Norman Schwarzkopf Quotes & Sayings

To be an effective leader, you have to have a manipulative streak - you have to figure out the people working for you and give each tasks that will take advantage of his strength. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Hey, I'm not a politician. I'm a ham. I love to give speeches. — Norman Schwarzkopf

This gulf war syndrome thing is truly unfortunate, and I've met some of the vets who have this. These are my guys, and I feel terrible about it. — Norman Schwarzkopf

He is neither a strategist nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general. Other than that he's a great military man. — Norman Schwarzkopf

War's a profanity because, let's face it, you've got two opposing sides trying to settle their differences by killing as many of each other as they can. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I've managed to convince my wife that somewhere in the Bible it says, 'Man cannot have too many shotguns and fishing poles.' — Norman Schwarzkopf

Leadership consists of character and strategy. If you can't have both, opt for character. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I am an environmentalist, but I'm not a wacko environmentalist. I believe that mankind and nature can live side-by-side for the mutual benefit of both. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Well, unfortunately, I have always regretted the fact that I have a temper, but I also have, you know, have great love and respect for all of the people that have worked for me. I think like everything else, this is one of those things that has been blown out of proportion. — Norman Schwarzkopf

From the time I was twelve years old until I retired last year at the age of fifty-seven, the Army was my life. I loved commanding soldiers and being around people who had made a serious commitment to serve their country. — Norman Schwarzkopf

The fun of fishing is catching 'em, not killing 'em. — Norman Schwarzkopf

It's nice to feel that you have a purpose. — Norman Schwarzkopf

What is postwar Iraq going to look like, with the Kurds and the Sunnis and the Shiites? That's a huge question, to my mind. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I saw Kuwait many times before the war. I remember it as a beautiful place, full of very nice people, and it's a tragedy to see that somebody could set out to deliberately destroy a country the way the Iraqis have. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I like to say I'm not a hero. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I can stand in a crystal stream without another human around me and cast all day long, and if I never catch a single fish, I can come home and still feel like I had a wonderful time. It's the being there that's important. — Norman Schwarzkopf

If it had been our intention to take Iraq, if it had been our intention to destroy the country, if it had been our intention to overrun the country, we could have done it unopposed. — Norman Schwarzkopf

You can't help someone get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself. — Norman Schwarzkopf

You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it. — Norman Schwarzkopf

True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that's what courage is. — Norman Schwarzkopf

When placed in command, take charge. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I've got to tell you what, the soldier doesn't fight very hard for a leader who is going to shoot him, okay, on his own whim. That's not what military leadership is all about. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Carpet bombing tends to portray something that's totally indiscriminate, you know, en masse without regard to the target. — Norman Schwarzkopf

It's the sense of duty that keeps you going sometimes when things get very, very rough. Somebody's got to do it. And if you don't, who will? — Norman Schwarzkopf

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I'm not proud of killing, of being responsible for the death of a single person. I never will be. — Norman Schwarzkopf

With a chemical alarm, you're going to build one that is oversensitive because you would rather the alarm go off and give you a false alarm than to err on the other side. — Norman Schwarzkopf

There's no doubt in my mind that whichever commander ordered the blowing up of Kamisiyah did so in following the instructions that he had received. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I am quite confident that in the foreseeable future armed conflict will not take the form of huge land armies facing each other across extended battle lines, as they did in World War I and World War II or, for that matter, as they would have if NATO had faced the Warsaw Pact on the field of battle. — Norman Schwarzkopf

The Patriot missile is a point defence missile. Point defence means that you put the missile at a location to defend a very specific target such as an airfield, a supply dump or a headquarters. — Norman Schwarzkopf

But I would defy anyone to go back over the years and tell me anyone whose career I've ruined, anyone whom I've driven out of the service, anyone I've fired from a job. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I have seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and all they saw was a platoon. But great leaders stand in front of a platoon and see it as 44 individuals, each of whom has aspirations, each of who wants to live, each of whom wants to do good. — Norman Schwarzkopf

You can't help but ... with 20/20 hindsight, go back and say, 'Look, had we done something different, we probably wouldn't be facing what we are facing today.' — Norman Schwarzkopf

Someone once asked, 'What is the difference between me and Saddam Hussein?' The answer is, 'I have a conscience and he doesn't.' — Norman Schwarzkopf

What people don't understand is this is something that we only have in America. There is no other country in the world where the ordinary citizen can go out and enjoy hunting and fishing. There's no other nation in the world where that happens. And it's very much a part of our heritage. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I do not want to be a pawn in a political campaign. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Nobody can ever pin you down when you speculate. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I am not one of these guys who is just going to waste American lives by throwing people needlessly in frontal attacks up against the enemy if I can avoid doing that. — Norman Schwarzkopf

They say the good Lord doesn't charge you for the days you hunt and fish, and I believe that. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I admire men of character and I judge character not by how men deal with their superiors, but mostly how they deal with their subordinates. And that, to me, is where you find out what the character of a man is. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Particularly when you're dealing with very high ranking people, you know, you have to get their attention, they are used to, by their rank, of having their own way and doing their own thing and when it's necessary to all work together on something, sometimes you have to hit the mule between the eyes with a two by four to get its attention. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I get angry at a principle, not a person. — Norman Schwarzkopf

All you have to do is hold your first soldier who is dying in your arms, and have that terribly futile feeling that I can't do anything about it ... Then you understand the horror of war. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Had the United States and the United Kingdom gone on alone to capture Baghdad, under the provisions of the Geneva and Hague conventions we would have been considered occupying powers and therefore would have been responsible for all the costs of maintaining or restoring government, education and other services for the people of Iraq. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Fish are a renewable resource, and one of the problems we've had is people feel obliged to catch the limit, then throw 'em in the garbage can. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I may have made my reputation as a general in the Army, and I'm very proud of that. But I've always felt that I was more than one-dimensional. I'd like to think I'm a caring human being. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I hate war. Absolutely, I hate war. — Norman Schwarzkopf

As young West Point cadets, our motto was 'duty, honor, country.' But it was in the field, from the rice paddies of Southeast Asia to the sands of the Middle East, that I learned that motto's fullest meaning. There I saw gallant young Americans of every race, creed and background fight, and sometimes die, for 'duty, honor, and their country.' — Norman Schwarzkopf

First of all, Saddam did not win the war, even though he says he did, I mean, you know, that's a joke and everybody in the world knows it. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Fear will keep you alive in a war. Fear will keep you alive in business. There's nothing wrong with fear. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I'm not a politician. I'd make a lousy politician. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Good generalship is a realization that ... you've got to try and figure out how to accomplish your mission with a minimum loss of human life. — Norman Schwarzkopf

When I fish, I stop thinking about anything else. But truth be told, if you want to declare victories, I can tell you the fish have won a lot more than I have. It's interesting that something with a brain the size of a fish's can outsmart us humans, who think we are el supremo. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Generals aren't in the business of commenting on the correctness or incorrectness of the President's decisions. Anybody who thinks he should be able to do that ought to be fired on the spot. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I believe that forgiving them is god's function, our job is to arrange the meeting. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like a dinosaur in the tar pit - we would still be there, and we, not the United Nations, would be bearing the costs of that occupation. — Norman Schwarzkopf

For the entire first part of my career, I prided myself on being unflappable even in the most chaotic of circumstances. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I can't even begin to visualize myself as a five-star general ... When I think of the people who are five-star generals, I can't even see myself standing in their shadow. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character. — Norman Schwarzkopf

In a recent interview, General Norman Schwartzkof was asked if he thought there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harboured and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on America. His answer ... I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Choose to win
Get mad, then get over it. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I think any student of military strategy would tell you that in order to attack a position, you should have a ratio of approximately 3 to 1 in favor of the attacker. — Norman Schwarzkopf

A great deal of the capability of an army is its dedication to its cause and its will to fight. You can have the best equipment in the world, you can have the largest numbers in the world, but, if you're not dedicated to your cause, if you don't have the will to fight, then, you are not going to have a very good army. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Good generalship is the realisation that you've got to figure out how to accomplish your mission with the minimum loss of human life. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Unfortunately, if you've ever been in southern Georgia on the beaches in a lightning storm, if you're out there, you're in great, great danger, and you can be killed very, very quickly. — Norman Schwarzkopf

A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers. — Norman Schwarzkopf

As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that, he's a great military man, I want you to know that. — Norman Schwarzkopf

War is a profane thing. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I can't say enough about the two Marine divisions. If I use words like 'brilliant,' it would really be an under description of the absolutely superb job that they did in breaching the so-called 'impenetrable barrier.' It was a classic- absolutely classic- military breaching of a very very tough minefield, barbed wire, fire trenches-type barrier. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Tanks being deployed far forward is an indication of offensive action; tanks in depth is an indication of defensive action. — Norman Schwarzkopf

If we invade Iraq and the regime is very close to falling, I'm very, very concerned that the Iraqis will, in fact, use weapons of mass destruction. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I was lucky enough to lead a very successful war. — Norman Schwarzkopf

How do you fight someone who doesn't care if they get killed? You accommodate them. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I am living proof that if you catch prostate cancer early, it can be reduced to a temporary inconvenience, and you can go back to a normal life. — Norman Schwarzkopf

An awful lot has been written about my temper. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I do hunt, and I do fish, and I don't apologize to anybody for hunting and fishing. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Judge your enemy based upon capabilities, not intent, you have to look at the enemy and really almost make a worst case call every time. — Norman Schwarzkopf

If Saddam were to be replaced tomorrow he would probably be replaced with someone who's just as bad or worse than he is. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Success is sweet, but the secret is sweat. — Norman Schwarzkopf

When the Normandy Invasion was planned, a very specific strategic objective was given, and that strategic objective was the basis upon which the plan for the Normandy Invasion was derived. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Moving into an unoccupied village when there's no opposition, I don't call that a military victory. — Norman Schwarzkopf

Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I'm not a type-B personality who knows I have a cancer growing inside of me and can live with the knowledge. I go into a kung-fu attack position when I go through the door of a hospital. — Norman Schwarzkopf

I don't consider myself dovish and I certainly don't consider myself hawkish. Maybe I would describe myself as owlishthat is wise enough to understand that you want to do everything possible to avoid war. — Norman Schwarzkopf

It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle. — Norman Schwarzkopf