George P. Shultz Quotes

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George P. Shultz

Profession : Public Servant

Birth : December 13, 1920

Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.

George P. Shultz

Nothing ever gets settled in this town. a seething debating society in which the debate never stops, in which people never give up, including me. And so that's the atmosphere in which you administer.

George P. Shultz

Increasingly, the state system has been eroding. Terrorists have exploited this weakness by burrowing into the state system in order to attack it.

George P. Shultz

Obama seems to want to do something to damage rich people.

George P. Shultz

Oh, you know. I am secretary of state. My trips aren't successful. I just talk to people.

George P. Shultz

If you ask me what am I, I might say 'I am a Californian,' and if George Bush were here, he would say 'I am a Texan.'

George P. Shultz

I learned in business that you had to be very careful when you told somebody that's working for you to do something, because the chances were very high he'd do it. In government, you don't have to worry about that.

George P. Shultz

It was an attempt to stick the Congress's finger in King Hussein's eye.

George P. Shultz

The higher the classification of secrecy, the quicker you will report it.

George P. Shultz

The minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose, you have lost.

George P. Shultz

World Affairs Councils are great organizations. They help keep people throughout our country alive to important developments in world affairs and underscore that, in the country, we stay engaged and we are part of the world.

George P. Shultz

You've got to dream a little bit if you're going to get somewhere.

George P. Shultz

The 1986 tax act is sort of the unsung hero of the very good economic times we had for a long time. Of course, politics gums it all up again and preferences get put in.

George P. Shultz

You don't get gushers of revenue by raising tax rates. You get it through expansion.

George P. Shultz

There is no prospect that the United States will say to Israel, 'You do such and such and we'll not support you in your security.'

George P. Shultz

My experience is that if the military didn't want to use force and was confronted with a president that did, the military would come back with what I would call the 'bomb Moscow' scenario. They would say it had to be done with conditions that were so extreme, you obviously wouldn't do it.

George P. Shultz

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.

George P. Shultz

I don't know how you define 'neoconservatism,' but I think it's associated with trying to spread open political systems and democracy.

George P. Shultz

Between 1980 and 1990, the number of countries that were classified as 'free' or 'mostly free' increased by about 50%.

George P. Shultz

Open political and economic systems have been gaining ground and there's a good reason for it. They work better.

George P. Shultz