Norman Schwarzkopf was a United States Army officer who led the liberation of Kuwait in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Born in 1934, he followed in his father’s military footsteps serving in Vietnam and earning numerous awards.
He became a four-star general and in 1990 prepared troops to confront Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
Schwarzkopf commanded a swift and successful ground attack in 1991 with minimal casualties and became a national hero retiring the same year.
Top 10 Norman Schwarzkopf Quotes
An awful lot has been written about my temper. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
When placed in command, take charge. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I get angry at a principle, not a person. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I was lucky enough to lead a very successful war. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Success is sweet, but the secret is sweat. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I like to say I’m not a hero. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Any soldier worth his salt should be anti-war. And still there are things worth fighting for. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I prided myself on being unflappable even in the most chaotic of circumstances. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Powerful Norman Schwarzkopf Quotes
For every job some leaders did well in the army they sought reward in the form of promotions, awards and decorations in the form of getting ahead at the expense of somebody else. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like a dinosaur in the tar pit – we would still be there, and we, not the United Nations, would be bearing the costs of that occupation. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
If Saddam were to be replaced tomorrow he would probably be replaced with someone who’s just as bad or worse than he is. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I am quite confident that in the foreseeable future armed conflict will not take the form of huge land armies facing each other across extended battle lines, as they did in World War I and World War II or, for that matter, as they would have if NATO had faced the Warsaw Pact on the field of battle. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Famous Norman Schwarzkopf Quotes
Fear will keep you alive in a war. Fear will keep you alive in business. There’s nothing wrong with fear. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I may have made my reputation as a general in the Army and I’m very proud of that. But I’ve always felt that I was more than one-dimensional. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I hate war. Absolutely, I hate war. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
With a chemical alarm, you’re going to build one that is oversensitive because you would rather the alarm go off and give you a false alarm than to err on the other side. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
If we invade Iraq and the regime is very close to falling, I’m very, very concerned that the Iraqis will, in fact, use weapons of mass destruction. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I’d like to think I’m a caring human being. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that, he’s a great military man, I want you to know that. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I’ve met a lot of leaders that were very very competent but they didn’t have character. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Inspiring Norman Schwarzkopf Quotes
The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
From the time I was twelve years old until I retired last year at the age of fifty-seven, the Army was my life. I loved commanding soldiers and being around people who had made a serious commitment to serve their country. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
It is God’s job to forgive Osama Bin Laden. It is our job to arrange a face to face meeting. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I’m not a politician. I’d make a lousy politician. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Well, unfortunately, I have always regretted the fact that I have a temper, but I also have, you know, have great love and respect for all of the people that have worked for me. I think like everything else, this is one of those things that has been blown out of proportion. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
How do you fight someone who doesn’t care if they get killed? You accommodate them. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
A very great man once said you should love your enemies and that’s not a bad piece of advice. We can love them but, by God, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to fight them. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Popular Norman Schwarzkopf Quotes
I believe that forgiving them is God’s function, our job is to arrange the meeting. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
But I would defy anyone to go back over the years and tell me anyone whose career I’ve ruined, anyone whom I’ve driven out of the service, anyone I’ve fired from a job. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I admire men of character and I judge character not by how men deal with their superiors, but mostly how they deal with their subordinates. And that, to me, is where you find out what the character of a man is. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I don’t consider myself dovish and I certainly don’t consider myself hawkish. Maybe I would describe myself as owlish that is wise enough to understand that you want to do everything possible to avoid war. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
What is postwar Iraq going to look like, with the Kurds and the Sunnis and the Shiites? That’s a huge question, to my mind. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
War is a profane thing. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I’ve managed to convince my wife that somewhere in the Bible it says, ‘Man cannot have too many shotguns and fishing poles.’ ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
First of all, Saddam did not win the war, even though he says he did, I mean, you know, that’s a joke and everybody in the world knows it. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Best Norman Schwarzkopf Quotes
I am living proof that if you catch prostate cancer early, it can be reduced to a temporary inconvenience, and you can go back to a normal life. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
It’s the sense of duty that keeps you going sometimes when things get very, very rough. Somebody’s got to do it. And if you don’t, who will? ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
If it had been our intention to take Iraq, if it had been our intention to destroy the country, if it had been our intention to overrun the country, we could have done it unopposed. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that’s what courage is. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Character is constructed of many separate concepts such as those identified in the coding: duty, honor, country; humility; integrity and competence and thus is considered a theme. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Great Norman Schwarzkopf Quotes
Leadership consists of character and strategy. If you can’t have both, opt for character. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I do hunt, and I do fish, and I don’t apologize to anybody for hunting and fishing. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
You should never forget that the airplanes don’t fly, the tanks don’t run, the ships don’t sail, the missiles don’t fire unless the sons and daughters of America make them do it. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
I have seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and all they saw was a platoon. But great leaders stand in front of a platoon and see it as 44 individuals, each of whom has aspirations, each of who wants to live, each of whom wants to do good. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
You can’t help someone get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
Judge your enemy based upon capabilities, not intent, you have to look at the enemy and really almost make a worst case call every time. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf.
So these were the 55 famous quotes about Norman Schwarzkopf.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Martha Graham quotes and Matthew Hussey quotes.
