Quotes from Donald Rumsfeld

When there happens to be a weapon of mass destruction suspect site in an area that we occupy and if people have time, they'll look at it.

They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer.

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

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.

A terrorist can attack any time, any place using any technique and you can't defend everywhere against every technique at every moment.

Arguments of convenience lack integrity and inevitably trip you up.

When you raise issues with the President, try to come away with both that decision and also a precedent. Pose issues so as to evoke broader policy guidance. This can help to answer a range of similar issues likely to arise later.

Simply because you do not have evidence that something exists does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist.

Your performance depends on your people. Select the best, train them and back them. When errors occur, give sharper guidance. If errors persist or if the fit feels wrong, help them move on. The country cannot afford amateur hour in the White House.

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.

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.

Treat each federal dollar as if it was hard earned; it was - by a taxpayer.

Don't say 'the White House wants.' Buildings can't want.

Be precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small.

Don't divide the world into 'them' and 'us.' Avoid infatuation with or resentment of the press, the Congress, rivals, or opponents. Accept them as facts. They have their jobs and you have yours.

You will launch many projects, but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan, develop, launch and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.

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.

When asked for your views, by the press or others, remember that what they really want to know is the President's views.

I think we ought to have a new rule: You can ask two questions, and then we can pick the one we want to answer.

After he saw what happened to Saddam Hussein, he (Gadhafi) did not want to be Saddam Hussein. He gave up his nuclear program.

The natural state of man is to want to be free. To have opportunities. To have choices.

If you try to please everybody, somebody's not going to like it.

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.

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.