Donald Rumsfeld Quotes on People (81 Quotes)

There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact.

Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things, ... They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here.

It would only happen because the people in Iraq -- he, or the people around him who decide they would prefer he not be there -- were persuaded that it was inevitable that he was going to go, either voluntarily or involuntarily,

So the fact that they had a mock election and elected a hard-liner ought not come to any surprise to anybody because all the other people were told they couldn't run.

People have been moving together, talking, discussing things, ... You can always find someone who's going to try to be a dead-ender and say, 'If you don't do this, I won't do that.' But that's part of negotiation. We see that in the Congress and we see it in democratic systems all over the world.

Instead of an attack with 3,000 people killed, imagine an attack with a biological weapon that kills 30,000 or 300,000 innocent people.

We have the ability to go out and attract and retain the people we're going to need in the United States armed forces,

The more troops you have, the more targets you have, and the more people you might get killed. The more troops you have, the more of an occupying power you are, the heavier footprint, the more force protection you need, the more logistics you need and the more intrusive you are on the people of that country.

All I can say to the families and to the people of Japan is that we feel deep regrets about the incident, and we'll do everything humanly possible to determine what actually took place.

The policy of the United States has been in recent years to attempt to not engage the top two layers of that country, to try to say things and do things that reflect an understanding of the circumstances of the people of that country, and hope that the people of that country will have an opportunity to find ways to persuade the leadership of that country that it is going down the wrong road,

It's a big world. There are lots of countries. He's got a lot of money, he's got a lot of people who support him, and I just don't know whether we'll be successful, ... Clearly, it would be highly desirable to find him and stop him and his key people and there are a lot of them. We're not looking for one person. We're looking for a whole crowd. And that's our intent and our intention. How can anyone know what the outcome is going to be until you get there

They've got a peaceful way to change that government -- through the constitution, through the elections. These people aren't trying to promote something other than disorder and to take over that country and turn it into a caliphate and then spread it around the world.

We are engaged in a test of wills. And to the extent that the American people are subjected to a constant series of negative things or disappointing things or problems as opposed to a balanced impression of what's taking place in that country, it has to be discouraging to anyone reading what is read or said.

a large number of people to begin crawling through those tunnels and caves looking for the bad folks.

Have a deputy and develop a successor. Don't be consumed by the job or you'll risk losing your balance. Keep your mooring lines to the outside world - family, friends, neighbors, people out of government, and people who may not agree with you.

I have absolutely full confidence in the way the detainees are being handled and treated, ... I've spent a lot of time talking to the people there about it.

Members of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate are not there by accident. Each managed to get there for some reason. Learn what it was and you will know something important about them, about our country and about the American people.

There's a lot more fighting that's going to be done. More people are going to be killed, let there be no doubt. This is not over, despite all the celebrations on the street.

If a prospective Presidential approach can't be explained clearly enough to be understood well, it probably hasn't been thought through well enough. If not well understood by the American people, it probably won't "sail" anyway. Send it back for further thought.

Anyone who looks at the overhead photography of these poor human beings, amassing into thousands of people trekking across drought-stricken areas, has to be just heartbroken. It is important that we and other countries assist those people,

These are the people who took plastic knives and box cutters and flew airplanes filled with themselves, as well as American citizens, into the World Trade Center and this building you're sitting in (the Pentagon), ... Why would one be surprised that they're determined, well-trained, clever, capable of using modern technology ... to kill people.

In Afghanistan, people who are friendly and unfriendly are constantly meeting together. Indeed, sometimes the same people can be friendly and later unfriendly within a relatively short period of time,

People are dead, and that's unfortunate, ... People need to be very careful about what they say just as people need to be careful about what they do.

I think what you are seeing is the Iraqi people, for the first time, wrestling with very tough, fundamental issues that are important to them, to their future, reflecting the history of the country. They've been proceeding in a very orderly, peaceful way,

People have said, 'My goodness, why does it take so long for someone to come back with and have the actual facts' ... Well, it takes a long time to be truthful.

I am very impressed, Mr. Secretary, about how quickly we have responded and the assets that you have ordered deployed to help these people.

Obviously I've always believed the sooner the constitution was completed, and sooner it was voted on, the greater the likelihood the Iraqi people would feel they have a stake in the country, and that they have an acceptable set of compromises that would protect them from each other,

I congratulate the people of Mongolia, the government and the armed forces of Mongolia for selecting that (peacekeeping) as a principle aspect of their military focus, and certainly the United States is anxious and willing and ready to be of assistance,

I think that you can have a legitimate insurgency in a country that has popular support and has a cohesiveness and has a legitimate gripe. These people don't have a legitimate gripe,

To the extent that military supplies or equipment or people are moving across the borders between Iraq and Syria, it vastly complicates our situation.

I agreed only with the fact that some people talk like that and that Vice President Agnew should not have used or thought such derogatory and offensive and unfair and insensitive things about minorities.