Paul Wolfowitz Quotes

I'm fascinated with films that deal with strategy because there's a right way and a wrong way to get the job done.

Any plan is better than no plan.

Questions matter. In business, remarkable performers are brilliant at getting to the right question: the one that speeds them to the place they need to get to and offers them the missing piece they need to find.

As a mayor, my instinct is to really think about how to get something done and not to make the promise unless you have some view of the pathway. You don't have to have it all figured out, but you have to have a pathway there.

It's bad policy to speculate on what you'll do if a plan fails when you're trying to make a plan work.

Only when you have got a clear statement of what you want to achieve, do you ask yourself how you are going to achieve it. In the military we are taught never to go for a single answer, no matter how obvious that might be.

Whenever you're making an important decision, first ask if it gets you closer to your goals or farther away.

The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to where he wants to go.

A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.

To solve a problem or to reach a goal, you don't need to know all the answers in advance. But you must have a clear idea of the problem or the goal you want to reach.

A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances.

"What would I do if?.." By thinking tactically, we can more easily arrive at correct tactical solutions, and practice - even theoretical practice - tends to produce confidence in our solutions which, in turn, makes it easier for us, and thus quicker, to reach a decision.

The 1st question the effective decision-maker asks is: 'Is this a generic situation or an exception?'

Any penalty - I've told you a hundred times - can be eliminated by concentration or good judgment.

It is important to have determination and optimism and patience. If you lack patience, even when you face some small obstacle, you lose courage. There is a Tibetan saying, "Even if you have failed at something nine times, you have still given it effort nine times." I think that's important. Use your brain to analyze the situation. Do not rush through it, but think. Once you decide what to do about that obstacle, then there's a possibility that you will achieve your goal.

Failing to grapple with complexity actually turns out to be a pretty bad life strategy.

Why do I ask for directions? Because I hate wasting time.

What are the critical success factors of your job? What must you be absolutely, positively excellent at doing to be successful?

When we deliberate it is about means and not ends.

Leadership is people taking the initiative, carrying things through, having ideas and the imagination to get something started, and exhibiting particular skills in different areas.

If the kids get a good grasp of what the main lessons are for chess after two or three years of staying with the game, then you've given them brain food and you've given them a skill that can last them a lifetime.

You can't just throw people at all your problems, dear.

There is, I think, nothing in the world more futile than the attempt to find out how a task should be done when one has not yet decided what the task is.

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.

The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions, for life is a kind of chess.