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Robert M. Gates

A wild and crazy weekend involves sitting on the front porch, smoking a cigar, reading a book.

— Robert M. Gates reading

One of my favorite little sayings is, 'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.'

— Robert M. Gates criticism

There is no international problem that can be addressed or solved without the engagement and leadership of the United States and everybody in the world knows that, its just fact of life. So sometimes I think we could conduct ourselves with a little more humility.

— Robert M. Gates life

Well, I've ruffled a few feathers at all the institutions I've led. But I think that's part of leadership.

— Robert M. Gates art

Even when I was at CIA, I'd go to visit foreign leaders and I'd say, 'You know, I'm not a diplomat. I'm just an old CIA guy'... I said, 'If I wanted to be diplomatic, I'd have been a diplomat.'

— Robert M. Gates leaders

I read in the press, and therefore it must be true, that no secretary of defense had ever been quoted as arguing for a bigger budget for State.

— Robert M. Gates quote

I've been very sensitive for a long time to the repeated pattern, during economic hard times or after a war, of the United States' essentially unilaterally disarming.

— Robert M. Gates war

I've spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position. And it didn't have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong.

— Robert M. Gates life

One of the big changes in the Congress since I first came to Washington is that all of these folks go home every weekend. They used to play golf together; their families got to know each other, go to dinner at each other's homes at weekends - and these would be people who were political adversaries.

— Robert M. Gates change

The reality is, the United States has global interests. Our defense budget is about the same as the defense budgets or military budgets of every other country in the world put together.

— Robert M. Gates reality

If Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us anything in recent history, it is the unpredictability of war and that these things are easier to get into than to get out of, and, frankly, the facile way in which too many people talk about, 'Well, let's just go attack them.'

— Robert M. Gates war

I have always voted for who I believed was the best person.

— Robert M. Gates believe

I have tried to maintain civil relationships with everyone I meet - and, even if I violently disagree with them, try to be respectful.

— Robert M. Gates relationships

Well, what I've said is that the war in Iraq will always be clouded by how it began, which was a wrong premise, that there were in fact no weapons of nuclear - weapons of mass destruction.

— Robert M. Gates war

Health care costs are eating the Defense Department alive.

— Robert M. Gates art

I don't think any president that I worked with has ever said 'pretty please.'

— Robert M. Gates work

I wish I could set deadlines for the Congress, but that's just not the way the Constitution is written.

— Robert M. Gates dead

Most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done.

— Robert M. Gates men

There's a lot of books out there about how you lead change in business, but I've certainly not seen any... on how you do that in public institutions.

— Robert M. Gates books

Things have gotten so nasty in Washington.

— Robert M. Gates

I have instincts.

— Robert M. Gates

The United States has been a global power since late in the 19th century.

— Robert M. Gates power

When I was the director of Central Intelligence in the early '90s, I tried to get the Air Force to partner with us in building drones. And they didn't want to, because they had no pilots.

— Robert M. Gates art

I have always that there ought to be some kind of mandatory national service, not necessarily in the military but to show everybody that freedom isn't free, that everybody has an obligation to the nation as a community.

— Robert M. Gates freedom

If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience.

— Robert M. Gates success

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