Colin Powell

The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort. ”

Engineering didn't take to me. And what saved me and kept me in college was I ran into ROTC cadets who were in a fraternity called The Persian Rifles. And I found my place. I found discipline. I found structure. I found people that were like me and I liked. ”

In the last several years, I have been troubled by the right shift of the Republican party too far to the right. ”

There are lots of countries that are having these kinds of internal civil wars in other parts of the world and nobody is talking about intervening. ”

Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard. ”

Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up. ”

You're not just voting for an individual, in my judgment, you're voting for an agenda. You're voting for a platform. You're voting for a political philosophy. ”

It isn't enough just to scream at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. We need our political system to start reflect this anger back into, 'How do we fix it? How do we get the economy going again?' ”

I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it. ”

The idea that putting Americans 'first' requires a withdrawal from the world is simply wrongheaded because a retreat would achieve exactly the opposite for our citizens. ”