Robert McNamara Quotes

Quotes about:

• In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil

  Robert McNamara

  Order, Evil, May

  Robert S. McNamara (2004). “Official Teacher's Guide for The Fog of War: An Errol Morris Film”

  49 Copy quote

• Measure what is important, don't make important what you can measure

  Robert McNamara

  Business, Important, Management

  60 Copy quote

• The war in Vietnam is going well and will succeed.

  Robert McNamara

  War, Vietnam, Succeed

  48 Copy quote

• I want to say, and this is very important: at the end we lucked out. It was luck that prevented nuclear war. We came that close to nuclear war at the end. Rational individuals: Kennedy was rational; Khrushchev was rational; Castro was rational. Rational individuals came that close to total destruction of their societies. And that danger exists today.

  Robert McNamara

  War, Luck, Important

  "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara". Documentary, August 30, 2003.

  72 Copy quote

• Never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wish had been asked of you.

  Robert McNamara

  Wish, Answers

  "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara". Documentary, August 30, 2003.

  52 Copy quote

• If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he's right. He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals.

  Robert McNamara

  War, Thinking, Criminals

  Robert S. McNamara (2004). “Official Teacher's Guide for The Fog of War: An Errol Morris Film”

  57 Copy quote

• One must take draconian measures of demographic reduction against the will of the populations. Reducing the birth rate has proved to be impossible or insufficient. One must therefore increase the mortality rate. How? By natural means. Famine and sickness

  Robert McNamara

  Mean, Birth Rate, Population

  46 Copy quote

• We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose.

  Robert McNamara

  Shapes, Given, Foreign Policy

  "Rumsfeld Makes McNamara Look Good" by Maureen Dowd, www.realclearpolitics.com. February 13, 2011.

  65 Copy quote

• I think the human race needs to think about killing. How much evil must we do to do good?

  Robert McNamara

  Thinking, Race, Evil

  12 Copy quote

• The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one.

  Robert McNamara

  Issues, Trying, World

  "McNamara Recalls, and Regrets, Vietnam" by R. W. APPLE JR., www.nytimes.com. 1995.

  44 Copy quote

• Poor planning or poor execution of plans is simply to let some force other than reason shape reality.

  Robert McNamara

  Reality, Shapes, Poor Planning

  40 Copy quote

• We see what we want to believe.

  Robert McNamara

  Believe, Want

  25 Copy quote

• To this day we seem to act in the world as though we know what's right for everybody.

  Robert McNamara

  War, Drug, World

  48 Copy quote

• Rationality will not save us.

  Robert McNamara

  Thinking, Rationality

  Robert S. McNamara (2004). “Official Teacher's Guide for The Fog of War: An Errol Morris Film”

  5 Copy quote

• I don't object to its being called "McNamara's war." I think it is a very important war and I am pleased to be identified with it and do whatever I can to win it.

  Robert McNamara

  War, Winning, Thinking

  Robert Mcnamara (2017). “In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam”, p.118, Vintage

  13 Copy quote

• The commitment of government to deal with the population issue is of course essential....There are many ways to make the death rate increase.

  Robert McNamara

  Commitment, Government, Issues

  11 Copy quote

• There is no more important task in a democracy than resolving the differences among people and finding a course of action that will be supported by a sufficient number to permit the nation to achieve a better life for all.

  Robert McNamara

  Differences, Numbers, People

  24 Copy quote

• The indefinite combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will lead to the destruction of nations.

  Robert McNamara

  Nuclear, Weapons, Call Of Duty

  Robert S. McNamara (1992). “The Changing Nature of Global Security and Its Impact on South Asia”

  38 Copy quote

• There are many ways to make the death rate increase.

  Robert McNamara

  Way, Increase, Rate

  46 Copy quote

• At my age, 85, I'm at age where I can look back and derive some conclusions about my actions. My rule has been try to learn, try to understand what happened. Develop the lessons and pass them on.

  Robert McNamara

  War, Age, Trying

  Robert S. McNamara (2004). “Official Teacher's Guide for The Fog of War: An Errol Morris Film”

  46 Copy quote

• All the evidence of history suggests that man is indeed a rational animal, but with a near infinite capacity for folly. . . . He draws blueprints for Utopia, but never quite gets it built. In the end he plugs away obstinately with the only building material really ever at hand--his own part comic, part tragic, part cussed, but part glorious nature.

  Robert McNamara

  Animal, Men, Hands

  "McNamara in Context" by Errol Morris, www.nytimes.com. July 8, 2009.

  9 Copy quote

• Short of nuclear war itself, population growth is the gravest issue the world faces. If we do not act, the problem will be solved by famine, riots, insurrection and war.

  Robert McNamara

  War, Issues, Growth

  40 Copy quote

• Brains are like hearts - they go where they are appreciated.

  Robert McNamara

  Love, Leadership, Broken Heart

  40 Copy quote

• Kennedy was trying to keep us out of war. I was trying to help him keep us out of war. And General Curtis LeMay, whom I served under as a matter of fact in World War II, was saying "Let's go in, let's totally destroy Cuba."

  Robert McNamara

  Cuba

  "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara". Documentary, August 30, 2003.

  10 Copy quote

• A computer does not substitute for judgment any more than a pencil substitutes for literacy. But writing without a pencil is no particular advantage.

  Robert McNamara

  Inspiring, Writing, Computer Literacy

  Robert S. McNamara (1968). “The Essence of Security: Reflections in Office”, New York : Harper & Row

  38 Copy quote

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