George P. Shultz Quotes

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

  George P. Shultz

  Softball, Sports, Volleyball

  62 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Inspirational, Travel, Commitment

  22 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Shadow, Tables, Negotiation

  19 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Ideas, Action

  "George Shultz embraces San Francisco". www.sfgate.com. April 25, 2010.

  14 Copy quote

• 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.

  George P. Shultz

  Government, Worry, Political

  21 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Political, Politics, Failing

  12 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Dream, Littles, Bits

  14 Copy quote

• 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.

  George P. Shultz

  Running, Giving Up, People

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  George P. Shultz

  Law, Enforcement, Delay

  13 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Reality, Way, Policy

  11 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Expansion, Taxes, Rate

  7 Copy quote

• 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).

  George P. Shultz

  Ideas, Consistency, Matter

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  George P. Shultz

  Israel, Support You, United States

  12 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  People, Want, Damage

  12 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Successful, People, States

  9 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Political, Reason, Economic

  "Father of the Bush Doctrine". Interview with Daniel Henninger, www.wsj.com. April 29, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  George P. Shultz

  Country, Organization, People

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  George P. Shultz

  Long, Different, Hawks

  11 Copy quote

• 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.

  George P. Shultz

  Military, President, Use

  4 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Order, Weakness, States

  8 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Secrecy, Higher, Classification

  7 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  World, Common, Stakes

  5 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Country, Numbers

  "Father of the Bush Doctrine". Interview with Daniel Henninger, www.wsj.com. April 29, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  George P. Shultz

  Giving, Vests, Made

  11 Copy quote

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

  George P. Shultz

  Thinking, Political, Democracy

  4 Copy quote

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