Top 387 Quotes & Sayings by Colin Powell
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American statesman Colin Powell.
Last updated on September 14, 2024.
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War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.
Russia isn't going to start a war. They can't afford it. I think Mr. Putin can be dealt with if we stop screaming at him. You can work with the guy. You just have to know who he is.
90 percent of my time is spent on 10 percent of the world.
No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up.
Diplomacy is listening to what the other guy needs. Preserving your own position, but listening to the other guy. You have to develop relationships with other people so when the tough times come, you can work together.
What we have to find is the right level of regulation of our financial system so that it has the incentive to invest in things, but at the same time, it is sufficiently regulated so it can't get in the kind of trouble that we have seen in the past and we have seen recently.
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.
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.
It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced - the just demands of peace and security will be met - or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.
President Assad, I worked with. I know him reasonably well, met with him a few times, and he's a liar.
I don't want to spend the rest of my life giving speeches.
Don't bother people for help without first trying to solve the problem yourself.
We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us.
If a leader doesn't convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they'll start to fall down and get depressed.
Today I can declare my hope and declare it from the bottom of my heart that we will eventually see the time when that number of nuclear weapons is down to zero and the world is a much better place.
There's not going to be a World War III, because there is no one to have World War III with.
Never neglect details. When everyone's mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.
You can't just have slogans, you can't just have catchy phrases. You have to have an agenda. And I think what the Republican Party has to do, if it's going to incorporate the tea party efforts in it, is to come up with an agenda that the American people can see, touch, and actually believe in, and something they believe in.
Get mad, then get over it.
Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.
Don't let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn't go with it.
A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
Fit no stereotypes. Don't chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team's mission.
The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.
Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
Some of the generals are saying, 'We're making progress. We are clearing an area.' But you really don't defeat the Taliban by clearing an area. They move.
The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort.
But just as they did in Philadelphia when they were writing the constitution, sooner or later, you've got to compromise. You've got to start making the compromises that arrive at a consensus and move the country forward.
In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that's called marriage, and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country.
You don't know what you can get away with until you try.
Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.
You should see what our Founding Fathers used to say to each other and in the early part of our nation. But what they were able to do, especially in Philadelphia in 1787, four months, they argued about what a House should be, what a Senate should be, the power of the president, the Congress, the Supreme Court. And they had to deal with slavery.
Economy's got to get moving, we've got to get the unemployment rate down. That may be the defining issue of the campaign.
The chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny.
You're not just voting for an individual, in my judgment, you're voting for an agenda. You're voting for a platform. You're voting for a political philosophy.
Throughout my career, I learned plenty about war on the battlefield, but I learned even more about the importance of finding peace. And that is what the State Department and U.S.A.I.D. do: prevent the wars that we can avoid so that we fight only the ones we must.
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.
The country would be a lot better off if we stopped having comment sections. And if we got rid of Twitter.
You have to make sure you know why you are going to war and then use decisive force to end it as soon as possible.
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.
Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.
In other words, don't expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say 'we have a problem, let's go and get it'.
Experts often possess more data than judgment.
Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.
So like any football or basketball coach, you always always believe you're going to win.
Trump is a national disgrace and an international pariah.
We have practiced diplomacy since the very beginning of the nation. Sometimes it has not worked, and we've had to go to war. I always believe you should try to find peace and reconciliation before conflict. That has been the approach I've taken.
Indeed, we're strongest when the face of America isn't only a soldier carrying a gun but also a diplomat negotiating peace, a Peace Corps volunteer bringing clean water to a village, or a relief worker stepping off a cargo plane as floodwaters rise.
Many interviewers when they come to talk to me, think they're being progressive by not mentioning in their stories any longer that I'm black. I tell them, 'Don't stop now. If I shot somebody you'd mention it.'
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with age.
There are lots of countries that are having these kinds of internal civil wars in other parts of the world and nobody is talking about intervening.
I think whether you're having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.
Politics is not bean bags. It's serious, tough stuff.
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