Colin Powell Quotes

51 Sourced Quotes

It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.

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

Colin Powell
We want to see both sides not take unilateral action that would prejudice an eventual outcome, a reunification that all parties are seeking.

Colin Powell
That's not really a number I'm terribly interested in.

Colin Powell
When we are debating an issue, loyalty means giving me your honest opinion, whether you think I'll like it or not. Disagreement, at this state, stimulates me. But once a decision is made, the debate ends. From that point on, loyalty means executing the decision as if it were your own.

Colin Powell
Americans revere their flag as a symbol of the Nation. Indeed, it is because of that reverence that the amendment is under consideration. Few countries in the world would think of amending their Constitution for the purpose of protecting such a symbol.

Colin Powell
I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world — onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.

Colin Powell
There is only one China. Taiwan is not independent. It does not enjoy sovereignty as a nation, and that remains our policy, our firm policy.

Colin Powell
Our strategy in going after this army is very simple. First we are going to cut it off, and then we are going to kill it.

Colin Powell
Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.

Colin Powell
The United Nations will spearhead our efforts to manage the new conflicts (that afflict our world).... Yes the principles of the United Nations Charter are worth our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Colin Powell
The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.

Colin Powell
Some in our party miss no opportunity to roundly and loudly condemn affirmative action that helped a few thousand black kids get an education, but hardly a whimper is heard from them over affirmative action for lobbyists who load our federal tax codes with preferences for special interest.

Colin Powell
This may sound a little improper, but when the Vice President and I are alone it's Colin and Dick.

Colin Powell
The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting in above-average effort.

Colin Powell
Every organization should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes.

Colin Powell
Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.

Colin Powell
When I was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I would still have junior officers brief me. Usually these people knew more about the subject we were discussing than I did. I had to make sure that they felt confident enough to tell me everything they believed.

Colin Powell
Each of us must work to become a hardheaded realist, or else we risk wasting our time and energy on pursuing impossible dreams. Yet constant naysayers pursue no less impossible dreams. Their fear and cynicism move nothing forward. They kill progress. How many cynics built empires, great cities, or powerful corporations?

Colin Powell
I have lived in and risen in a white-dominated society and white-dominated profession, but not by denying my race, not by seeing it as a chain holding me back or an obstacle to overcome. Others may use my race against me, but I will never use it against myself.

Colin Powell
We have to start thinking of America as a family. We have to stop screeching screeching at each other, stop hurting each other, and instead start caring for, sacrificing for and sharing with each other... We cannot move forward if cynics and critics swoop down and pick apart anything that goes wrong, to a point where we lose sight of what is right, decent and uniquely good about America.

Colin Powell
Good leaders set vision, missions, and goals. Great leaders inspire every follower at every level to internalize their purpose, and to understand that their purpose goes far beyond the mere details of their job. When everyone is united in purpose, a positive purpose that serves not only the organization but also, hopefully, the world beyond it, you have a winning team.

Colin Powell
There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more.

Colin Powell
For all the hardship, I was still excited to be on the trail, testing my endurance, feeling especially alive as strength and fatigue flowed alternately through my limbs.

Colin Powell
With vision only, you get no follow-through. With enforcers only, the vision is realized but leaves a lot of wreckage.

Colin Powell
African Americans have come too far and we have too far yet to go to take a detour into the swamp of hatred. Never let the dying hand of racism rest on your shoulder, weighing you down. Let racism always be someone else's burden to carry.

Colin Powell
It's a blot. I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now.

Colin Powell
Capital is a coward. It flees from corruption and bad policies, conflict and unpredictability. It shuns ignorance, disease and illiteracy. Capital goes where it is welcomed and where investors can be confident of a return on the resources they have put at risk. It goes to countries where women can work, children can read, and entrepreneurs can dream.

Colin Powell
On invading Iraq:
You break it, you own it.

Colin Powell
My responsibility, our responsibility as lucky Americans, is to try to give back to this country as much as it has given us, as we continue our American journey together.

Colin Powell