732 Quotes by Donald Rumsfeld

Plan backwards as well as forward. Set objectives and trace back to see how to achieve them. You may find that no path can get you there. Plan forward to see where your steps will take you, which may not be clear or intuitive.

Obviously, there would be many ways that one could easily -- were one alive -- one could easily indicate that they were alive and that the tape had been made recently,

We need your help to capture the rest of them, ... We also need to get rid of foreign fighters, those from neighboring countries who are seeking to hijack your country for their own purposes.

It is our task to see that that doesn't happen,

The likelihood of it seems to be so low that it does not surprise me that it's never been discussed in my presence,

We have to expect that global terrorist networks that we know are trying to get these weapons will in fact be successful at some time in the future,

Be yourself. Follow your instincts. Success depends, at least in part, on the ability to 'carry it off.'

One thing appears reasonably certain, and that's that those who make allegations of a culture of deception, of intimidation or cover-up need to be extremely careful about such accusations.

It's a one-pager, ... It is basically a memorandum that says the NSC is going to do that which it is chartered to do. It is chartered to do interagency coordination, and that's what the memo says.