“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.”

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.

I’d like to think I’m a caring human being.

With a chemical alarm, you’re going to build one that is oversensitive because you would rather the alarm go off and give you a false alarm than to err on the other side

Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar. And still there are things worth fighting for.

I believe that forgiving them is god’s function, our job is to arrange the meeting.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

The best decisions aren’t made with your mind, but with your Instinct.

Fortune sides with him who dares.

I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Always think positively and expect the best.

Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.

Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

To get something new done you have to be stubborn and focused, to the point that others might find unreasonable.