Marcus Aurelius Quotes

Compare this quotation with {632907}. Most members of Congress had limited management experience and the only solution to an organizational problem was to fire people. The referenced quotation has people fired to trigger reform and change; in this quotation, it is for the purpose of inspiring public trust. Ironically, there is no evidence in the management literature that suggests that firing for either of these reasons will have the desired objective.

Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary Army and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices.

He was the only public official to so apologize.

Elements of the Army lied to the family of the dead soldier and the media, and then tried to cover up the lies. Abazaid is one of the few government high officials who was candid about his agency’s failure.

During the presidential primaries the candidate spent the night with a woman who was not his wife:

We all have 20-20 hindsight, and sometimes well analyzed decisions turn out badly as the result of unfortunate circumstances.

An American ambassador and 3 staff had been killed in a terrorist attack on our Consulate in Bengasi, Libya. The CIA and the rest of the American intelligence had initially analyzed the event and gave a report to the Administration “explaining” the event. American officials who did not see the incorrect intelligence report, hypotheses that it was a planned terrorist attack which it appeared to be from the news reports read by amateurs, However, the United Nations Ambassador was given the incorrect report and was asked by the White House to appear on the News Shows, reveal the contents of the report and state that this was a preliminary analysis and subject to change upon further data and analysis. She did that, but many journalists and politicians thought that her version did not comport with the facts. Soon it was discovered that the initial Intelligence report was all wrong and not even close to the truth and the people who guessed from the press reports had gotten it right. Graham and other members of Congress were very angry. So Graham made a public announcement stating the U. N. Ambassador was unfit for a senior job as she either lied to the country of was too naïve to see the truth which so many others had seen. There were dozens of people who might have either made a mistake or were otherwise responsible for the erroneous report which in hindsight appeared very flawed. At the top of the list was the CIA Director who had been America’s best heroic and victorious general who had recently taken the post and was very popular. So Graham and some of his fellow members of Congress called for the head of the one person involved and at a high level who had NOTHING to do with preparing and approving the wrong and misleading intelligence report and did not cast blame on any of the people who made the error or approved it. The quotation is typical of members if Congress who, insist on having the public stage before they know most of the facts, have little idea of how to manage anything, pick the easiest target to attack without worrying top much about the real culprits if any, and the lack of courage enough to blame a very powerful figure who if he did not personally err, the problem occurred on his watch. See {625924} for a view of the courage of Congressmen. Graham was actually a much better than average Senator, at the time but Congress had a 90% disapproval rating with the citizens.