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

The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow.

As I've thought about gay marriage, I don't see any reason not to say that [couples] should be able to get married.

Lying offshore, ready to act, the presence of ships and Marines sometimes means much more than just having air power or ship's fire, when it comes to deterring a crisis. And the ships and Marines may not have to do anything but lie offshore. It is hard to lie offshore with a C-141 or C-130 full of airborne troops.

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

We have to be on guard that we don't spend so much time worrying about terrorism and guarding ourselves that we start to lose the essence of who we are as an open, freedom-loving people, welcoming to the rest of the world.

Leaders honor their core values, but they are flexible in how they execute them.