George P. Shultz Quotes

The minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose, you have lost.

He who walks in the middle of the road gets hit from both sides.

I learned in business that you had to be very careful when you told somebody that's working for you to do something, because the chances were very high he'd do it. In government, you don't have to worry about that.

Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.

You've got to dream a little bit if you're going to get somewhere.

I like the life of ideas and applying ideas to action.

If they are too big to fail, make them smaller.

Terrorism is not a matter that can be left to law enforcement, with its deliberative process, built-in delays, and safeguards that may let the prisoner go free on procedural grounds.

Obama seems to want to do something to damage rich people.

If somebody had made that [deal] to me when I was a businessman, I would have said he proposed to give me the sleeves from his vest.

There is no prospect that the United States will say to Israel, 'You do such and such and we'll not support you in your security.

Nothing ever gets settled in this town (Washington). It's not like running a company or even a university. It's a seething debating society, in which the debate never stops; in which people never give up, including me, and that's the atmosphere in which you administer.

Before you get mugged by reality, take out an insurance policy. It's the Reagan way.

We have struggled with terrorism for a long time. In the Reagan administration, I was a hawk on the subject. I said terrorism is a big problem, a different problem, and we have to take forceful action against it. Fortunately, Ronald Reagan agreed with me, but not many others did.

World Affairs Councils are great organizations. They help keep people throughout our country alive to important developments in world affairs and underscore that, in the country, we stay engaged and we are part of the world.

Oh, you know. I am secretary of state. My trips aren't successful. I just talk to people.

Increasingly, the state system has been eroding. Terrorists have exploited this weakness by burrowing into the state system in order to attack it.

I think the idea that you would do everything you can to prevent what is coming at you by way of something very disruptive - a 9/11 - it's a no-brainer.

The higher the classification of secrecy, the quicker you will report it.

It was an attempt to stick the Congress's finger in King Hussein's eye.

Ideas matter a lot, the underlying ideas that stand behind policies. When you don't have ideas, your policies are flip-flopping all over the place. When you do have ideas, you have more consistency. And when you have the right ideas - then you can get somewhere (reagan had the right ideas).

You don't get gushers of revenue by raising tax rates. You get it through expansion.

The civilized world has a common stake in defeating the terrorists.

I don't know how you define 'neoconservatism,' but I think it's associated with trying to spread open political systems and democracy.

A strong foundation exists for immediate military action against Saddam Hussein and for a multilateral effort to rebuild Iraq after he is gone.

Open political and economic systems have been gaining ground and there's a good reason for it. They work better.

Between 1980 and 1990, the number of countries that were classified as 'free' or 'mostly free' increased by about 50%.

My experience is that if the military didn't want to use force and was confronted with a president that did, the military would come back with what I would call the 'bomb Moscow' scenario. They would say it had to be done with conditions that were so extreme, you obviously wouldn't do it.