Martin E. Dempsey Quotes

Because the resources available to the U. S. military will be increasingly limited, the objectives must be too.

The military budget must reflect the threats we face, rather than the budget defining those threats.

Our national-security strategy must drive our military budget, rather than the budget setting our strategy.

The Pentagon should use data to guide financial decision-making.

We want to make sure the military gets it right and understands that if they're going to have less money, they're going to have to spend it a lot more smartly.

Good household decision-making often relies on thinking about your household like a firm.

I learned that you shouldn't take your most esoteric concept and fit it into the largest space with the highest fixed costs. It puts too much pressure on the restaurant to hit grand slams every day when there just aren't enough people who want to watch that sport.

Intelligence collection has its place—no question—… But no matter how important collection is, in the short and even the long run, it just doesn’t cost very much.

Armchair generals assume that nations decide on their foreign policy objectives and then subordinate everything else to achieving them. Life is more complicated. Threats, opportunities and risks are always uncertain, but the economic costs of maximum preparedness are definite.

The way to cut the military budget is to go to the commanding officer of each military facility and tell him he will get another star if he cuts his budget, and we will be trampled in the stampede to save money.

The next president is going to be faced with the prospect of realigning our national security interests with our resources—–and for God's sake, getting some certainty into the budget process so we can actually plan.... Instead, we tend to look at things one year at a time.

I'm not going to risk our precious military resources on an ineffective, unproductive mission.

Issues like security threats, declining traffic, high insurance premiums, rising fuel costs, among others, call for individual strengths to be aligned towards regional stability.

In markets, there are times when you are looking for what makes sense. At other times, you are looking for what you can do that is sensible versus constraints and uncertainties.

My priorities are going to be to play a very balanced role in the sense that I have to keep an eye on the challenges in the environment. At the same time, I have to keep an eye on the optimism that is there for India.

You can't look at the problem and say, 'I want them to do more, better, faster miracles - and not invest in research, not invest in development, and have those miracles delivered to me free.' It's unrealistic.

It's been great that every title that we've done internally has been a huge success, but when you've got 50 or 100 people on there, all their families and everyone counting on you there, the idea of 'What if you screw up once?' or 'What if the market changes?'

Throughout history, the organizational evolution of the military has been inextricably linked with that of the business world.

Challenges need to be given to an organization.

Your own business growth and success depends on many things, and along that growing path, you are going to have to concede certain responsibilities and activities - whether for your accounting, your production, or day-to-day management.

In business, we use certain principles to measure performance, and I envision applying those principles in the public sector.

Sometimes, when you're building a company, out of necessity there's just a gazillion things you have to learn and figure out.

I've always maintained the basic business principles of keeping it simple, doing your homework, hard work, and common sense.

I've always prided myself on doing what really was best for business.

The best policymakers know that in start-ups, as in politics, not everything works out exactly as planned.