John F. Kelly Quotes

I fear, my Lords, it is too much the temper of this country to be insensible of the approach of danger, until it comes with accumulated terror upon us.

To preserve our security in a dangerous century, vigilance is not enough. National Intelligence must do more.

I think it is not necessary at this time to put forth a grand vision such as an East Asian Community. What we must do before that is create scenarios for Japan's response in case of a serious territorial incident.

If you don't choose to do it in leadership time up front, you do it in crisis management time down the road.

The Marine Corps has to ask itself, 'What does our nation need from its premier crisis response force?' We are America's shock troops in war and peace. I know it sounds corny, but it's not.

Our top focus - protecting our Nation - must go beyond homeland preparedness; America will only be secure if we deal with threats before they happen, not just after they happen.

Well, the hardest thing to do, as we know from our own experience on 9/11 is protect everything all the time.

I don't believe anyone should ignore all the fires around you and stand pat and not worry about getting singed.

If you have spent your life building Ineos, and you find yourself in a crisis, you are going to do anything you can to save what you have been building.

I go to bed at night worrying that I didn't do enough that day to make sure I protect the American people.

The way you continue to be a successful business is you don't wait for the car to go off the cliff. You have to manage yourself. And make sure you do it in the right way so you are not making decisions in crisis.

Some think that by preparing to deal with crises you make them more likely. I think the wiser judgment is the contrary. In this area at least, if you want peace or stability, it's better to prepare for war or instability.

Well, you know, any defense force worth its salt has to be able to deal with uncertainty, has to be able to deal with events that we may not have planned for.

I'm very confident that the solutions that we are developing are going to be effective not only in application in Iraq, but also will be very helpful for potential homeland security situations as well.

Too often, a problem is allowed to fester until it reaches a crisis point... and the American people are left asking the question: what went wrong and why?

I think the idea that you would do everything you can to prevent what is coming at you by way of something very disruptive - a 9/11 - it's a no-brainer.

Our task, your task... is to try to connect the dots before something happens. People say, 'Well, where's the smoking gun?' Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction.

And we ask the American people to play an important part of our layered defense. We ask for cooperation, patience and a commitment to vigilance in the face of a determined enemy.

Incentives are not strategy, they are tactics. Defensive measures.

There aren't that many policy changes you can do, so I'd say you ride the wave and hope that maybe some of the external events help you.

Looking back over my more than a half century in intelligence, I have not experienced a time when we've been beset by more crises and threats around the globe.

The safety of the American people has got to be our number one priority. That is our most important problem.

The threat is there, and we get paid to tell Americans it is there.

The art of government is to deal with threats before they become overwhelming.

If terrorists attacked New York, Washington, or San Francisco with a weapon of mass destruction, the next day we will all be asking what steps we might have taken to prevent it. So the question is, “Why do we not take those steps now?”