What would you do differently as defense secretary to compensate for this record in which the greatest military in the world, as we are constantly told, doesn't get the job done?

You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.

Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they're so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.

PowerPoint makes us stupid.

I don't lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.

Demonstrate to the world there is "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" than a U.S. Marine.

The most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears.

If in order to kill the enemy you have to kill an innocent, don't take the shot. Don't create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act.

No war is over until the enemy says it's over. We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.

There are hunters and there are victims. By your discipline...you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.

You've been told that you're broken. That you're damaged goods ... there is also Post-Traumatic Growth. You come back from war stronger and more sure of who you are.

Don't forget, a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.

Any fool can see the limits of seeing, but not even the wisest know the limits of knowing. Thus is ignorance rendered invisible, and are all Men made fools.

What do you think of the old boy?" said Jean."He's got a strangely sunny view of ten years of defeat", said Locke, "but if I get killed in the next six weeks, I want him to speak at my funeral.

General Howard informed me, in a haughty spirit, that he would give my people 30 days to go back home, collect all their stock, and move onto the reservation.

Pain is not wat you get, it is wat you give.

What's great in theater is that you can sustain the arc of a character for a full three hours, whereas in film or TV, you have to create that arc in little pieces, and usually out of sequence.

I'm not interested in a group of people with some sort of incredible homogeny,a group that can do the movement I want. I'm interested in people whocan take the movement somewhere.

The most delightful surprise in life is to suddenly recognise your own worth.

He's the equivalent of the Spanish David Beckham.

If the estimate of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs is correct, then Russia has lost the cold war in western Europe.