427 Quotes by Colin Powell

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

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.

There are many roles to be played, and we believe that every peace-loving nation in the world -- every nation that would like to see a more stable Middle East, that would like to see a democracy arise in that part of the world -- would like to play a role,

We got rid of a terrible dictator. We gave the Iraqi people an opportunity for a new life under a representative form of government.

There is a war on terror that must be fought. Nobody's immune. And so rather than finding fault with what someone has done by being aggressive in the war on terror, others should redouble efforts to go after terrorist organizations of any kind. Terror has to be brought to an end.

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.

We thought it would be useful to point out to the Pakistani leadership at every level that we are looking for and expecting their fullest cooperation ... as well as (to see) how helpful they might be if we find a basis to act on that information,

The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.

Our senior officers knew the war was going badly. Yet they bowed to groupthink pressure and kept up pretenses. ...Many of my generation, the career captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels seasoned in that war, vowed that when our turn came to call the shots, we would not quietly acquiesce in halfhearted warfare for half-baked reasons that the American people could not understand.