Colin Powell quotes

“I think the Iranians are clearly determined to have a nuclear program. And we have to assume that with a nuclear program they have the capability and the will to create a nuclear weapon.”

— Colin Powell

“In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that's called marriage, and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country.”

— Colin Powell

“It was the Congress that imposed 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' it was certainly my position, my recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred.”

— Colin Powell

“It's a disgrace that we have millions of people who are uninsured.”

— Colin Powell

“Just hit my 75th birthday, I'm feeling great!”

— Colin Powell

“Politics is not bean bags. It's serious, tough stuff.”

— Colin Powell

“The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced - the just demands of peace and security will be met - or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.”

— Colin Powell

“There are lots of countries that are having these kinds of internal civil wars in other parts of the world and nobody is talking about intervening.”

— Colin Powell

“Too often we act - ask our schools to be truant officers, our teachers to be truant officers, because we're giving them children who have, you know, they're not ready to learn. And if they're not ready to learn by the third grade, they know they're behind.”

— Colin Powell

“We all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn't come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn't resurging. It didn't work out.”

— Colin Powell

“We got rid of a terrible dictator. We gave the Iraqi people an opportunity for a new life under a representative form of government.”

— Colin Powell