Top 39 Quotes by Robert M. Gates

I have always voted for who I believed was the best person.

I think that Iran with a nuclear weapon is extremely destabilizing. I think it could precipitate a nuclear arms race in the region.

Defense is not like other discretionary spending.

Most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done.

When I was the director of Central Intelligence in the early '90s, I tried to get the Air Force to partner with us in building drones. And they didn't want to, because they had no pilots.

Some people have said, in so many words, that I'm kind of wooly-headed in believing that the Iranians would see not having nuclear weapons as more in their security interest than not.

I don't think any president that I worked with has ever said 'pretty please.'

Well, Israel, obviously, thinks of the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel.

I'm a big advocate of drones.

I read in the press, and therefore it must be true, that no secretary of defense had ever been quoted as arguing for a bigger budget for State.