Quotes from Colin Powell

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.

People get work done, not buildings, not staffs in a generic sense, and not plans, but people

I don't know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community.

Children need to get a high-quality education, avoid violence and the criminal-justice system, and gain jobs. But they deserve more. We want them to learn not only reading and math but fairness, caring, self-respect, family commitment, and civic duty.

They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow.

The United States stands willing to work with a transformed Palestinian Authority with new leaders coming to the front.

Engineering didn't take to me. And what saved me and kept me in college was I ran into ROTC cadets who were in a fraternity called The Pershing Rifles. And I found my place. I found discipline. I found structure. I found people that were like me and I liked.

Almost invariably, whoever doesn't win the argument is going to be unhappy.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it.

Being in charge sometimes means making people mad. Some days you have to overrule even the best advice, because you think it is not right.

Just hit my 75th birthday, I'm feeling great!

One thing the military does far better than business is train its own leaders. I can't go to IBM and hire a battalion commander. They don't have any.

Have a vision. Be demanding.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.

Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.

If it were up to me I would close Guant·namo not tomorrow but this afternoon...Essentially, we have shaken the belief that the world had in America's justice system...and it's causing us far more damage than any good we get from it.

They were anticipating a different kind of immediate aftermath of the fall of Baghdad, it turned out to be not exactly as they had anticipated.

Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word; and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection.

Don't be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce haemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.

Experts often possess more data than judgment.