Quotes by George P. Shultz

About George P. Shultz:

George Pratt Shultz is an American economist, statesman, and businessman. He served as the United States Secretary of Labor from 1969 to 1970, as the director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1970 to 1972, as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1972 to 1974, and as the U.S. Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989. Before entering politics, he was professor of economics at MIT and the University of Chicago, serving as Dean of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business from 1962 to 1969. Between 1974 and 1982, Shultz was an executive at Bechtel, eventually becoming the firm's president. He is currently the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

My experience is that if the military didn't want to use force and was confronted with a president that did, the military would come back with what I would call the 'bomb Moscow' scenario. They would say it had to be done with conditions that were so...

George P. Shultz

I learned in business that you had to be very careful when you told somebody that's working for you to do something, because the chances were very high he'd do it. In government, you don't have to worry about that.

George P. Shultz

The 1986 tax act is sort of the unsung hero of the very good economic times we had for a long time. Of course, politics gums it all up again and preferences get put in.

George P. Shultz

Open political and economic systems have been gaining ground and there's a good reason for it. They work better.

George P. Shultz

I've always tried to live in the future and think about things and how to make things better. If you have great-grandchildren around, and their pictures are looking at you, well, that's the future.

George P. Shultz

Oh, you know. I am secretary of state. My trips aren't successful. I just talk to people.

George P. Shultz

It was an attempt to stick the Congress's finger in King Hussein's eye.

George P. Shultz

The higher the classification of secrecy, the quicker you will report it.

George P. Shultz

You've got to dream a little bit if you're going to get somewhere.

George P. Shultz

Obama seems to want to do something to damage rich people.

George P. Shultz

You don't get gushers of revenue by raising tax rates. You get it through expansion.

George P. Shultz

If you ask me what am I, I might say 'I am a Californian,' and if George Bush were here, he would say 'I am a Texan.'

George P. Shultz

There is no prospect that the United States will say to Israel, 'You do such and such and we'll not support you in your security.'

George P. Shultz

I think the idea that you would do everything you can to prevent what is coming at you by way of something very disruptive - a 9/11 - it's a no-brainer.

George P. Shultz

I don't know how you define 'neoconservatism,' but I think it's associated with trying to spread open political systems and democracy.

George P. Shultz

Between 1980 and 1990, the number of countries that were classified as 'free' or 'mostly free' increased by about 50%.

George P. Shultz

Terrorism is not a matter that can be left to law enforcement, with its deliberative process, built-in delays, and safeguards that may let the prisoner go free on procedural grounds.

George P. Shultz

Increasingly, the state system has been eroding. Terrorists have exploited this weakness by burrowing into the state system in order to attack it.

George P. Shultz

The civilized world has a common stake in defeating the terrorists.

George P. Shultz

I want my grandchildren to be proud of me. That's the main thing.

George P. Shultz

Author Bio

  • NameGeorge P. Shultz
  • DescriptionAmerican economist, statesman, and businessman
  • AliasesGeorge Pratt Shultz
  • BornDecember 13, 1920
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionEconomist; Officer; Diplomat
  • AwardsPresidential Medal Of Freedom; Democracy Service Medal