John McCain Quotes

In picking Gen. Jim Mattis for Defense secretary, President-elect Donald Trump has said that he found his 'Gen. George Patton.' Yet that label may not really capture what makes Mattis a distinctive choice.

Commanders-in-chief make really tough decisions.

Donald Trump doesn't have a plan. He said, I have a secret plan, and then he said, um, I know more than all the generals about ISIS. And then he said, I'm going to call the generals to help me figure out a plan. And finally he said, I'm going to fire all the generals. He doesn't have a plan. But he does have dangerous ideas.

I think that the only time we will really know what then-President Trump is going to do about the set of challenges that confront him is after he has sat down with his advisers as the commander in chief, when he's looking at the threats and the intelligence from the standpoint of being the number one decider, when he's hearing from his secretary of defense, his chairman, who was the same chairman President Obama had, Chairman Joe Dunford, who is an outstanding public servant, who has led our anti-ISIL effort, on which we're making great progress.

A commander in chief with military experience might be able to prod a conservative military into thinking more imaginatively.

One mediocre general is better than two good ones.

As Secretary of Defense I have to be cautious and prudent.

It’s not the plans, it’s the people. I think we should have Defense Department people.

Military decisions are much more difficult and more often wrong than civilian decisions.

When you are Commander in Chief, you should keep all your options on the table.

I promise you, I promise you that Donald Trump knows, Donald Trump knows that the primary role of the president is to keep us safe.

Quarterbacks are the leaders of the team, and I want to try to get guys going. That's a job of a leader. That's a job of a quarterback.

At LSU, I was a true leader. I know I made some mistakes, but I think I was a leader for my teammates.

We need a commander in chief not a professor of law standing at a lectern - the lectern.

I think if Donald Trump should become commander in chief, we all want that in a leader, somebody who is able to fight back.

I will be as careful as I can in making the most significant decisions any president and commander-in-chief can make about sending our men and women into harm's way.

You've got David Petraeus and whatever the pushback might be against [Donald Trump].

I will say I would leave many of the decisions of some of the things you mentioned to the generals, the admirals, the people on top, and we get some of the - the Congressmen just mentioned to me and I - I think it's true 100 percent, you get your top enlisted people in that and you have some discussions with some of these top enlisted people who know it better than probably anybody.

Just listen to what Mr. [Donald] Trump has to say and make your own judgment with respect to how confident you feel about his ability to manage things like our nuclear triad.

[Donald Trump] has also promised an intelligence surge [in Syria]. Mike Flynn knows a lot about that. Tactically, Mike Flynn has been fantastic with intelligence when he was in the military. They'll be looking at that.

Strategy was first used in Athens (508 BC) to describe the art of leadership used by the ten generals on the war council. Some argue for the more creative, human side, while others argue for the more analytic side of strategy.

No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.

If U.S. Grant had been leading a team of baseball players, they'd have second guessed him all the way to the doorknob of the Appomattox Courthouse.

The greatest commander is he whose intuitions most nearly happen.

As a commander-in-chief what you do and what you say has real consequences.