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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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%.

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.

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