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Preserve the President’s options. He may need them.

Donald Rumsfeld

You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Army War
Presidential leadership needn’t always cost money. Look for low- and no-cost options. They can be surprisingly effective.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Leadership Money Option President
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

Agreement Conclusion Creation Illusion Increase Policy
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.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Business Error Move On People Performance Politics Training Wrong
Don’t speak ill of your predecessors or successors. You didn’t walk in their shoes.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Ill Shoes Speak Success Walk
There are no “knowns.” There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Deep Philosophy
Be precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Dangerous Error Lack Margin
Enjoy your time in public service. It may well be one of the most interesting and challenging times of your life.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Challenge Interesting Life Public Service Time
Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Death Encouragement Tendency War
Let’s stick something in the ground and not pretend that it’s perfect.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Ground Perfection Pretend
Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers – they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Lawyer Reduce Stream
If it were a fact, it wouldn’t be called intelligence.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Fact Intelligence
Remember where you came from.
DONALD RUMSFELD

History One Liner Past Remember
First rule of politics: you can’t win unless you’re on the ballot. Second rule: If you run, you may lose. And, if you tie, you do not win.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Ballot Lose Politics Rule Win
If we know anything, it is that weakness is provocative.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Knowledge Weakness
Those who made the decisions with imperfect knowledge will be judged in hindsight by those with considerably more information at their disposal and time for reflection.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Decision Government Imperfection Knowledge Politics Reflection War

Preserve the President’s options. He may need them.

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Preserve the President’s options. He may need them.

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