Colin Powell Quotes

(About the late Foreign Minister of Sweden, Anna Lindh) "There are three things I like about Sweden: ABBA, Volvo, and Anna!"

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

(in response to Harry Belafonte`s "house slave" remark about him) "If Harry had wanted to attack my politics, that was fine. If he wanted to attack a particular position I hold, that was fine. But to use a slave reference, I think, is unfortunate and is a throwback to another time and another place that I wish Harry had thought twice about using."

(regarding the notorious prison at the US Navy`s Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba set up by the George W. Bush administration to hold suspects accused of terrorist activities without trial or charges) "If it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo not tomorrow but this afternoon."

He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. - speaking in Cairo, on February 24, 2001.

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 them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

Organization doesn`t really accomplish anything. Plans don`t accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don`t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.

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.

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.

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.

90 percent of my time is spent on 10 percent of the world.

The United States is not stingy. We are the greatest contributor to international efforts in the world.

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.