“You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it.”

I do hunt, and I do fish, and I don’t apologize to anybody for hunting and fishing.

I was lucky enough to lead a very successful war.

It’s the sense of duty that keeps you going sometimes when things get very, very rough. Somebody’s got to do it. And if you don’t, who will?

How do you fight someone who doesn’t care if they get killed? You accommodate them.

You can’t help someone get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself.

Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character.

It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.

From the time I was twelve years old until I retired last year at the age of fifty-seven, the Army was my life. I loved commanding soldiers and being around people who had made a serious commitment to serve their country.

As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that, he’s a great military man, I want you to know that.

True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that’s what courage is.

To be an effective leader, you have to have a manipulative streak – you have to figure out the people working for you and give each tasks that will take advantage of his strength.

Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion.

I get angry at a principle, not a person.

An awful lot has been written about my temper.

I admire men of character and I judge character not by how men deal with their superiors, but mostly how they deal with their subordinates. And that, to me, is where you find out what the character of a man is.

Judge your enemy based upon capabilities, not intent, you have to look at the enemy and really almost make a worst case call every time.

Great success always comes at the risk of enormous failure.

If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.

Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.

We really care about our brand. We really want it to stand for high quality. We want people to be excited about it, for it to be fun.

To be understanding is more important than to be right.

Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.

You have to think outside the box.

I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.