“The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.”

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

If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.

My own experience is that you get as much information as you can and then you pay attention to your intuition, to your informed instinct.

One of the greatest talents of all is the talent to recognize and to develop talent in others.

Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.

Be careful what you choose: You may get it.

Luck tends to come to people who are prepared.

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.

It is not the role of the United States to dictate change, but to enter into discussions with our friends.

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’.

Have a sense of humor to break the tension in times of great toil.

The best way to create a winning team is to train them, give them everything they need to get the job done and second, make sure they know what the job is and what the job will be. So you connect strategy to resources.

You should never be so involved with your position/job that when the position is gone your entire self image is gone with it.

Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.

Leaders have followers. The primary role of a leader is to convey to those followers a sense of purpose, vision, and mission.

Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.

I speak and speak but the listener retains only the words he is expecting. It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.

Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

We can’t command our love, but we can our actions.

Beware of despairing about yourself: you are commanded to put your trust in God, and not in yourself.

The mind commands the body and is instantly obeyed. The mind commands itself and meets resistance.

One of the great commandments of science is: Mistrust arguments from authority.

Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.