Colin Powell Quotes

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

The wise does at once what the fool does at last.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.

John isn't qualified to be vice president. He doesn't have the intellect. He doesn't have the stature. He doesn't have the honesty. He doesn't have the character that it takes.

Leadership shows judgment, wisdom, personal appeal and proven competence.

I'm no genius. I'm not at all; I just happen to look five or 10 years ahead and think things through.

Losers react,leaders anticipate.

The first essential character [of civilization], I should say, is forethought. This, indeed, is what mainly distinguishes men from brutes and adults from children.

One of the principal qualities that you need as national security adviser is trust, the trust of the president. And that depends on truth and it depends on honesty.

In leadership, there are no words more important than trust.

The essence of leadership is being able to see the iceberg before it hits the Titanic.

My job is to think beyond the immediate.

Bring all your intelligence to bear on your beginning.

It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize, And to be swift is less than to be wise.

Thoughtful people are concerned with the future because that is the only area of experience about which anything can be done. We cannot change the past, and the present is gone as soon as it is reported, but the future is that in which we can make a difference.

She looks at me out of the side of her uncovered eye. "Chess, Zombie: defending yourself from the move that hasn't happened yet. Does it matter that he doesn't light up through our eyepieces? That he missed us when he could have taken us own? If two possibilities are equally probable but mutually exclusive, which one matters the most? Which one do you bet your life on?

Forethought spares afterthought.

Being one step ahead makes you a leader Being fifty steps ahead could make you a martyr.

Leaders anticipate. Losers react

A leader has the capacity of vision, the ability to see where things are headed before people in general see those things.

A Fool with a Plan is better off than a Genius without a Plan!

By playing at Chess then, we may learn... First: Foresight. Second: Circumspection. Third: Caution.

The wise man guards against the future as if it were the present.

The wiser a man is, it seems to me, the more vividly he can see the future as part of the evolving present. He doesn't break the flow of life, he directs it, hastens it, but preserves its continuity.