Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. Quotes

14 Sourced Quotes

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
Seven months ago I could give a single command and 541,000 people would immediately obey it. Today I can't get a plumber to come to my house.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is to arrange the meeting.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
Had the United States and the United Kingdom gone on alone to capture Baghdad, under the provisions of the Geneva and Hague conventions we would have been considered occupying powers and therefore would have been responsible for all the costs of maintaining or restoring government, education and other services for the people of Iraq.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers. All you have to do is hold your first dying soldier in your arms, and have that terribly futile feeling that his life is flowing out and you can't do anything about it. Then you understand the horror of war.
Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar. And still there are things worth fighting for.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
A very great man once said you should love your enemies, and that's not a bad piece of advice. We can love them, but, by God, that doesn't mean we're not going to fight them.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
I prided myself on being unflappable even in the most chaotic of circumstances.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
Had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like a dinosaur in the tar pit - we would still be there, and we, not the United Nations, would be bearing the costs of that occupation.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist: He is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational art, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that, he's a great military man.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
To be an effective leader, you have to have a manipulative streak - you have to figure out the people working for you and give each tasks that will take advantage of his strength.

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.