Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Erik Prince - Page 2

I've done dumb things.

America is way too quick to trade freedom for the illusion of security. Whether it's allowing the NSA to go way too far in what it intercepts of our personal data, to our government monitoring of everything domestically and spending way more than we should.

I give people ideas on how to solve intractable problems.

If I could send a message back to my younger self, it would be: Do not work for the State Department at all.

We have a great all-volunteer force, but the fact is that 0.5% of the U.S. population serves in the military, maybe another 3-5% knows someone who serves. Leaving 95% of Ameria with no real contact with the military.

I believe there is significant overreach by the NSA in how it monitors American citizens.

I think the diplomatic-security needs in Iraq were an anomaly. There's never been a bulge of requirements that large ever before.

I loved being a SEAL. I loved working with those kind of guys and a sense of mission, and Blackwater was started to continue that sense of mission.

I will support vigorously whoever commits to reduce the size of government the most.

China trading with its neighbours and building infrastructure brings only benefits.

I'm not a huge believer that government provides a whole lot of solutions.

I don't know if I want to live in a country where lone wolf and random terror attacks are impossible 'cause that country would look more like North Korea than America.

President Trump should appoint a special presidential envoy and empower them to wage an unconventional war against Taliban and Daesh forces, to hold the corrupt officials accountable and to negotiate with their Afghan counterparts and the Afghan Taliban that are willing to reconcile with Kabul.

The left wants to protect social programs, the right wants to protect defense and intelligence spending and all the rest. I say the defense and intelligence world will be better off with a smaller budget. They would be less encumbered by bloat and able to maneuver the way they used to be able and not trip over themselves.

The establishment, rigged, cozy system inside the beltway is not America.

Training for any difficult job is essential.

I'm no hero. The world knows all too well about my mistakes. But I was never meant to play the villain.

I'm going to teach high school. History and economics. I may even coach wrestling. Hey, Indiana Jones taught school, too.

Everyone says they support our troops and thank you for their service, if they really want to support their troops, demand better. Demand that their sacrifice not be wasted. That we not just muddle along as some of the generals have called for.

C'mon now, I'm not going to make it easy for the terrorists to get me.

We have no George Pattons anymore. We have no Ulysses S. Grants. We have none of the swashbuckling generals that actually made things happen.

We have done great work for the U.S. government.

Sometimes motorists do irrational things.

If the Chinese are sensitive about anything, it's not having their people die.

Unfortunately, I kind of split between Virginia and living in an airplane. I travel a lot.

I've certainly been mortared and rocketed a few times.

I like the fact that Donald Trump has been in the private sector. I like that he's had to make a payroll. I like that he's had to do projects.

My dad built his business by providing products he figured the customers would want.

Some people will always hate the name Blackwater. They might not like me.

I wish we had been doing diplomatic security in Benghazi. I can tell you that Benghazi would not have happened if Blackwater were on the job there.

I can relate to ranchers and roughnecks and professional game guides and farmers and homemakers.

I represented everything Democrats loathed.

You pretty much remove the entire political texture from Blackwater when you come to China. What they look at is our 100 per cent success rate.

We have the finest officers in the world, but it seems like once they become generals it is a self-licking ice cream cone of who gets promoted and who gets approved to join that club. No one thinks outside the box.

Some of the most dedicated, most passionate people I've ever met have been part of the United States armed forces.

I built Blackwater to stay connected to the SEAL teams and to serve that whole community.

I think everybody wanted to help the U.S. government in some way after 9/11.

We have kind of turned our back on the fact that hard work, sacrifice, risk-taking, innovation, is what made America great.

I love the U.S. military. I want them to be the most effective and the most cost-effective and I think there is so much spending and so much bloat and so much bureaucracy that it actually hinders them from having a lot of the mission accomplishments that they should.

We're very excited about Africa - it can be the breadbasket of the world.