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" I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it. "
Colin Powell
Army
Born
College
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" Russia isn't going to start a war. They can't afford it. I think Mr. Putin can be dealt with if we stop screaming at him. You can work with the guy. You just have to know who he is. "
Colin Powell
War
Start
Know
" Children need to get a high-quality education, avoid violence and the criminal-justice system, and gain jobs. But they deserve more. We want them to learn not only reading and math but fairness, caring, self-respect, family commitment, and civic duty. "
Colin Powell
Family
Education
Children
" You don't know what you can get away with until you try. "
Colin Powell
Until
You
Try
" The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise. "
Colin Powell
Commander
Field
Right
" I always like to take my time and examine the two candidates, see not only the two candidates but the policies they will bring in, the people they will bring in, who they might appoint to the Supreme Court, and look at the whole range of issues before making a decision. "
Colin Powell
Decision
Time
Supreme Court
" You can't just have slogans, you can't just have catchy phrases. You have to have an agenda. And I think what the Republican Party has to do, if it's going to incorporate the tea party efforts in it, is to come up with an agenda that the American people can see, touch, and actually believe in, and something they believe in. "
Colin Powell
Tea
American
Think
" Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with age. "
Colin Powell
Age
Bad
Bad News
" We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us. "
Colin Powell
Community
Government
Important
" Politics is not bean bags. It's serious, tough stuff. "
Colin Powell
Bean
Tough
Stuff
" Too often we act - ask our schools to be truant officers, our teachers to be truant officers, because we're giving them children who have, you know, they're not ready to learn. And if they're not ready to learn by the third grade, they know they're behind. "
Colin Powell
Giving
Children
Know
" Foe means enemy. Now, will we have differences of opinion with the Russians? Yes. Will they get mad at us from time to time, and we get mad at them? That's part of the normal diplomatic relations. "
Colin Powell
Time
Mad
Enemy
" The chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny. "
Colin Powell
Energy
Health
Life
" Diplomacy is listening to what the other guy needs. Preserving your own position, but listening to the other guy. You have to develop relationships with other people so when the tough times come, you can work together. "
Colin Powell
Work
You
People
" Don't bother people for help without first trying to solve the problem yourself. "
Colin Powell
People
Problem
Trying
" I try to be the same person I was yesterday. "
Colin Powell
Try
Yesterday
Same
" Economy's got to get moving, we've got to get the unemployment rate down. That may be the defining issue of the campaign. "
Colin Powell
Economy
Moving
Unemployment
" Engineering didn't take to me. And what saved me and kept me in college was I ran into ROTC cadets who were in a fraternity called The Persian Rifles. And I found my place. I found discipline. I found structure. I found people that were like me and I liked. "
Colin Powell
Place
People
Me
" In the last several years, I have been troubled by the right shift of the Republican party too far to the right. "
Colin Powell
Republican
Last
Party
" If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude. "
Colin Powell
Attitude
Going
Habit
" We have practiced diplomacy since the very beginning of the nation. Sometimes it has not worked, and we've had to go to war. I always believe you should try to find peace and reconciliation before conflict. That has been the approach I've taken. "
Colin Powell
Believe
Conflict
Beginning
" It's a disgrace that we have millions of people who are uninsured. "
Colin Powell
Who
People
Millions
" What you're seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they're directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society. "
Colin Powell
Society
Think
You
" The idea that putting Americans 'first' requires a withdrawal from the world is simply wrongheaded because a retreat would achieve exactly the opposite for our citizens. "
Colin Powell
World
Opposite
Retreat
" No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. "
Colin Powell
Survives
Plan
Enemy
" When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you've got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I'm not sure any country, either the United States or I don't hear of anyone else, who's willing to take on that responsibility. "
Colin Powell
Government
You
Responsibility
" Our diplomacy and development budget is not just about reducing spending and finding efficiencies. We need a frank conversation about what we stand for as that 'shining city on a hill.' And that conversation begins by acknowledging that we can't do it on the cheap. "
Colin Powell
Need
Stand
Finding
" Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence. "
Colin Powell
Learning
Hard Work
Success
" Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. "
Colin Powell
Positive
Optimism
Perpetual
" I don't want to spend the rest of my life giving speeches. "
Colin Powell
Want
Spend
Rest
" We got rid of a terrible dictator. We gave the Iraqi people an opportunity for a new life under a representative form of government. "
Colin Powell
Government
Opportunity
People