Great Throughts Treasury

"Imagine, a September 11 with weapons of mass destruction. It's not 3,000. It's tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children."

"In politics, every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it."

"In the execution of Presidential decisions work to be true to his views, in fact and tone."

"It is easier to get into something than to get out of it."

"It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog."

"In our system leadership is by consent, not command. To lead a President must persuade. Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his persuasiveness and thus to his leadership."

"It isn't making mistakes that's critical; it's correcting them and getting on with the principal task."

"It recalls to mind the statement by Winston Churchill, something to the effect that: I have benefited greatly from criticism, and at no time have I suffered a lack thereof."

"It seems to me that it's up to all of us to try to tell the truth, to say what we know, to say what we don't know, and recognize that we're dealing with people that are perfectly willing to, to lie to the world to attempt to further their case and to the extent people lie of, ultimately they are caught lying and they lose their credibility and one would think it wouldn't take very long for that to happen dealing with people like this."

"It's a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy."

"Know that the amount of criticism you receive may correlate somewhat to the amount of publicity you receive."

"Learn to say "I don't know." If used when appropriate, it will be often."

"Leave the President's family business to him. You will have plenty to do without trying to manage the First Family. They are likely to do fine without your help."

"Look at me! I'm sweet and lovable!"

"Let your family, staff, and friends know that you're still the same person, despite all the publicity and notoriety that accompanies your position."

"Let's hear it for the essential daily briefing, however hollow and empty it might be. We'll do it."

"Many people around the President have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos."

"Look for what's missing. Many advisors can tell a President how to improve what's proposed or what's gone amiss. Few are able to see what isn't there."

"Members of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate are not there by accident. Each managed to get there for some reason. Learn what it was and you will know something important about them, about our country and about the American people."

"Needless to say, the President is correct. Whatever it was he said."

"Now what is the message there? The message is that there are no "knowns." There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns. It sounds like a riddle. It isn't a riddle. It is a very serious, important matter."

"Make decisions about the President's personal security. He can overrule you, but don't ask him to be the one to counsel caution."

"Now, settle down, settle down. Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning and I'm gathering my thoughts here."

"Now, you're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe."

"Oh my goodness gracious, what you can buy off the Internet in terms of overhead photography. A trained ape can know an awful lot of what is going on in this world, just by punching on his mouse, for a relatively modest cost."

"Oh, Lord. I didn't mean to say anything quotable."

"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."

"One of your tasks is to separate the "personal" from the "substantive." The two can become confused, especially if someone rubs the President wrong."

"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."

"Politics is human beings; it's addition rather than subtraction."

"Preserve the President's options. He may need them."

"Pieces of intelligence, scraps of intelligence…you run down leads and you run down leads, and you hope that sometimes it works."

"Presidential leadership needn't always cost money. Look for low- and no-cost options. They can be surprisingly effective."

"Prune - prune businesses, products, activities, people. Do it annually."

"Reduce the layers of management. They put distance between the top of an organization and the customers."

"Public servants are paid to serve the American people. Do it well."

"Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers - they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up."

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say 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. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones."

"Remember where you came from."

"Some have argued that the nuclear threat from Saddam Hussein is not imminent, that he is 5-7 years away from having a nuclear weapon. I would not be so certain."

"Test ideas in the marketplace. You learn from hearing a range of perspectives. Consultation helps engender the support decisions need to be successfully implemented."

"See that the President, the Cabinet and staff are informed. If cut out of the information flow, their decisions may be poor, not made, or not confidently or persuasively implemented."

"Secretary Powell and I agree on every single issue that has ever been before this administration except for those instances where Colin's still learning."

"The forces we face represent very hardened elements of Al Qaeda and Taliban, true deadenders."

"The great respect that I have for your leadership, Mr. President, in this little-understood, unfamiliar war, the first war of the 21st century--it is not well-known, it was not well-understood; it is complex for people to comprehend. And I know with certainty that, over time, the contributions you've made will be recorded by history."

"That just couldn't be any more wrong than spreading marmalade on a steaming pile of flapjacks."

"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."

"The Secretary of Defense is not a super General or Admiral. His task is to exercise civilian control over the Department for the Commander-in-Chief and the country."

"The Federal Government should be the last resort, not the first. Ask if a potential program is truly a federal responsibility or whether it can better be handled privately, by voluntary organizations, or by local or state governments."

"The way to do well is to do well."