Top 43 Don Rumsfeld Quotes
#1. Fuck it, I thought. As Don Rumsfeld once said, You go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had.
Avi Steinberg
#2. Don Rumsfeld is the finest secretary of defense the nation has ever had.
Dick Cheney
#3. Don't 'over-control' like a novice pilot. Stay loose enough from the flow that you can observe it, modify, and improve it.
Donald Rumsfeld
#5. Don't think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. As Charles De Gaulle said, the cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.
Donald Rumsfeld
#6. The price of being close to the President is delivering bad news. You fail him if you don't tell him the truth. Others won't do it.
Donald Rumsfeld
#7. I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons.
Donald Rumsfeld
#8. I think it's very useful for you folks (reporters) to try your damndest to be precise. And don't repeat things that are inaccurate if you can possibly avoid it. And when you see things that are inaccurate, knock them down
because there's a bucket of it floating around.
Donald Rumsfeld
#9. There are things we know we know. . . . 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
Steven J. Wangsness
#10. 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.
Donald Rumsfeld
#11. Think ahead. Don't let day-to-day operations drive out planning.
Donald Rumsfeld
#12. 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
#13. I don't know anybody that I can think of who has contended that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons.
Donald Rumsfeld
#14. Don't necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.
Donald Rumsfeld
#15. If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't, I'll just respond, cleverly.
Donald Rumsfeld
#16. Control your own time. Don't let it be done for you. If you are working off the in-box that is fed you, you are probably working on the priority of others.
Donald Rumsfeld
#17. If in doubt, don't. If still in doubt, do what's right.
Donald Rumsfeld
#18. From where you sit, the White House may look as untidy as the inside of a stomach. As is said of the legislative process, sausage-making and policy-making shouldn't be seen close-up. Don't let that panic you. Things may be going better than they look from the inside.
Donald Rumsfeld
#19. 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
#20. 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.
Donald Rumsfeld
#21. 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.
Donald Rumsfeld
#22. Don't accept the post or stay unless you have an understanding with the President that you're free to tell him what you think "with the bark off" and you have the courage to do it.
Donald Rumsfeld
#23. Don't say 'the White House wants.' Buildings can't want.
Donald Rumsfeld
#24. Learn to say 'I don't know.' If used when appropriate, it will be often.
Donald Rumsfeld
#26. Don't do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of The Washington Post.
Donald Rumsfeld
#27. I cannot give any assurances. I'm not in that business. I haven't been, and I don't intend to get into it. People who try to make predictions about things or assurances often find they're wrong.
Donald Rumsfeld
#28. Don't automatically obey Presidential directives if you disagree or if you suspect he hasn't considered key aspects of the issue.
Donald Rumsfeld
#29. No. That's someone else's business. Quagmire is - I don't do quagmires.
Donald Rumsfeld
#30. Watch the growth of middle level management. Don't automatically fill vacant jobs. Leave some positions unfilled for 6-8 months to see what happens. You will find you won't need to fill some of them.
Donald Rumsfeld
#31. Being Vice President is difficult. Don't make it tougher.
Donald Rumsfeld
#32. When someone with a rural accent says, "I don't know much about politics," zip up your pockets.
Donald Rumsfeld
#33. Our task, your task ... is to try to connect the dots before something happens. People say, 'Well, where's the smoking gun?' Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction.
Donald Rumsfeld
#34. I'm not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld. I don't think he listens enough to his uniformed officers.
Trent Lott
#35. You can have a broad popular democracy movement and have it end being taken over by the most vicious people and the result is you don't end up with free political systems or free economic systems, you end up with a handful of radicals controlling the country.
Donald Rumsfeld
#36. 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
#37. There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.
Donald Rumsfeld
#38. When cutting staff at the Pentagon, don't eliminate the thin layer that assures civilian control.
Donald Rumsfeld
#39. They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer.
Donald Rumsfeld
#40. There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don't know.
Donald Rumsfeld
#41. Don't speak ill of your predecessors or successors. You didn't walk in their shoes.
Donald Rumsfeld
#43. You're thinking of Eurpoe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe.
Donald Rumsfeld
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