The Federal Government should be the last resort, not the first. Ask if a potential program is truly a federal responsibility or whether it can better be handled privately, by voluntary organizations, or by local or state governments.

There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know.

I don't think we'll discover anything, myself. I think what will happen is we'll discover people who will tell us where to go find it. It is not like a treasure hunt where you just runaround looking everywhere hoping you find something. I just don't think that's going to happen. The inspectors didn't find anything, and I doubt that we will. What we will do is find the people who will tell us.

The success of an organization will depend on the people you surround yourself with.

If you develop rules, never have more than ten.

I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won't last any longer than that.

If you look ahead 10 years, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the people of Russia had become fans of missile defence.