Success tends to go not to the person who is error-free, because he also tends to be risk-averse. Rather it goes to the person who recognizes that life is pretty much a percentage business. It isn't making mistakes that's critical; it's correcting them and getting on with the principal task.

The absence of evidence is not necessarily the evidence of absence

A few. . . critics are the only people I ever heard use the phrase 'imminent threat.' I didn't, the president didn't.

The dead-enders are still with us, those remnants of the defeated regimes who'll go on fighting long after their cause is lost.

What is needed [to combat terrorism], in my view, is resolve, not retreat; courage, not concession. Rather than thinking in terms of an exit strategy, focus on a strategy for success.

With the press there is no "off the record.

Know that the immediate staff and others in the Administration will assume that your manner, tone and tempo reflect the President's.