Quotes from John F. Kelly

If you were to build a wall from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, you would still have to back that wall up with patrolling by human beings, sensors, observation devices.

I work for one man. His name is Donald Trump. He has told me one thing: 'Secure the border.'

I think we could very easily suffer a seriously catastrophic cyber event.

I've learned that, in many cases, people say, 'I want ground truth,' and they don't really mean it. There are warts all over this organization, as there are in many organizations, but you just have to tell truth to power and let the chips fall where they may.

We have a saying in the Marine Corps and that is 'no better friend, no worse enemy, than a U.S. Marine.' We always hope for the first, friendship, but are certainly more than ready for the second.

We cannot gamble with American lives. I will not gamble with American lives.

I'm pretty committed to the Constitution.

Unless confronted by an immediate, visible, or uncomfortable crisis, our nation's tendency is to take the security of the Western Hemisphere for granted.

I'm not for the mass collection of data. I go the other way.

If there's a country, and it's dangerous, and we deploy a U.S.military man or woman, if there's only one there, and they never leave the capital, that is 'boots on the ground.'

The one thing I was always told is you absolutely have to tell truth to power. Whether you're a second lieutenant working with a captain and a lieutenant colonel, or a four-star general working with the Office Secretary of Defense and the White House, the decision makers have got to have ground truth.

If there's a country, and it's dangerous, and we deploy a U.S. military man or woman, if there's only one there, and they never leave the capital, that is 'boots on the ground.' We do a disservice to the sacrifice of these people, particularly if they are killed, when we say there's no boots on the ground.

Whether you're a second lieutenant working with a captain and a lieutenant colonel, or a four-star general working with the Office Secretary of Defense and the White House, the decision makers have got to have ground truth. Otherwise, the decisions they make could be flawed - and that can be dangerous.

I grew up in Boston in a very, very, very Marine town. So back in my neighborhood in Boston, a working-class neighborhood, when you got your draft notice, you went down, and you took your draft physical. And then, if you passed it, you joined the Marine Corps.

If the Marines today are doing exactly the same thing their dads did in Vietnam and their granddads did in Korea and World War II, then how in the hell can we say that they're not as good?

There will be no use of military forces in immigration. There will be no - repeat, no - mass deportations.

Marines dying or being seriously wounded is commonplace in combat.

My sincere advice to any citizen considering moving to the United States and crossing our boundaries in irregular migration, my best advice is to not do it.

To join in the political fray, I don't think it convinces anyone. It just becomes a talking point on CNN.

I do not believe that the Sunni tribes have gone over to the Islamic State.

If you want to get into the United States, the best way, I believe, is to ride the network. There is no convergence between, say, the criminal networks and the Islamic extremist networks.

One day, you'll get out of the Marine Corps; you'll put your uniform up, but you'll never not be a Marine.

The comforting news for every American is that our men and women in uniform, and every Marine, is as good today as any in our history.

I guess, over time, I had convinced myself that I could imagine what it would be like to lose a son or daughter. You try to imagine it so that you can write the right kind of letters or form the right words to try to comfort. But you can't even come close. It is unimaginable.