Quotes by George Friedman

“People on Wall Street dont think,”

“It seems almost as if a nuclear weapon went off in New Orleans, ... The displacement of the population is the crisis that New Orleans faces. . . . The physical and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and right now, that is what New Orleans is.”

“We have not intended our actions to sound threatening, ... Obviously, they have been threatening, and I apologize for that. We didnt mean to be making threats.”

“You dont have the resources to childproof the entire country,”

“Theres a kind of sense of unreality that were looking at here. Nobodys really talking about how were going to manage a world that looks at the United States and is jealous and bitter. The issue were missing is that we are reading our own prosperity as a global phenomenon, and it isnt.”

“There are possibilities to shape the world in ways that are in the American national interest. This isnt a permanent situation. Its not going to stay here forever ... Were not talking about them or taking advantage of them.”

“were talking to him every day, and we know where he is.”

“I still believe that, with Savoy being part of the community, it ought to be part of the MTD, ... I dont think a multiplicity of mass transit districts in the metropolitan area is a good thing. There may come a time when Savoy may want to be part of the C-U MTD, and we would be available to discuss that.”

“There is a deep consensus between Gore and Bush, ... When you look at the last 10 years, theres not much you can think that would be different if George Bush (the former president and father of the current GOP nominee) had won and Bill Clinton had lost.”

“There is a deep consensus between Gore and Bush. When you look at the last 10 years, theres not much you can think that would be different if George Bush (the former president and father of the current GOP nominee) had won and Bill Clinton had lost.”

The computer focuses ruthlessly on things that can be represented in numbers. In so doing, it seduces people into thinking that other aspects of knowledge are either unreal or unimportant. The computer treats reason as an instrument for achieving things, not for contemplating things. It narrows dramatically what we know and intended by reason.

... common sense is the one thing that will certainly be wrong.

Building a naval power takes generations, not so much to develop the necessary technology as to pass along the accumulated experience that creates good admirals.

Anger does not make history. Power does. And power may be supplemented by anger, but it derives from more fundamental realities; geography, demographics, technology, and culture.

The idea that the president has the power to craft a new strategy both overstates his power and understates the power of reality crafted by those who came before him. We are all trapped in circumstances into which we were born and choices that were made for us.

Wars are times of intense technological transformation, because societies invest – sometimes with extensive borrowing – when and where matters of life and death are at stake.

Long-term solutions are more attractive and cause much less controversy than short-term solutions, which will affect people who are still alive and voting.

The great presidents never forget the principle of the republic and seek to preserve and enhance them – in the long run– without undermining the needs of the moment. Bad presidents simply do what is expedient, heedless of principles. But the worst presidents are those who adhere to the principles regardless of what the fortunes of the moment demand.

The threats that resurfaced in the past 10 years were not an aberration. Al Qaeda and terrorism or one such threat, but it was actually not the most serious threat that the United States faced. The president can and should speak of foreseeing an era in which these threats dont exist, but you must not believe his own rhetoric. To the contrary, he must gradually ease the country away from the idea that threats to imperial power will ever subside, then l lead it to an understanding that these threats are the price Americans pay for the wealth and power they hold.

Their job as leader was not to solve the problem – the president really has little control over the economy – but to convince the public not only that he has a plan but that he is altogether confident in the plans success and that only a cynic or someone in different to the publics well-being would dare to question him on the details.