Colin Powell quotes

“The only bipartisanship you ever see is when they finally sign a bill and everybody says, 'Gee, isn't that wonderful?'”

— Colin Powell

“I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it.”

— Colin Powell

“It's not just a matter of whether you support Obama or Romney. It's who they have coming with them. I always keep my powder dry, as they say in the military.”

— Colin Powell

“We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us.”

— Colin Powell

“Have fun in your command. Don't always run at a breakneck pace. Take leave when you've earned it, spend time with your families.”

— Colin Powell

“The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort.”

— Colin Powell

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

— Colin Powell

“The United States is not stingy. We are the greatest contributor to international relief efforts in the world.”

— Colin Powell

“War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.”

— Colin Powell

“Wouldn't it be great if we could look forward to a whole world in which no child will be left behind?”

— Colin Powell

“Experts often possess more data than judgment.”

— Colin Powell

“If a leader doesn't convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they'll start to fall down and get depressed.”

— Colin Powell

“It's nice to say let's be bipartisan. But we're a partisan nation. We were raised as a partisan nation.”

— Colin Powell

“Some of the generals are saying, 'We're making progress. We are clearing an area.' But you really don't defeat the Taliban by clearing an area. They move.”

— Colin Powell

“Economy's got to get moving, we've got to get the unemployment rate down. That may be the defining issue of the campaign.”

— Colin Powell

“I try to be the same person I was yesterday.”

— Colin Powell

“Look at the world. There is no pure competitor to the United States of America.”

— Colin Powell

“Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.”

— Colin Powell

“So like any football or basketball coach, you always always believe you're going to win.”

— Colin Powell

“Today I can declare my hope and declare it from the bottom of my heart that we will eventually see the time when that number of nuclear weapons is down to zero and the world is a much better place.”

— Colin Powell

“What you're seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they're directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.”

— Colin Powell

“When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you've got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I'm not sure any country, either the United States or I don't hear of anyone else, who's willing to take on that responsibility.”

— Colin Powell

“You can't just have slogans, you can't just have catchy phrases. You have to have an agenda. And I think what the Republican Party has to do, if it's going to incorporate the tea party efforts in it, is to come up with an agenda that the American people can see, touch, and actually believe in, and something they believe in.”

— Colin Powell

“You should see what our Founding Fathers used to say to each other and in the early part of our nation. But what they were able to do, especially in Philadelphia in 1787, four months, they argued about what a House should be, what a Senate should be, the power of the president, the Congress, the Supreme Court. And they had to deal with slavery.”

— Colin Powell

“Foe means enemy. Now, will we have differences of opinion with the Russians? Yes. Will they get mad at us from time to time, and we get mad at them? That's part of the normal diplomatic relations.”

— Colin Powell

“I always like to take my time and examine the two candidates, see not only the two candidates but the policies they will bring in, the people they will bring in, who they might appoint to the Supreme Court, and look at the whole range of issues before making a decision.”

— Colin Powell

“I consider myself a moderate Republican. I have very, very moderate social views, and I'm pretty strong on, on defense matters.”

— Colin Powell

“I don't know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community.”

— Colin Powell

“I don't think we handled the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad as well as we might have. But that's now history.”

— Colin Powell

“I don't want to spend the rest of my life giving speeches.”

— Colin Powell