Colin Powell Quotes
Experts often possess more data than judgment.
Powell, Colin. My American Journey. Random House, 1995.
1st Marquees of Halifax. This is a very important quotation because it still has much validity today. The “Prince” is the Monarch, King or Official Heading the State. Savile points out that if the Price does not take the time or make the effort to understand an issue and its complexity, he then must trust his advisors and their opinions rather than have any intelligent and knowledgeable views of his own. In modern times the advice applies to elected officials, executive and legislative. If they do not take time and make the effort to understand a complex issue, they cannot use their own judgment but must accept the judgment of staff, friends, colleagues, party leaders, lobbyists or members of committees who they hope are not also ignorant. In modern legislatures, there are so many different issues in so many areas, that it is very difficult to have the time to make the effort to study all the issues. This problem is compounded with politicians as they tend to spend large amounts of their time fundraising for their next election and simply do not have enough time to study issues. In the Congress for example, most members vote on bills that they have not even read and they end up trusting someone else’s judgment.
Colin Luther Powell is an American politician, diplomat and retired four-star general who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. Powell was the first African-American Secretary of State. Prior to the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008, Powell and his successor, Condoleezza Rice, were the highest-ranking African Americans in the history of the federal executive branch (by virtue of the Secretary of State standing fourth in the presidential line of succession). Powell served as the 16th United States National Security Advisor from 1987 to 1989 and as the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993.
