Leon Panetta Quotes

When you're smaller and leaner, you're not going to have that large a presence throughout the world.

Rising sea levels, severe draughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Go forward, knowing that you are greater than the challenges of your time.

You know, as director of the CIA, I got an awful lot of intelligence about all the horrible things that could go on across the world.

I suddenly realized at the CIA that I had to make life-and-death decisions about people.

Rather than undermining the Palestinian Authority, it is in Israel's interests to strengthen it by... continuing to transfer Palestinian tax revenues and pursuing other avenues of cooperation.

One demonstration of extremists, any more than a Ku Klux Klan demonstration in the United States, is not necessarily reflective of what the rest of the country feels.

The potential for the next Pearl Harbor could very well be a cyber-attack.

The White House was so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests.

The United States has to be a leader in the world, because the problem is: If we are not leading, nobody else will.

The last thing I want to do is to make the mistakes of the past.

I'm going to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Today, I think the attitude is that governing is not necessarily good politics, and the result is that it's much more partisan and much more divided.

If we don't do something to simplify the tax system, we're going to end up with a national police force of internal revenue agents.

Well, the United States is a Pacific power. And we have always had a presence in the Pacific.

The United States was attacked on 9/11/12, and we know who attacked us.

One of the principal qualities that you need as national security adviser is trust, the trust of the president. And that depends on truth and it depends on honesty.

We either believe in the dignity of the individual, the rule of law, and the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, or we don't. There is no middle ground.

I know that young people sometimes, caught up in the moment, make some very foolish decisions.

Companies should be able to share specific threat information with the government without the prospect of lawsuits hanging over their head.

My whole life has been dedicated to public service.

Red lines are kind of political arguments that are used to try to put people in a corner.

I'm not big on commissions.

These days, it takes only seconds - seconds - for a picture, a photo, to suddenly become an international headline.

The Taliban is resilient.

The area of climate change has a dramatic impact on national security.

If you're a terrorist, you're a terrorist.

I don't think there's any question that America is safer as a result of the bin Laden operation.

In this century, the 21st century, the U.S. recognizes our prosperity and our security depends even more on the Asia-Pacific region.

The fundamental premise is that neither the United States or the international community is going to allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

I think a quality that a national security adviser must have is the ability to set up procedures.

I think it's extremely important that the president Donald Trump himself indicate that he too wants to discover the full truth behind what the Russians did to elections 2016.

I have tremendous confidence in the ability of government institutions and the American people to do what is right to make sure that our democracy stays on the right track.

Caution is an important quality in a leader, but it has to be caution followed by decision. Caution followed by ambivalence can be a weakness.

I think soon after I became director of the CIA - President Obama pulled me into the Oval Office and said: 'Look, I just want you to know that your top priority is to go after Osama bin Laden.'

People elected Donald Trump because he acts decisively. He fired James Comey. He didn't fire the entire FBI. If there's something there, the FBI is going to continue to investigate it.

Russians understand strength, and if they feel that their opponents are weak, they will take advantage of it.

Clearly, Russia has lied to the world about what's going on in Ukraine. They have clearly violated the cease-fire agreements.

The political and substantive reality is that the agenda has to change. I don't think they have any choice.

My father said I was perfectly suited for Washington because I've always worked around nuts.

I think the primary message to the world is that the United States is going to remain the strongest military power in the world.

Sexual assault has no place in the military. It is a violation of everything that the US military stands for.

The United States is going to defend itself under any circumstances.

You don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on.

The United States has to have the capability to deal with more than one enemy at one time and be able to confront them and win.

Iran is isolating itself from the rest of the world.

Obama really does recognize the threats that are out there; I think he understands the world. He understands the role of America in that troubled world.

When you cut a half-a-trillion dollars from the defense budget, it affects almost every area in the defense budget.

Throughout the 40 years I've been in Washington, I've always worked hard, particularly with regards to the budget issues.

An aggressor nation or extremist group could gain control of critical switches and derail passenger trains, or trains loaded with lethal chemicals.