respect to gay marriage and they can hold that in the sanctity in the place of their religion and not bless them or solemnize them.
Colin Powell
#12. The burden is on Saddam Hussein. And our policy, our national policy - not the UN policy but our national policy - is that the regime should be changed until such time as he demonstrates that it is not necessary to change the regime because the regime has changed itself.
Colin Powell
#13. Foe means enemy. Now, will we have differences of opinion with the Russians? Yes. Will they get mad at us from time to time, and we get mad at them? That's part of the normal diplomatic relations.
Colin Powell
#14. When we are debating an issue, loyalty means giving me your honest opinion, whether you think I'll like it or not. Disagreement, at this state, stimulates me. But once a decision is made, the debate ends. From that point on, loyalty means executing the decision as if it were your own.
Colin Powell
#15. It is not possible to rule out anything because we don't know what will happen.
Colin Powell
#16. We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us.
Colin Powell
#17. Thee are such horrible weapons. And so no sane leader would ever want to cross that line to using nuclear weapons. And, if you are not going to cross that line, then these things are basically useless.
Colin Powell
#18. Always show more kindness than seems necessary, because the person receiving it needs it more than you will ever know.
Colin Powell
#19. That's not really a number I'm terribly interested in.
Colin Powell
#20. Some of the generals are saying, 'We're making progress. We are clearing an area.' But you really don't defeat the Taliban by clearing an area. They move.
Colin Powell
#21. There is no suggestion of regime change; quite the contrary, this is an initiative to help people and to help governments who are inclined toward change.
Colin Powell
#23. I consider myself a moderate Republican. I have very, very moderate social views, and I'm pretty strong on, on defense matters.
Colin Powell
#24. It was the Congress that imposed 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' it was certainly my position, my recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred.
Colin Powell
#25. Time is passing, ... We have to look at the reality of the situation and ... redouble our efforts and get on with it.
Colin Powell
#27. We all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn't come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn't resurging. It didn't work out.
Colin Powell
#28. You should never be so involved with your position/job that when the position is gone your entire self image is gone with it.
Colin Powell
#29. If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.
Colin Powell
#30. It takes more courage to send men into battle than to fight the battle yourself.
Colin Powell
#31. Nobody is ready to leave Iraq to be interviewed.
Colin Powell
#32. Every organization should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes
Colin Powell
#33. The ties that bind us are stronger than the occasional stresses that separate us.
Colin Powell
#34. No one has done more to prevent conflict - no one has made a greater sacrifice for the cause for Peace - than you, America's proud missile submarine family. You stand tall among our heroes of the Cold War.
Colin Powell
#35. Our strategy in going after this army is very simple. First we are going to cut it off, and then we are going to kill it.
Colin Powell
#36. President Reagan fueled the spirit of America. His smile, his optimism, his total belief in the ultimate triumph of democracy and freedom, and his willingness to act on that belief, helped end the Cold War and usher in a new and brighter phase of history.
Colin Powell
#37. Ladies and gentlemen, these are not assertions. These are facts, corroborated by many sources, some of them sources of the intelligence services of other countries.
Colin Powell
#38. At the same time I think it is absolutely necessary that there be no confusion, no misunderstanding that if the Iraqis.. do not comply, then there will be consequences and those consequences will involve the use of military force to disarm them through changing the regime.
Colin Powell
#39. The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced - the just demands of peace and security will be met - or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.
Colin Powell
#40. It is good if your enemy underestimates you. The dumber they think you are the more surprised they are when you kill them.
Colin Powell
#41. I'm sleeping like a baby, too. Every two hours, I wake up, screaming.
Colin Powell
#42. One of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on Iraq's biological weapons is the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological agents.
Colin Powell
#43. My own experience is use the tools that are out there. Use the digital world. But never lose sight of the need to reach out and talk to other people who don't share your view. Listen to them and see if you can find a way to compromise.
Colin Powell
#44. I have always gone through public life and saying that with respect to political candidates, I always measure each candidate against what I think the country needs at that time, and I will vote for the person I think who is most qualified to serve the nation at that time.
Colin Powell
#45. With respect to where we are now, we have a voluntary army. And if we ever go back to conscription I hope that at time it will be the kind of conscription that was put in at the end of the Vietnam War. And that is, everybody is equally liable to be called to serve the nation in time of conflict.
Colin Powell
#46. It isn't enough just to scream at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. We need our political system to start reflect this anger back into, 'How do we fix it? How do we get the economy going again?'
Colin Powell
#47. Leadership is all about people. It is not about organizations. It is not about plans. It is not about strategies. It is all about people-motivating people to get the job done. You have to be people-centered.
Colin Powell
#48. For all the hardship, I was still excited to be on the trail, testing my endurance, feeling especially alive as strength and fatigue flowed alternately through my limbs.
Colin Powell
#49. In other words, don't expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say 'we have a problem, let's go and get it'.
Colin Powell
#50. Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.
Colin Powell
#51. There are lots of countries that are having these kinds of internal civil wars in other parts of the world and nobody is talking about intervening.
Colin Powell
#52. You are the leader and the troops will reflect your emotions.
Colin Powell
#53. Don't be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.
Colin Powell
#54. I think the American people are sophisticated enough and wise enough to make judgments about the candidates and wade through the charges and countercharges that come with the election 2004 campaign.
Colin Powell
#55. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
Colin Powell
#56. Finding the Russian scientists may be a problem being that Russia does not have a Social Security System, as here in America, that allows us to monitor, track down and capture an American citizen.
Colin Powell
#57. It is not the role of the United States to dictate change, but to enter into discussions with our friends.
Colin Powell
#58. I think whether you're having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.
Colin Powell
#59. When you wrestle with a pig, he has fun, and you just end up dirty.
Colin Powell
#60. So like any football or basketball coach, you always always believe you're going to win.
Colin Powell
#62. We got rid of a terrible dictator. We gave the Iraqi people an opportunity for a new life under a representative form of government.
Colin Powell
#63. If a leader doesn't convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they'll start to fall down and get depressed.
Colin Powell
#64. Have a vision; but it's not enough to have a vision, you have to communicate that vision to others. You have to communicate it to people who work with you and for you. You have to communicate it to the world leaders with whom you come in touch.
Colin Powell
#65. We want to approach this in a multilateral way, talking with our friends, consulting with our security council colleagues in the United Nations, hoping to find a way to solve this peacefully, but at the same time recognising that unless the threat of military force is there, Iraq will not disarm.
Colin Powell
#66. There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hardwork, and learning from failure-
Colin Powell
#67. The only bipartisanship you ever see is when they finally sign a bill and everybody says, 'Gee, isn't that wonderful?'
Colin Powell
#68. Always be looking for that which you do well and that which you love doing, and when you find those two things together - man, you got it.
Colin Powell
#69. Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is "no." That's not America.
Colin Powell
#70. Leaders honor their core values, but they are flexible in how they execute them.
Colin Powell
#71. Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
Colin Powell
#73. Nobody has ever said in the United States government that we are going to war next month. No decision has been made by the president because, as he said to the United Nations, he wants the United Nations to live up to its responsibilities and he wants Saddam Hussein to cooperate.
Colin Powell
#74. There is only one China. Taiwan is not independent. It does not enjoy sovereignty as a nation, and that remains our policy, our firm policy.
Colin Powell
#76. I don't know who all of his advisers are, but I've seen some of the names and some of them are quite far to the right. And sometimes they might be in a position to make judgments or recommendations to the candidate that should get a second thought.
Colin Powell
#77. Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves.
Colin Powell
#78. I'm not active in politics. I vote as a citizen, and if somebody cares to know what my opinion is at the time of the election, I might or might not share it publicly.
Colin Powell
#79. I think the Iranians are clearly determined to have a nuclear program. And we have to assume that with a nuclear program they have the capability and the will to create a nuclear weapon.
Colin Powell
#80. Always focus on the front windshield and not the review mirror.
Colin Powell
#81. Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with age.
Colin Powell
#82. There are no secrets to success. It's the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.
Colin Powell
#83. Luck tends to come to people who are prepared.
Colin Powell
#84. I would not presume from this distance, nor would America presume to say who should be the leader of the Iraqi nation.
Colin Powell
#85. The most effective means of ensuring the government's accountability to the people is an aggressive, free, challenging, untrusting press.
Colin Powell
#86. With vision only, you get no follow-through. With enforcers only, the vision is realized but leaves a lot of wreckage.
Colin Powell
#87. You need to learn what people have done, but you need to learn where they have failed ... Usually when they fail it is in the execution.
Colin Powell
#88. You can be sure that the American spirit will prevail over this tragedy.
Colin Powell
#89. The essence of leadership is building bonds of trust in your organization.
Colin Powell
#90. I have always tried to do my job in a way that I have people give me different points of view.
Colin Powell
#91. Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.
Colin Powell
#92. Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.
Colin Powell
#93. The root cause of poverty is social injustice and the bad government that abets it
Colin Powell
#94. Fear and failure are always present. Accept them as part of life and learn how to manage these realities. Be scared, but keep going. Being scared is usually transient. It will pass. If you fail, fix the causes and keep going.
Colin Powell
#95. We are not going to dwell on those things that divide us. We are going to rejoice in those things that keep us together to make this a better country - to reach down and back to touch every young person in need!
Colin Powell
#96. I don't know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community.
Colin Powell
#97. One of the fondest expressions around is that we can't be the world's policeman. But guess who gets called when suddenly someone needs a cop.
Colin Powell
#98. So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? ... I think our judgment has to be clearly not.
Colin Powell
#99. I happen to hold a bachelor of science degree in geology ... And my greatest contribution to the field of science is that I never entered it.
Colin Powell
#100. Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.
Colin Powell
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