Top 180 Donald Rumsfeld Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “The natural state of man is to want to be free. To have opportunities. To have choices.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

152. “Don’t think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. As Charles De Gaulle said, the cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

153. “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.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

154. “If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

155. “When surprise occurs, such as when the economy enters an unexpected recession or a conflict begins seemingly out the blue, the natural reaction is to immediately ask who made the “obvious” mistake. It is much easier to believe that our leaders are incompetent than to accept the less pleasant reality that ours is a world where uncertainty and surprise are the norm, not the exception.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

156. “I tend over the years to have developed a certain hesitancy about believing that headlines tell the whole story.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

157. “Nothing big – certainly nothing big in historical terms – comes easy.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

158. “Every country should be tired of going to war. War is a terrible thing. If I had been in Congress, as much as I would be inclined naturally to be supportive of a president, any president, I would have voted no, had the issue come to a vote.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

159. “Preserve the President’s options. He may need them.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

160. “Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often focus on how much money or effort is spent, rather than whether the money or effort actually achieves the announced goal.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

161. “Look at me! I’m sweet and lovable!”

— Donald Rumsfeld

162. “The Federal Government should be the last resort, not the first. Ask if a potential program is truly a federal responsibility or whether it can better be handled privately, by voluntary organizations, or by local or state governments.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

163. “A large number of people to begin crawling through those tunnels and caves looking for the bad folks.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

164. “The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships. – Abraham Lincoln.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

165. “Within a week, or a month, Saddam could give his WMD to al-Qaeda.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

166. “If you look ahead 10 years, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the people of Russia had become fans of missile defence.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

167. “Know that the amount of criticism you receive may correlate somewhat to the amount of publicity you receive.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

168. “Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

169. “Don’t accept the post or stay unless you have an understanding with the President that you’re free to tell him what you think “with the bark off” and you have the courage to do it.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

170. “One of your tasks is to separate the ‘personal’ from the ‘substantive.’ The two can become confused, especially if someone rubs the President wrong.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

171. “They may have had time to destroy them, and I don’t know the answer.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

172. “Being Vice President is difficult. Don’t make it tougher.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

173. “A president has to provide leadership to gain support.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

174. “Move decisions out to the Cabinet and agencies. Strengthen them by moving responsibility, authority, and accountability their direction.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

175. “The United States isn’t going to do anything That it’s not capable of doing. And if we do something, We’ll be capable of doing it.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

176. “There will be good moments, and there will be less good moments.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

177. “There is no question but that when one is engaged militarily that there are going to be unintended loss of life.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

178. “The Secretary of Defense is not a super General or Admiral. His task is to exercise civilian control over the Department for the Commander-in-Chief and the country.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

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

— Donald Rumsfeld

180. “The way to do well is to do well.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

181. “Most of the 50 or so invitations you receive each week come from people inviting the President’s Chief of Staff, not you. If you doubt that, ask your predecessor how many he received last week.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

182. “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money. – Margaret Thatcher T.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

183. “That’s what makes leadership so difficult and truly outstanding leaders so rare. Tough decisions involve weighing not just benefits and risks, but also competing principles and sometimes even conflicting rules.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

184. “Listening to both sides does not necessarily bring about a correct judgment.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

185. “No terror state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

186. “Leaders need to search for people who instinctively appreciate the wrongness of waste and misuse.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

187. “Indeed, there are times when the received wisdom and prevailing ways of doing things must be challenged and the rulebook thrown out altogether.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

188. “Know that the immediate staff and others in the Administration will assume that your manner, tone and tempo reflect the President’s.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

189. “What you measure improves.” A corollary rule in the military is that “You get what you inspect, not what you expect.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

190. “People are policy! Without the best people in place, the best ideas don’t matter. – DR. ED FEULNER.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

191. “Whatever your position, reach out to those who know more than you do, and have been around longer than you have. Find those people. Listen carefully. And learn.”

— Donald Rumsfeld

192. “Agreement can always be reached by increasing the generality of the conclusion; when this is done, the form is generally preserved but only the illusion of policy is created.”

— Donald Rumsfeld