Quotes By Donald Rumsfeld

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

Prune - prune businesses, products, activities, people. Do it annually.

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.

Be yourself. Follow your instincts. Success depends, at least in part, on the ability to "carry it off."

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

In our system leadership is by consent, not command. To lead a President must persuade. Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his persuasiveness and thus to his leadership.

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

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.

If you foul up, tell the President and correct it fast. Delay only compounds mistakes.

See that the President, the Cabinet and staff are informed. If cut out of the information flow, their decisions may be poor, not made, or not confidently or persuasively implemented.

Work continuously to trim the White House staff from your first day to your last. All the pressures are to the contrary.

Visit with your predecessors from previous Administrations. They know the ropes and can help you see around some corners. Try to make original mistakes, rather than needlessly repeating theirs.

Imagine, a September 11 with weapons of mass destruction. It's not 3,000. It's tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children.

In politics, every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it.

If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.

If the staff lacks policy guidance against which to test decisions, their decisions will be random.

Leave the President's family business to him. You will have plenty to do without trying to manage the First Family. They are likely to do fine without your help.

Don't automatically obey Presidential directives if you disagree or if you suspect he hasn't considered key aspects of the issue.

If a prospective Presidential approach can't be explained clearly enough to be understood well, it probably hasn't been thought through well enough. If not well understood by the American people, it probably won't "sail" anyway. Send it back for further thought.

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.

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.

With the press there is no "off the record."

Arguments of convenience lack integrity and inevitably trip you up.

Enjoy your time in public service. It may well be one of the most interesting and challenging times of your life.

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

Don't necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.

There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact.

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.

Look for what's missing. Many advisors can tell a President how to improve what's proposed or what's gone amiss. Few are able to see what isn't there.

If in doubt, don't. If still in doubt, do what's right.