113 Quotes by David Ignatius

The child was born in the Arab world, and in that sense, Roger and Alice had gone into the land itself, been penetrated by it, bled into its veins (p. 349).

Misdirection. False signals. Spreading confusion. This is the Tao of deception.

Luck is the residue of good planning.

It’s very hard to understand just what our strategy is in Syria, frankly, and on Iraq that this is Iraq’s war, that the role of the United States is to help Iraq, to arm, train, support, provide air support, but this has to be Iraq’s war.

Never settle for the lesser ambition. The job, the title, the conventional loyalties and rewards. Stay focused on the larger ambition, which is making a difference in the world.

We are the sum of our choices and decisions, chances and accidents. Our personal history is built up in layers that contain our history as surely as sediments of rock contain the history of our planet.

Retrospective analysis is not a useful guide to current problems.

Awal zaan resto jahan. First yourself, then the universe.

I believe, that there is at least de facto cooperation between United States and Iran, at least in Iraq.