Jim Mattis Quotes

In our administration, we're going to follow the law, and any policy that we move forward will fall well within the law and the Arizona Constitution.

One of things I have always been open to is making policy in the Senate Commerce Committee.

I grew up outside of Washington D.C., a town in which the largest industry is government and in which almost everyone I knew was involved in creating policies which impact people across our country and around the globe.

Every law enacted by the General Assembly shall embrace but one subject.

The civil servant, the general or admiral, the foreign service officer has no authority to make policy. The act only as servants to the government and therefore they must remain in line with the government policy that is established by those that have been elected by the people to set that policy.

A surprising number of government committees will make important decisions on fundamental matters with less attention than each individual would give to buying a suit.

Trade deals are not the vehicle for raising or lowering standards of protection for consumers, the environment, workers or anyone else. Regulations are made by governments and parliaments.

The FCC should obviously not propose bad rules that will be struck down; it should propose good rules that will be upheld.

As a general rule, the United States government is run by lawyers who occasionally take advice from economists. Others interested in helping the lawyers out need not apply.

I'd always been the kind of lawyer that was attracted back to policy.

I think that policy matters. I'm a policy guy.

You have to understand government and you have to understand how hard it is.

If you look at government policy generally, what government tries to do in all instances is to make sure that we take care of all elements that might relate to a particular issue.

You can’t start a conversation about public policy by saying it is complex.

The question of our time is rapidly becoming can government get things done?

When you get into an airplane, you expect a pilot who knows how to fly. Running a Government is also an expertise.

Politics is about making institutions work somewhat better, helping people’s lives at the margins

They [the Trump Administration] didn't roll out the travel regulations as well as they should have. Runing the government is a lot different from running a business where a CEO gives an order and it is implemented, but that doesn't happen in this town.

My son had nothing to do with policy or decision making, nor did I discuss the elections or any other matter with him.

As a legislator, I was elected to make the tough decisions and produce solutions to the problems facing our country.

If you can't legislate, you can't deal with problems.

I go, and I lobby for seniors on the Hill in Washington, D.C., and I've fought to have the Older Americans Act reauthorized, so I believe that my voice has been used for a lot of good.

You wouldn't run for the United States Senate or for governor or for anything else without answering people's questions about what you believe. And I think the Supreme Court is no different.

In government, our chief executives have been lawyers. The great majority of our cabinets and congresses are and have been men trained in the law. They have provided the leadership and the statecraft and the store of strength when it was needed.

Countries all around the world, starting with the U.K., have started behavioural insight teams, often referred to as nudge units. And they seem to be doing lots of good.