Michael Hayden Quotes

Not to understand the doer is to have no certain knowledge of what has been done, or why it was undertaken

Logic is a poor model of cause and effect.

Wise men argue causes; fools decide them.

We will wait to see if it is a doozy before we decide how to cover it, and what it all means.

It is possible to interpret without observing, but not to observe without interpreting.

Motives are often more important than actions

Believe no evil till the evil's done

Questions of motive are very difficult in intelligence analysis.

Don't confuse evidence with a conclusion.

Amplify, clarify, and punctuate, and let the viewer draw his or her own conclusion.

I don't like making comparisons. You might say one slight thing, find yourself misinterpreted, and suddenly you're in trouble.

I guess every single word I've ever said is going to be dissected now.

Human beings do things for a reason, even if sometimes it's the wrong reason.

In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.

We may either proceed from principles to facts, or recede from facts to principles.

We do things for good reasons that are bad.

Our actions are the results of our intentions and our intelligence.

There'll be differences of opinion in just about every intelligence analysis that you make.

If you would judge, understand.

Reality does not easily give up meaning; it's the biographer's job to clobber it into submission. You're meant not only to tame it but to extract substance, to identify cause and axiomatic effect. You subsist on the tactical omissions, the hollow words, the oddly unconnected dots.

Judgment is contained in the act of trying to understand.

If you do something, expect consequences.

Why is this thus? What is the reason for this thusness?