732 Quotes by Donald Rumsfeld

It depends on what's happening on the ground,

But I certainly never gave the president a briefing with the impact that one would have had you seen the photographs or the video. I mean, let there be no doubt about that. He was just as blindsided as the Congress and me and everyone else.

The most underestimated risk for a politician is overexposure.

We've always known that there are people who've tried to infiltrate the various security forces and get to close access to places they ought not to be. There's nothing new about that that I know of.

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.

I think it will have the support of the American people, and it will be sustained and we will be successful.

As conditions on the ground there permit and require, obviously the commanders on the ground will recommend that coalition forces and US forces pare down as responsibility is transferred to Iraqis,

What they're doing is they're trying to pretend that they're functioning well, leave the impression that people should give them money, their financiers, leave the impression that they're a viable organization and that they should get recruits, and just generally give encouragement to their people,

I don't think that I would characterize what's going on in Iran as a democratic system, ... I don't think I would say that it fits the principles that I've just indicated. I think there are an awful lot of people in Iran who feel that that small group of clerics that determine what takes place in that country is not their idea of how they want to live their lives.