Robert E. Lee Quotes

The enlightened ruler is heedful, and the good general full of caution.

Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.

It is never well to take drastic action, if the result can be achieved with equal efficiency with less drastic action..

I'd never be overly confident about anything.

Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor.

One should never pursue the hazards of fortune to their very ends andit behooves all adventurers to treat their good luck with reverence, neither bothering nor upsetting it.

Moderation is a wiser policy than zealotry

When a thing is not worth overdoing, leave it alone!

Avoid extremes: be moderate In saving and in spending; An equable and easy gait Will win an easy ending.

I believe in practicing prudence at least once every two or three years.

That is what all of us must learn to do in the United States; to limit objectives, to get ourselves away from the absolute, to find out what is within our powers.

Your commission constitutes you commander of all the forces … you are vested with full power and authority to act as you shall think for the good and welfare of the service.

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

I hope to stand firm enough not to go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the common cause.

Be prudent in your use of military force to achieve any laudable objective.

Above all gentlemen, not too much zeal.

One pursues economic theory in too extreme an extent he is likely to be in trouble; you have to consider the reality and blend what you observe as reality with an ingredient of theory, and a little, just a little bit ahead of the time, then you are likely to succeed.

Generals do not always run wars the way they would like to, nor the troops under them.

If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame.

I do everything in moderation.

It is one of the oldest maxims of moral prudence: Do not, by aspiring to what is impracticable, lose the opportunity of doing the good you can effect!

Yield nothing to love that is denied to discretion.

Sometimes you usually know the point where to keep your mouth shut.

You have to know when to stop - that's wisdom.

You want to harbor your resources and try not to make a mistake.