Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Colin Powell (American Military Leader)

Colin Luther Powell (1937–2021) was an American military hero and diplomat. He was the first black U.S. Secretary of State and the youngest and the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Born in New York City, the African-American son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell was educated at the City College of New York and received a commission in the U.S. Army in 1958.

Decorated for heroism in the Vietnam War, Powell later held a series of command posts. He was a White House assistant for national security affairs 1987–89 and the chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1989–93. He was the chief of the 1990–91 U.S. military operations (Desert Shield and Desert Storm) against Iraq.

During 2001–05, Powell served as U.S. Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. Powell’s controversial 2003 speech to the United Nations, seeking broader international support for the Iraq War, was later exposed to be based on faulty intelligence; Powell has described this speech as a “blot” on his record.

Powell has received many awards, notably two Presidential Medals of Freedom, the Citizen’s Medal, and the Congressional Gold Medal. His books include his autobiography My American Journey (1995) and It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership (2012.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Colin Powell

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy
—Colin Powell
Topics: Battle

Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Organization

Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word; and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection.
—Colin Powell

I want everybody to be scared to death of us. I don’t say that in a bellicose way. I say that in a way that is peaceful, frankly.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Power

Freedom to be your best is nothing unless you’re willing to do your best.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Action, Freedom

Policies that emanate from ivory towers often have an adverse impact on the people out in the field who are fighting the wars or bringing in the revenues.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Politics

Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
—Colin Powell

Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.
—Colin Powell

Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Management

The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting in above-average effort.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Effort

Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Challenges

Either move or be moved.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Action

There comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.
—Colin Powell

Get mad, then get over it.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Anger

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Success, Failure, Success & Failure, Preparation

Keep looking below surface appearances. Don’t shrink from doing so just because you might not like what you find.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Appearance

None of us can change our yesterdays, but all of us can change our tomorrows.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Change

Bad news is not wine. It does not improve with age.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Wine

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Optimism

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
Topics: Excellence, Attitude

Experts often possess more data than judgment.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Experts, Professionalism

There are no secrets to success: don’t waste time looking for them. Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work, and persistence.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Preparation, Secrets of Success, Failure, Success & Failure, Success, Character

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Dreams

Every organization should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes.
—Colin Powell

Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.
—Colin Powell

They were anticipating a different kind of immediate aftermath of the fall of Baghdad, it turned out to be not exactly as they had anticipated.
—Colin Powell

Look for intelligence and judgment and, most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego and the drive to get things done.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Ego

But you have to understand, American democracy is not like the system you have. We’re not an ocean liner that sails across the ocean from point A to point B at 30 knots. That’s not American democracy. American democracy is kind of like a life raft that bobs around the ocean all the time. Your feet are always wet. Winds are always blowing. You’re cold. You’re wet. You’re uncomfortable—but you never sink.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Democracy

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Service

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
—Colin Powell
Topics: Ego

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