Leon Panetta Decision Quotations

I know that young people sometimes, caught up in the moment, make some very foolish decisions.

I think they're facing the largest challenge I've seen in recent history, in terms of an administration having to decide whether they continue to borrow and spend, or whether they face up to very difficult choices that have to be made to discipline the budget. I think we'll find out in the next few months what that decision is going to be.

You've got to sit down with all of the special-interest groups on your side before you announce that decision and walk them through it. You need to determine if they're going to support it.

Caution is an important quality in a leader, but it has to be caution followed by decision. Caution followed by ambivalence can be a weakness.

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