Institutions are imperfect. Governments surely are. People are.

[Sheehan] deserves some consideration, and I think that should have been done right from the beginning.

Alliances and international organizations should be understood as opportunities for leadership and a means to expand our influence, not as constraints on our power.

I'm the first secretary of defense that's had to deal with sequestration. I've prepared two budgets that deal with sequestration. And you bring the chiefs together, the leadership of this enterprise together, to work through, how do we then take these cuts? Where do we apply those cuts? Readiness is the first thing that suffers.

Desperate men do desperate things when you take hope away. And that's where the Palestinians are today.

Foreign policy will require a strategic agility that, whenever possible, gets ahead of problems, strengthens U.S. security and alliances, and promotes American interests and credibility.

We must prepare for everything.