Luck is the residue of good planning.

Retrospective analysis is not a useful guide to current problems.

When the big guys in Washington dream of transforming the world, it’s the little guys who come home in body bags.

I think Republicans so mistrust Barack Obama, that if Barack Obama says Putin is terrible, they will be some Republicans who just take the other side.

U.S. has been trying to encourage Iraq to pass a law that would provide money and training and weapons for a Sunni national guard that could be effective in places like Ramadi, like Mosul

Well, I think the U.S. has been careful not to go too far in attacking Iran's allies, in particular in attacking Hezbollah forces in Syria, which have been propping up the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

I believe, that there is at least de facto cooperation between United States and Iran, at least in Iraq.

Misdirection. False signals. Spreading confusion. This is the Tao of deception.

The ISI is above all a paramilitary organization. It doesn't do all that much collection of intelligence. It's not a very good spy agency, but it's good at running covert action.

Journalists couldn't do their jobs overseas without taking risks, and the same is true for diplomats and intelligence officers.

Sometimes James Bond movies drive me crazy. They're fun to watch, but they don't have anything to do at all with what intelligence officers really do.

There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed.

Your time to shine is definitely coming, but you must not allow your past failures and disappointments to steal it from you.

My parents are from Ghana. Until I was 17, I thought you had to go to college. I had no idea. I didn't know it was not an option.

I never scrimmage Oilers against Oilers...What for? Houston isn't on our schedule.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Unrivalled not only in its class, but in a class by itself.

A conservative young man has wound up his life before it was unreeled. We expect old men to be conservative but when a nation's young men are so, its funeral bell is already rung.

I think if I were asked to do as many as fifty takes, I would assume the director had no idea what he wanted, and was just hoping, eventually, to see it.

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

If you're a basketball player, you've got to shoot.