- If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
- A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
- Have a vision. Be demanding.
- 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.'
- 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.
- Get mad, then get over it.
- Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.
- I try to be the same person I was yesterday.
- It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
- Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
- 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.
- 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.
- There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
- 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.
- Wouldn't it be great if we could look forward to a whole world in which no child will be left behind?
- You don't know what you can get away with until you try.
- 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 stage, stimulates me. But once a decision has been made, the debate ends. From that point on, loyalty means executing the decision as if it were your own.
- 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.
- The United States is not stingy. We are the greatest contributor to international efforts in the world.
- The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort.
- Remain calm. Be kind.
- Never neglect details. When everyone's mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.
- Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
- I want to scare the hell out of the rest of the world.
- I don't want to spend the rest of my life giving speeches.
- Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up.
- Don't be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce haemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.
- Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with age.
- Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.
- 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.
- Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.
- Don't bother people for help without first trying to solve the problem yourself.
- If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.
- Keep looking below surface appearances. Don't shrink from doing so just because you might not like what you find.
- Look for intelligence and judgment and, most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego and the drive to get things done.
- Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
- Fit no stereotypes. Don't chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team's mission.
Colin Powell Quotes
By Jessica McElrath, About.com
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