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" I had no difficulty as Secretary of Defense moving from the Bush administration to the Obama administration. "

Robert M. Gates

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" Most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done. "

Robert M. Gates

" I have always that there ought to be some kind of mandatory national service, not necessarily in the military but to show everybody that freedom isn't free, that everybody has an obligation to the nation as a community. "

Robert M. Gates

" Well, Israel, obviously, thinks of the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel. "

Robert M. Gates

" I'm a big advocate of drones. "

Robert M. Gates

" A wild and crazy weekend involves sitting on the front porch, smoking a cigar, reading a book. "

Robert M. Gates

" I have always voted for who I believed was the best person. "

Robert M. Gates

" I have tried to maintain civil relationships with everyone I meet - and, even if I violently disagree with them, try to be respectful. "

Robert M. Gates

" There is no international problem that can be addressed or solved without the engagement and leadership of the United States and everybody in the world knows that, its just fact of life. So sometimes I think we could conduct ourselves with a little more humility. "

Robert M. Gates

" Health care costs are eating the Defense Department alive. "

Robert M. Gates

" When I was the director of Central Intelligence in the early '90s, I tried to get the Air Force to partner with us in building drones. And they didn't want to, because they had no pilots. "

Robert M. Gates

" I mean, when you get down to very low numbers of nuclear weapons, and you contemplate going to zero, how do you deal with the reality of that technology being available to almost any country that seeks to pursue it? And what conditions do you put in place? "

Robert M. Gates

" I've seen, all too often in my career, people coming in to lead agencies and organizations and trying to impose change from the top down. Never works. You never have enough time. "

Robert M. Gates

" Things have gotten so nasty in Washington. "

Robert M. Gates

" If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience. "

Robert M. Gates

" I don't think any president that I worked with has ever said 'pretty please.' "

Robert M. Gates

" Defense is not like other discretionary spending. "

Robert M. Gates

" I consider myself a Republican. "

Robert M. Gates

" The United States has been a global power since late in the 19th century. "

Robert M. Gates

" You know, if I were an - if I were a Taliban, I'd say, 'What did al-Qaida ever do for me except get me kicked out of Afghanistan?' "

Robert M. Gates

" Well, I've ruffled a few feathers at all the institutions I've led. But I think that's part of leadership. "

Robert M. Gates

" I have instincts. "

Robert M. Gates

" I've been very sensitive for a long time to the repeated pattern, during economic hard times or after a war, of the United States' essentially unilaterally disarming. "

Robert M. Gates

" If Poindexter made a comment to me like that, it would have been in the context of once the authorized program is approved there would be no point in having any of these private benefactors any longer. "

Robert M. Gates

" I read in the press, and therefore it must be true, that no secretary of defense had ever been quoted as arguing for a bigger budget for State. "

Robert M. Gates

" One of the big changes in the Congress since I first came to Washington is that all of these folks go home every weekend. They used to play golf together; their families got to know each other, go to dinner at each other's homes at weekends - and these would be people who were political adversaries. "

Robert M. Gates

" One of my favorite little sayings is, 'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.' "

Robert M. Gates

" I wish I could set deadlines for the Congress, but that's just not the way the Constitution is written. "

Robert M. Gates

" I think that Iran with a nuclear weapon is extremely destabilizing. I think it could precipitate a nuclear arms race in the region. "

Robert M. Gates

" I've spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position. And it didn't have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong. "

Robert M. Gates

" I will always be an advocate in terms of wars of necessity. I am just much more cautious on wars of choice. "

Robert M. Gates