Explore the most impactful and insightful quotes and sayings by Colin Powell, and enrich your perspective with the wisdom. Share these inspiring Colin Powell quotes pictures with your friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, completely free. Here are the top 246 Colin Powell quotes for you to read and share.

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Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience. -- Colin Powell
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America has a terrible educational problem in the sense that we have too many youngsters not finishing school. A third of our kids don't finish high school, 50 percent of minorities don't finish high school. -- Colin Powell
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I'm not perfect but I'll be the creator of perfection. -- Colin Powell
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No one has done more to prevent conflict - no one has made a greater sacrifice for the cause for Peace - than you, America's proud missile submarine family. You stand tall among our heroes of the Cold War. -- Colin Powell
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We all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn't come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn't resurging. It didn't work out. -- Colin Powell
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Luck tends to come to people who are prepared. -- Colin Powell
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Trust is the essence of Leadership. -- Colin Powell
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Well, the correct answer is he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? -- Colin Powell
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People get work done, not buildings, not staffs in a generic sense, and not plans, but people -- Colin Powell
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Always do your best. Somebody is watching you. -- Colin Powell
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Maybe we don't put our young people in situations often enough where they're allowed to fail. When you fail you gain experience, and with enough experience, you don't fail as often. -- Colin Powell
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I'm sleeping like a baby, too. Every two hours, I wake up, screaming. -- Colin Powell
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Leadership is all about people ... and getting the most out of people. -- Colin Powell
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We need stable regimes in this part of the world [the Mideast] who will be partners and friends of ours, because the fact of the matter is we do rely on imported oil to fuel our economy and to fuel our nation. -- Colin Powell
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It was President [Bill] Clinton and the United States congress in 1998 which said that the regime has to be changed because the regime would not give up its weapons of mass destruction. We came into office in 2001 and kept that policy because Saddam Hussein had not changed. -- Colin Powell
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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. -- Colin Powell
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The long bitter years of the Cold War are over. America and her allies have won; totally, decisively, and overwhelmingly ... So thank you SAC. Job well done. Enjoy your retirement. -- Colin Powell
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Nobody has ever said in the United States government that we are going to war next month. No decision has been made by the president because, as he said to the United Nations, he wants the United Nations to live up to its responsibilities and he wants Saddam Hussein to cooperate. -- Colin Powell
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The greatest gifts my parents gave to me ... were their unconditional love and a set of values. -- Colin Powell
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But just as they did in Philadelphia when they were writing the constitution, sooner or later, you've got to compromise. You've got to start making the compromises that arrive at a consensus and move the country forward. -- Colin Powell
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Pissing people off doesn't mean you're doing the right things, but doing the right things will almost inevitably piss people off. -- Colin Powell
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At the same time I think it is absolutely necessary that there be no confusion, no misunderstanding that if the Iraqis.. do not comply, then there will be consequences and those consequences will involve the use of military force to disarm them through changing the regime. -- Colin Powell
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I think we can make a contribution to their [Saudi Arabia] thinking as they decide how they should deal with the economic and social challenges that they are facing. -- Colin Powell
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Preferring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. This the Constitution forbids. -- Colin Powell
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The United States is not looking for a way to launch war. -- Colin Powell
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There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hardwork, and learning from failure- -- Colin Powell
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There are no secrets to success. It's the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure. -- Colin Powell
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The bottom line in all of it is that, in life, it's all about people. -- Colin Powell
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Remain calm, be kind. -- Colin Powell
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It isn't enough just to scream at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. We need our political system to start reflect this anger back into, 'How do we fix it? How do we get the economy going again?' -- Colin Powell
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Don't just count your days, make your days count. -- Colin Powell
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Good leaders must know how to reward those who succeed and know when to retrain, move, or fire ineffective staff. -- Colin Powell
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The chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny. -- Colin Powell
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Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut. -- Colin Powell
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Leaders honor their core values, but they are flexible in how they execute them. -- Colin Powell
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The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced - the just demands of peace and security will be met - or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power. -- Colin Powell
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My own experience is use the tools that are out there. Use the digital world. But never lose sight of the need to reach out and talk to other people who don't share your view. Listen to them and see if you can find a way to compromise. -- Colin Powell
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Always be looking for the opportunities, and always be optimistic about what you can do with that opportunity. -- Colin Powell
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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. -- Colin Powell
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Many interviewers when they come to talk to me, think they're being progressive by not mentioning in their stories any longer that I'm black. I tell them, 'Don't stop now. If I shot somebody you'd mention it.' -- Colin Powell
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I have always held the view that decisive force should be used in addressing a military conflict. The reason is simple: Why wouldn't you, if you could? -- Colin Powell
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When we are debating an issue, loyalty means giving me your honest opinion, whether you think I'll like it or not. Disagreement, at this state, stimulates me. But once a decision is made, the debate ends. From that point on, loyalty means executing the decision as if it were your own. -- Colin Powell
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Have a vision. Be demanding. -- Colin Powell
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The United States-Israeli relationship is based on the broadest conception of American national interest in which our two nations are bound forever together by common democratic values and traditions. This will never change. -- Colin Powell
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No matter how significant or life-changing your greatest hit or miss might be, neither even begins to define who you are. Each of us is a product of all our experiences and all our interactions with other people. To cite calculus, we are the area under the curve. -- Colin Powell
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Freedom to be your best means nothing unless you are wiling to do your best. -- Colin Powell
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I recommended to the president [George Bush] that our focus had to be on al-Qaida, the Taliban and Afghanistan. Those were the ones who attacked the United States of America on 9/11. -- Colin Powell
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We hope that more assistance will be available to the nations of the region, to include Egypt, on the three pillars that I discussed today: civic society development, education and economic development. -- Colin Powell
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So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? ... I think our judgment has to be clearly not. -- Colin Powell
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I think all of the attention of the world, to include the attention of the Arab world, should be on Saddam Hussein and whether or not he is prepared to give up the weapons of mass destruction that he has used to terrorise the region. -- Colin Powell
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A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.-Colin Powell -- Colin Powell
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In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that's called marriage, and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country. -- Colin Powell
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Let it [racism] be a problem to someone else ... Let it drag them down. Don't use it as an excuse for your own shortcomings. -- Colin Powell
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Don't just show kindness in passing or to be courteous. Show it in depth, show it with passion, and expect nothing in return. Kindness is not just about being nice; it's about recognizing another human being who deserves care and respect. -- Colin Powell
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Fear and failure are always present. Accept them as part of life and learn how to manage these realities. Be scared, but keep going. Being scared is usually transient. It will pass. If you fail, fix the causes and keep going. -- Colin Powell
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What could be more important than equipping the next generation with the character and competence they need to become successful -- Colin Powell
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Be careful what you choose: You may get it. -- Colin Powell
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It was the Congress that imposed 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' it was certainly my position, my recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred. -- Colin Powell
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If it ain't broke, don't fix it' is the slogan of the complacent, the arrogant or the scared. It's an excuse for inaction, a call to non-arms. -- Colin Powell
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He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours. -- Colin Powell
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Terrorism really flourishes in areas of poverty, despair and hopelessness, where people see no future -- Colin Powell
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Strategy equals execution. All the great ideas and visions in the world are worthless if they can't be implemented rapidly and efficiently. Good leaders delegate and empower others liberally, but they pay attention to details, every day. -- Colin Powell
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90 percent of my time is spent on 10 percent of the world. -- Colin Powell
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President Kennedy didn't negotiate out of the Cuban missile crisis simply because he and Khrushchev got along well. Khrushchev didn't have the cards. -- Colin Powell
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No war on the face of the Earth is more destructive than the AIDS pandemic. -- Colin Powell
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Always be looking for that which you do well and that which you love doing, and when you find those two things together - man, you got it. -- Colin Powell
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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'. -- Colin Powell
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We are rather candid with them about the nature of their political processes and the state of development of their institutions, but they are looking to the West because they know that's where success lies -- Colin Powell
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All values are important, everyone who has ever touched my life in some way was a mentor for good or bad. Life is a blend, and a person is a blend of all the influences that have touched their lives. -- Colin Powell
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Economy's got to get moving, we've got to get the unemployment rate down. That may be the defining issue of the campaign. -- Colin Powell
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I try to be the same person I was yesterday. -- Colin Powell
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Officers have been trying for hundreds of years to outsmart soldiers and have still not learned that it cannot be done. We can always count on the native ingenuity of the American GI to save us from ourselves, and to win wars. -- Colin Powell
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We would like to see new leaders come forward who would be accountable and responsible, who would succeed in ending the terror and the violence. And it is up to the Palestinian people to judge who those new leaders should be. -- Colin Powell
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I am confident that we will find evidence that makes it clear he had weapons of mass destruction. -- Colin Powell
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Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity. -- Colin Powell
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Saudi Arabia will have to decide its own path, and I don't know if it will decide a path like any other nation in the region or if it will design something that is unique to Saudi Arabia. -- Colin Powell
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The one thing the terrorists cannot do
not one of them, not 10 of them, not 10,000 of them
they cannot change who we are. -- Colin Powell
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When you help the poorest in the world, you start to move them up an economic and social ladder, and they're not going to be moving toward violence or terrorism of the kind that we worry about. -- Colin Powell
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The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. -- Colin Powell
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The Court is perhaps one of the last citadels of jealously preserved individualism. For the most part, we function as nine, small independent law firms. -- Colin Powell
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It is not our place to decide who should lead the Iraqi people. If Saddam [Hussein] leaves or has to be forced out of power and a new regime brought in, a new leadership brought in, I am confident it will be some combination of people inside the country and outside the country. -- Colin Powell
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We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more. -- Colin Powell
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The burden is on Saddam Hussein. And our policy, our national policy - not the UN policy but our national policy - is that the regime should be changed until such time as he demonstrates that it is not necessary to change the regime because the regime has changed itself. -- Colin Powell
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Finding the Russian scientists may be a problem being that Russia does not have a Social Security System, as here in America, that allows us to monitor, track down and capture an American citizen. -- Colin Powell
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Have a vision; but it's not enough to have a vision, you have to communicate that vision to others. You have to communicate it to people who work with you and for you. You have to communicate it to the world leaders with whom you come in touch. -- Colin Powell
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Ladies and gentlemen, these are not assertions. These are facts, corroborated by many sources, some of them sources of the intelligence services of other countries. -- Colin Powell
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Bahrain is moving at one pace, Morocco another, Qatar at another, Kuwait at yet another. And we are there to assist our friends. -- Colin Powell
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I have always tried to do my job in a way that I have people give me different points of view. -- Colin Powell
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The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership. -- Colin Powell
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There is no such thing as an unimportant person in an organization. -- Colin Powell
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Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision. -- Colin Powell
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Policies that emanate from ivory towers often have an adverse impact on the people out in the field who are fighting the wars or bringing in the revenues. -- Colin Powell
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Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up. -- Colin Powell
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I consider myself a moderate Republican. I have very, very moderate social views, and I'm pretty strong on, on defense matters. -- Colin Powell
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You should never be so involved with your position/job that when the position is gone your entire self image is gone with it. -- Colin Powell
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What you're seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they're directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society. -- Colin Powell
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My responsibility, our responsibility as lucky Americans, is to try to give back to this country as much as it has given us, as we continue our American journey together. -- Colin Powell
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I think whether you're having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude. -- Colin Powell
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There are no secrets to success: don't waste time looking for them. Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work, and persistence. -- Colin Powell
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Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence. -- Colin Powell
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Perpetual optimism is a force leveler -- Colin Powell
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I always like to take my time and examine the two candidates, see not only the two candidates but the policies they will bring in, the people they will bring in, who they might appoint to the Supreme Court, and look at the whole range of issues before making a decision. -- Colin Powell
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A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is shown by the
kind of friends he chooses. -- Colin Powell
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Perpetual Optimism is a Force Multiplier. -- Colin Powell
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I have always gone through public life and saying that with respect to political candidates, I always measure each candidate against what I think the country needs at that time, and I will vote for the person I think who is most qualified to serve the nation at that time. -- Colin Powell
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It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. -- Colin Powell
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The root cause of poverty is social injustice and the bad government that abets it -- Colin Powell
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I get over it quickly and never lose control of myself. -- Colin Powell
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Too often we act - ask our schools to be truant officers, our teachers to be truant officers, because we're giving them children who have, you know, they're not ready to learn. And if they're not ready to learn by the third grade, they know they're behind. -- Colin Powell
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I'm not active in politics. I vote as a citizen, and if somebody cares to know what my opinion is at the time of the election, I might or might not share it publicly. -- Colin Powell
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With respect to where we are now, we have a voluntary army. And if we ever go back to conscription I hope that at time it will be the kind of conscription that was put in at the end of the Vietnam War. And that is, everybody is equally liable to be called to serve the nation in time of conflict. -- Colin Powell
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Trust is the glue that holds an org together & the lubricant that moves it forward. -- Colin Powell
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We want to approach this in a multilateral way, talking with our friends, consulting with our security council colleagues in the United Nations, hoping to find a way to solve this peacefully, but at the same time recognising that unless the threat of military force is there, Iraq will not disarm. -- Colin Powell
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It is not the role of the United States to dictate change, but to enter into discussions with our friends. -- Colin Powell
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The claims made about Iraq's WMD capabilities before the invasion were inaccurate, wrong, and in some cases, deliberately misleading. -- Colin Powell
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I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now. -- Colin Powell
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I happen to hold a bachelor of science degree in geology ... And my greatest contribution to the field of science is that I never entered it. -- Colin Powell
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I was taught to think about mission and people. Mission. What are you trying to accomplish? Don't do anything until you know what the mission is. Drilled into our hearts and into our heads. -- Colin Powell
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The only bipartisanship you ever see is when they finally sign a bill and everybody says, 'Gee, isn't that wonderful?' -- Colin Powell
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There are a lot of bigger issues we have to be worrying about with respect to our relationship to China, and the longer they drag out the situation, the more difficult it is to get this relationship back on track. -- Colin Powell
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Thee are such horrible weapons. And so no sane leader would ever want to cross that line to using nuclear weapons. And, if you are not going to cross that line, then these things are basically useless. -- Colin Powell
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Foe means enemy. Now, will we have differences of opinion with the Russians? Yes. Will they get mad at us from time to time, and we get mad at them? That's part of the normal diplomatic relations. -- Colin Powell
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Have a sense of humor to break the tension in times of great toil. -- Colin Powell
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You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours. -- Colin Powell
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For all the hardship, I was still excited to be on the trail, testing my endurance, feeling especially alive as strength and fatigue flowed alternately through my limbs. -- Colin Powell
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Look at the world. There is no pure competitor to the United States of America. -- Colin Powell
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If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool. -- Colin Powell
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A dream doesn't become reality ... -- Colin Powell
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I think the Iranians are clearly determined to have a nuclear program. And we have to assume that with a nuclear program they have the capability and the will to create a nuclear weapon. -- Colin Powell
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None of us can change our yesterdays but all of us can change our tomorrows. -- Colin Powell
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I respect the fact that many denominations have different points of view with respect to gay marriage and they can hold that in the sanctity in the place of their religion and not bless them or solemnize them. -- Colin Powell
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If you are black, if you are Puerto Rican or Hispanic, be proud of that. But don't let it become a problem. Let it become somebody else's problem. -- Colin Powell
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Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible. -- Colin Powell
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It's not just a matter of whether you support Obama or Romney. It's who they have coming with them. I always keep my powder dry, as they say in the military. -- Colin Powell
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Think hard about it: I'm running out of demons. I'm running out of villians. I'm down to Castro and Kim Il Sung. -- Colin Powell
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I would not presume from this distance, nor would America presume to say who should be the leader of the Iraqi nation. -- Colin Powell
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War is never a happy solution, but it may be the only solution. We must exhaustively explore other possible solutions before we make the choice for war. Every political and diplomatic effort should be made to avoid war while achieving your objective. -- Colin Powell
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Today I can declare my hope and declare it from the bottom of my heart that we will eventually see the time when that number of nuclear weapons is down to zero and the world is a much better place. -- Colin Powell
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Give me the right people and I don't much care what organization you give me. Good things will happen. Give me the wrong people and it doesn't matter what you do with the organization. Bad things will happen. -- Colin Powell
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Time is passing, ... We have to look at the reality of the situation and ... redouble our efforts and get on with it. -- Colin Powell
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Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is "no." That's not America. -- Colin Powell
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You are the leader and the troops will reflect your emotions. -- Colin Powell
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We knew that al-Qaida was a threat to our country. We knew that the Clinton administration understood this and was working against al-Qaida We did not ignore al-Qaida. We spent a lot of our time thinking about terrorism, what should we do about it. -- Colin Powell
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I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it. -- Colin Powell
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There is no suggestion of regime change; quite the contrary, this is an initiative to help people and to help governments who are inclined toward change. -- Colin Powell
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I don't know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community. -- Colin Powell
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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. -- Colin Powell
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President Reagan fueled the spirit of America. His smile, his optimism, his total belief in the ultimate triumph of democracy and freedom, and his willingness to act on that belief, helped end the Cold War and usher in a new and brighter phase of history. -- Colin Powell
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Failure is a part of life and you have to learn to deal with it. Failure is something that is part of life's cycle and it's from failure that you gain life experience. -- Colin Powell
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Never neglect details. When everyone's mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant. -- Colin Powell
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The United States is still seen as the leader at the world that wants to be free. -- Colin Powell
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Ambition and hatred are enough to bring Iraq and al Qaeda together -- Colin Powell
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Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing. -- Colin Powell
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War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support. -- Colin Powell
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Nobody is ready to leave Iraq to be interviewed. -- Colin Powell
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There is only one China. Taiwan is not independent. It does not enjoy sovereignty as a nation, and that remains our policy, our firm policy. -- Colin Powell
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Our model of politics is one that it is inclusive of all members of the society; all should be represented. That is the nature of our democracy. -- Colin Powell
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Organization doesn't really accomplish anything. Plans don't accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don't much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds. -- Colin Powell
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Poverty arises and persists where corruption is endemic and enterprise is stifled, where basic fairness provided by the rule of law is absent. In such circumstances, poverty is an assault against human dignity, and in that assault lies the natural seed of human anger -- Colin Powell
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Treat people kindly. When you are kind to somebody and I don't mean necessarily "buddy-buddy", just show kindness and consideration. Show that people are worthy and you respect them and you are glad they're with you. -- Colin Powell
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Don't bother people for help without first trying to solve the problem yourself. -- Colin Powell
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I can think of nothing that Saddam Hussein can do diplomatically (to avoid war). I think that time is now over. He's had his chance, he has had many chances over the last 12 years and he has blown every one of those chances. -- Colin Powell
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Always focus on the front windshield and not the review mirror. -- Colin Powell
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Politics is not bean bags. It's serious, tough stuff. -- Colin Powell
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The president's personal staff has a unique role -- Colin Powell
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That's not really a number I'm terribly interested in. -- Colin Powell
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Some of the generals are saying, 'We're making progress. We are clearing an area.' But you really don't defeat the Taliban by clearing an area. They move. -- Colin Powell
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I have the deepest regret about 9/11. Sept. 11, 2001, was one of the most difficult days I've ever had. I was in Lima, Peru, and had to fly back eight hours not knowing what happened in my own country, knowing thousands of my fellow citizens had died. -- Colin Powell
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We are not going to dwell on those things that divide us. We are going to rejoice in those things that keep us together to make this a better country - to reach down and back to touch every young person in need! -- Colin Powell
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Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard. -- Colin Powell
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Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves. -- Colin Powell
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Every human endeavor has leaders and followers, and your job as a leader is to inspire. -- Colin Powell
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I think the American people are sophisticated enough and wise enough to make judgments about the candidates and wade through the charges and countercharges that come with the election 2004 campaign. -- Colin Powell
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I don't think we handled the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad as well as we might have. But that's now history. -- Colin Powell
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When we have dealt with bin Laden and his network we will then broaden the campaign to go after other terrorists all around the world. -- Colin Powell
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It is good if your enemy underestimates you. The dumber they think you are the more surprised they are when you kill them. -- Colin Powell
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Always show more kindness than seems necessary, because the person receiving it needs it more than you will ever know. -- Colin Powell
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The United States is not stingy. We are the greatest contributor to international relief efforts in the world. -- Colin Powell
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We are not dictating. We are not telling them [Saudi Arabia] how they should do it or who they should look like. We are their friends. We have mutual interests and we will help them in any way that is possible. -- Colin Powell
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You can be sure that the American spirit will prevail over this tragedy. -- Colin Powell
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Leadership is all about people. It is not about organizations. It is not about plans. It is not about strategies. It is all about people-motivating people to get the job done. You have to be people-centered. -- Colin Powell
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You need to learn what people have done, but you need to learn where they have failed ... Usually when they fail it is in the execution. -- Colin Powell
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Fit no stereotypes. Don't chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team's mission. -- Colin Powell
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Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through the argument debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand. -- Colin Powell
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We have to be on guard that we don't spend so much time worrying about terrorism and guarding ourselves that we start to lose the essence of who we are as an open, freedom-loving people, welcoming to the rest of the world. -- Colin Powell
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I strongly believe that at this point in America's history, we need a president that will not just continue basically the policies we have been following in recent years. I think we need a transformational figure. I think we need a president who is a generational change. -- Colin Powell
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There are lots of countries that are having these kinds of internal civil wars in other parts of the world and nobody is talking about intervening. -- Colin Powell
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I like Holiday Inns -- Colin Powell
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Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it. -- Colin Powell
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It is the job of leaders to eliminate uncertainty. -- Colin Powell
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It is the fault of the United States that these terrible people, these insurgents and terrorists are out there. They are the ones that we ought to be focusing our energy on defeating and not just wring our hands about the fact that it's going to be difficult. -- Colin Powell
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Just hit my 75th birthday, I'm feeling great! -- Colin Powell
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We got rid of a terrible dictator. We gave the Iraqi people an opportunity for a new life under a representative form of government. -- Colin Powell
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All nations that are civilized and do not accept this kind of action as representing any sort of legitimate political cause are coming together to fight these terrorists. -- Colin Powell
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Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with age. -- Colin Powell
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Respect for leaders by followers can't be mandated; it must be earned. It has to be given to leaders by their followers. -- Colin Powell
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We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us. -- Colin Powell
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As a leader you set the tone for your entire team. Communicate your vision. -- Colin Powell
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It's a disgrace that we have millions of people who are uninsured. -- Colin Powell
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If a leader doesn't convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they'll start to fall down and get depressed. -- Colin Powell
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You don't know what you can get away with until you try. -- Colin Powell
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The most effective means of ensuring the government's accountability to the people is an aggressive, free, challenging, untrusting press. -- Colin Powell
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Keep looking below surface appearances. Don't shrink from doing so just because you might not like what you find. -- Colin Powell
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When you wrestle with a pig, he has fun, and you just end up dirty. -- Colin Powell
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The ties that bind us are stronger than the occasional stresses that separate us. -- Colin Powell
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The media only report stupid or careless answers, not stupid or unfair questions. -- Colin Powell
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One of the fondest expressions around is that we can't be the world's policeman. But guess who gets called when suddenly someone needs a cop. -- Colin Powell
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Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word; and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection. -- Colin Powell
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A sense of shame is not a bad moral compass. -- Colin Powell
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Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off. -- Colin Powell
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Wouldn't it be great if we could look forward to a whole world in which no child will be left behind? -- Colin Powell
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The freedom to do your best means nothing unless you are willing to do your best. -- Colin Powell
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It takes more courage to send men into battle than to fight the battle yourself. -- Colin Powell
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Have fun in your command. Don't always run at a breakneck pace. Take leave when you've earned it, spend time with your families. -- Colin Powell
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The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort. -- Colin Powell
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One of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on Iraq's biological weapons is the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological agents. -- Colin Powell
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So like any football or basketball coach, you always always believe you're going to win. -- Colin Powell
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The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise. -- Colin Powell
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Our strategy in going after this army is very simple. First we are going to cut it off, and then we are going to kill it. -- Colin Powell
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I don't know who all of his advisers are, but I've seen some of the names and some of them are quite far to the right. And sometimes they might be in a position to make judgments or recommendations to the candidate that should get a second thought. -- Colin Powell
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I will look for a candidate, Republican or Democrat, who seems to be on the way or understands how to resolve the economic difficulties we're having, how to do something about unemployment, how to make sure that we free up our businesses and we don't over-regulate ourselves. -- Colin Powell
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Leadership is solving problems. -- Colin Powell
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You have achieved excellence as a leader when people will follow you anywhere if only out of curiosity. -- Colin Powell
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I want to see policies that encourage every American to vote, not make it more difficult to vote, -- Colin Powell
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Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return. -- Colin Powell
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It's nice to say let's be bipartisan. But we're a partisan nation. We were raised as a partisan nation. -- Colin Powell
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One of the greatest talents of all is the talent to recognize and to develop talent in others. -- Colin Powell
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Experts often possess more data than judgment. -- Colin Powell
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Each of us is a product of all our experiences and all our interactions with other people. -- Colin Powell
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Let's not forget that Congress bears a lot of responsibility for many of the problems we have now -- Colin Powell
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We view Egypt as a good friend of America. We are in constant touch with them. We provide them economic and military assistance as part of our relationship. -- Colin Powell
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Every organization should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes -- Colin Powell
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Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers. -- Colin Powell
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I would sit and talk to any president who wishes to talk to me, but I'm not anxious to rule it in. -- Colin Powell
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The United States stands willing to work with a transformed Palestinian Authority with new leaders coming to the front. -- Colin Powell
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The best method of overcoming obstacles is the team method -- Colin Powell
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We can seldom get our children to do what we tell them, but they almost never fail to imitate us. -- Colin Powell
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Diplomacy never stops, and, with or without an election, it never stops. -- Colin Powell
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The essence of leadership is building bonds of trust in your organization. -- Colin Powell
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With vision only, you get no follow-through. With enforcers only, the vision is realized but leaves a lot of wreckage. -- Colin Powell
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It is not possible to rule out anything because we don't know what will happen. -- Colin Powell
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There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more. -- Colin Powell
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I want to scare the hell out of the rest of the world. -- Colin Powell
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Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. -- Colin Powell
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Let me blow that up for you again. -- Colin Powell
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Get mad, then get over it. -- Colin Powell