Norman Schwarzkopf Quotes

In a recent interview, General Norman Schwartzkof was asked if he thought there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harboured and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on America. His answer..."I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

I admire men of character and I judge character not by how men deal with their superiors, but mostly how they deal with their subordinates. And that, to me, is where you find out what the character of a man is.

It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.

How do you fight someone who doesn't care if they get killed? You accommodate them.

Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character.

Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion.

I believe that forgiving them is god's function, our job is to arrange the meeting.

Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good.

To be an effective leader, you have to have a manipulative streak - you have to figure out the people working for you and give each tasks that will take advantage of his strength.

True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that's what courage is.

You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it.

You can't help someone get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself.

Success is sweet, but the secret is sweat.

The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.

It's the sense of duty that keeps you going sometimes when things get very, very rough. Somebody's got to do it. And if you don't, who will?

As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that, he's a great military man, I want you to know that.

Leadership consists of character and strategy. If you can't have both, opt for character.

Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar. And still there are things worth fighting for.

When placed in command, take charge.

It is God's job to forgive Osama Bin Laden. It is our job to arrange a face to face meeting.

I have seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and all they saw was a platoon. But great leaders stand in front of a platoon and see it as 44 individuals, each of whom has aspirations, each of who wants to live, each of whom wants to do good.

Choose to win Get mad, then get over it.

Particularly when you're dealing with very high ranking people, you know, you have to get their attention, they are used to, by their rank, of having their own way and doing their own thing and when it's necessary to all work together on something, sometimes you have to hit the mule between the eyes of the two by four to get its attention.

I don't consider myself dovish and I certainly don't consider myself hawkish. Maybe I would describe myself as owlishthat is wise enough to understand that you want to do everything possible to avoid war.