Red lines are kind of political arguments that are used to try to put people in a corner.

Iran’s continued drive to develop nuclear capabilities, including troubling enrichment activities and past work on weaponization documented by the IAEA, and its continued support to groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations make clear...

Well, you know, any defense force worth its salt has to be able to deal with uncertainty, has to be able to deal with events that we may not have planned for.

The area of climate change has a dramatic impact on national security.

Iran is isolating itself from the rest of the world.

The Taliban is resilient.

Rather than undermining the Palestinian Authority, it is in Israel’s interests to strengthen it by… continuing to transfer Palestinian tax revenues and pursuing other avenues of cooperation.

I think what both Republicans and Democrats need to do and the leaders on both sides is to recognize that if sequester takes place, it would be disastrous for our national defense and very frankly...

When you cut a half-a-trillion dollars from the defense budget, it affects almost every area in the defense budget.

The fundamental premise is that neither the United States or the international community is going to allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

An aggressor nation or extremist group could gain control of critical switches and derail passenger trains, or trains loaded with lethal chemicals.

Winning in Afghanistan is having a country that is stable enough to ensure that there is no safe haven for Al Qaida or for a militant Taliban that welcomes Al Qaida. That’s really the measure...

Al Qaeda still remains a threat.

One demonstration of extremists, any more than a Ku Klux Klan demonstration in the United States, is not necessarily reflective of what the rest of the country feels.

The United States is going to defend itself under any circumstances.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to borrow money from the Chinese to go give to another country for humanitarian aid. We ought to get the Chinese to take care of the...

You know, one thing I’ve learned over 40 years is that when you have jobs in Washington, you do it day by day and that’s what I’m doing as secretary of defense.

Rising sea levels, severe draughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Frankly, my fundamental beliefs have not changed.

Unfortunately these days, there is a hell of a lot that keeps me awake.

The United States will do whatever we have to do to protect our forces.

I don’t usually comment on columnists’ ideas of what I’m thinking. That’s a dangerous game to get into.

These days, it takes only seconds – seconds – for a picture, a photo, to suddenly become an international headline.

I don’t engage in hypotheticals.

After every major conflict – World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the fall of the Soviet Union – what happened was that we ultimately hollowed out the force, largely by doing deep across-the-board...

There’s no question that the main location of Al Qaida is in tribal areas of Pakistan.

I’m not big on commissions.

The last thing I want to do is to make the mistakes of the past.

I don’t think I should penalize people who were doing their duty.

The United States, and the president’s made this clear, does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us. And it’s a red line obviously for the Israelis so we...

Well, the United States is a Pacific power. And we have always had a presence in the Pacific.

My whole life has been dedicated to public service.

We either believe in the dignity of the individual, the rule of law, and the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, or we don’t. There is no middle ground.

I don’t think there’s any question that America is safer as a result of the bin Laden operation.

I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened. We have not seen them able to conduct any kind of organized attack to regain any territory that they’ve lost. We’ve seen levels...

You don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on.

Throughout the 40 years I’ve been in Washington, I’ve always worked hard, particularly with regards to the budget issues.

The United States has to have the capability to deal with more than one enemy at one time and be able to confront them and win.

I suddenly realized at the CIA that I had to make life-and-death decisions about people.

When you’re smaller and leaner, you’re not going to have that large a presence throughout the world.

China is a major power in the Pacific and I think we are dealing with some common threats in that region: the whole issue of Korea and the stability of Korea, the whole issue of...

Companies should be able to share specific threat information with the government without the prospect of lawsuits hanging over their head.

You know, as director of the CIA, I got an awful lot of intelligence about all the horrible things that could go on across the world.

I’m going to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Today, I think the attitude is that governing is not necessarily good politics, and the result is that it’s much more partisan and much more divided.

I think soon after I became director of the CIA – President Obama pulled me into the Oval Office and said: ‘Look, I just want you to know that your top priority is to go...

The United States was attacked on 9/11/12, and we know who attacked us.

Go forward, knowing that you are greater than the challenges of your time.

If you’re a terrorist, you’re a terrorist.

I think the primary message to the world is that the United States is going to remain the strongest military power in the world.