William M. Daley Quotes

My friends all say I'm going to be Secretary of State. But I don't see how that would be much different from the job I have now.

If there is going to be a war – and no one can say that there is not – we must keep him fresh to be our war Prime Minister

I think I'd be a better president because I was in combat.

It is only natural that for any statesman at the helm of any government the question of his country's security should be a concern of the utmost importance.

I've known Don since he came to Washington. When he first came to work for George W. Bush, he was a different Don Rumsfeld. He was jolly, full of life, and ready to go to war, but only if we could win.

I think my father thought I might be president of the United States. I think he would've been satisfied with secretary of state. I'm a foreign policy person, and to have a chance to serve my country as the nation's chief diplomat at a time of peril and consequence, that was enough.

Let me just say that I'm the only candidate in this race now that has any firsthand experience fighting terrorism. And both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, I think, have proven in different ways that they're unprepared for that challenge.

Politics and war are remarkably similar situations.

You don't go to war with the President you want, you go to war with the President you have.

War is just a racket... I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else.

I've always thought Anne-Marie Slaughter would make a fantastic United States Senator or something. She's a real intellectual, but she's got enormous communicative skills and she's got government experience. The thing that drives me slightly crazy is the way we think about intellectuals as wooly, hopeless, arrogant, self-deceived, incapable.

President Bush has a track record of making the right decisions when it comes to national security.

The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire.

I was a member of the Armed Services Committee for 18 years. I spent a big chunk of my life studying national security issues and our role in the world.

There's no way that I could be the president. You can't have a pacifist in the White House... I'm an actor. This is what I do for a living.

The president, clearly as a result of the war and the afterglow of the war, is in a time of great attention.

It has been an honor to work in the Obama Administration and to serve this President, particularly during a period of unprecedented change in the broader Middle East. Obviously, there is still work to do but I promised my wife I would return to government for only two years and we both agreed it is time to act on my promise.

Among all the upheavals of war with al Qaeda, the surest indicator of the historic stakes is the ongoing rotation of top U.S. government managers - scores at a time - into a bunker deep underground and far from Washington.

John Danforth, I thought, was a great senator and did a great job with the United Nations. I think he's a good man.

When you're out of office, you can be a statesman.

So with the end of the Cold War, it became increasingly obvious that there was no basis upon which any decision was being made, not in the White House, and certainly because of that, not in the Congress.

When asked if I miss being in government, I usually try to lighten the moment by responding that I awake most days, read the paper, and then observe that, 'It's yet another great day to be the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.'

Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great sadness that I announce that I will resign as Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs. I am sad because I love this job. I'm totally dedicated to the work that we are doing in Australia's name around the world, and I believe that we have achieved many good results for Australia, and I'm proud of them.

People just want to hear some common sense... and I bring to bear the experience in local government and state government and national government - I was the first woman in history on the Senate Finance Committee - not to mention the diplomatic international experience.

I loved what I did. I could've been secretary of state for ever.