Leon Panetta quotes:

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.

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 cuts.

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 of success for the United States.

The terrorism from 9/11 has metastasized. It's metastasized in Iraq and Syria, in Nigeria, in Somalia, in Yemen and in other places in North Africa. We need a very comprehensive strategy to deal with that threat.

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 that the regime in Tehran is a very grave threat to all of us.

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

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.

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.

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

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

If the Iraqis fail to implement the reforms, if they fail to get a handle on the violence, there's nothing the United States can do, militarily or otherwise, that can solve those problems. They have to assume the primary responsibility to govern themselves.

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

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.

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.

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

I want you and the people of Israel to know a few things that have not and will not change. The United States stands firmly with Israel, and we have a rock solid commitment to the security of Israel and to the security of its citizens.

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

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

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.

The one thing that I remember from all of my intelligence briefings and my dealings with the Russians is that when you deal with the Russians, you have to deal with them from strength, not from weakness.

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.

The consequence could be that we would have an escalation that would take place that would not only involve many lives, but I think it could consume the Middle East in a confrontation and a conflict that we would regret.

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 people.

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 of violence going down.

Well look, CIA is an agency that has to collect intelligence, do operations. We have to take risks and it's important that we take risks and that we know that we have the support of the government and we have the support of the American people in what we're doing.

My whole life has been dedicated to public service.

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

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

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.

Clearly, Russia has lied to the world about what's going on in Ukraine. They have clearly violated the cease-fire agreements.

The reality is that the United States military alone cannot be all things to all nations. We will sharpen the application of our resources, better deploy our forces in the world and share our burdens more and more effectively with our partners. And frankly, all our allies need to do the same.

The most important thing we can do is prosecute the offenders, deal with those that have broken the law and committed this crime. And if we can do that then we can begin to deal with this issue and send a signal this is not a problem that we are going to ignore in the United States military.

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 after Osama bin Laden.'

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.

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.

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

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 for a lot of very important domestic programs. They have a responsibility to come together, find the money necessary to de-trigger sequester.

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 share a common goal here.

I'm not big on commissions.

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

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 nuclear proliferation, the whole issue of providing free access to our ships that are operating in that area.

Al Qaeda still remains a threat.

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

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

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

Frankly, my fundamental beliefs have not changed.

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

I don't engage in hypotheticals.

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

I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened.

I think a quality that a national security adviser must have is the ability to set up procedures.

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 after Osama bin Laden.

I want to reassert again the position of the United States that with regards to Iran, we will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, period. We will not allow them to develop a nuclear weapon, and we will exert all options in the effort to ensure that that does not happen...The United States stands firmly with Israel, and we have a rock solid commitment to the security of Israel and to the security of its citizens.

If we don't do something to simplify the tax system, we're going to end up with a national police force of internal revenue agents.

If you're a terrorist, you're a terrorist.

In the zero-sum budget game, every dollar spent on this problem [illegal immigration] must be taken from somewhere else....No, we should not tolerate people immigrating illegally. But we need to treat this issue honestly and fairly.

In this century, the 21st century, the U.S. recognizes our prosperity and our security depends even more on the Asia-Pacific region.

Iran is isolating itself from the rest of the world.

My father said I was perfectly suited for Washington because I've always worked around nuts.

My impression is that Putin feels that he can basically manipulate the West to do what he ultimately wants to achieve, and that he feels he's gotten away with it so far, and that all he has to do is basically play the same game.

Obama really does recognize the threats that are out there; I think he understands the world. He understands the role of America in that troubled world.

One of the principal qualities that you need as national security adviser is trust, the trust of the president. And that depends on truth and it depends on honesty.

Russians understand strength, and if they feel that their opponents are weak, they will take advantage of it.

Sexual assault has no place in the military. It is a violation of everything that the U.S. military stands for.

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

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

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

The political and substantive reality is that the agenda has to change. I don't think they have any choice.

The potential for the next Pearl Harbor could very well be a cyber-attack,

The president is out there today trying to talk about health care, and the reality is nobody cares about what he's saying on health care because this news is consuming everything. No president could tolerate that or should tolerate it.

The reason we've always had a civilian in that job [Secretary of Defence] is because we really believe that it is policymakers who ought to control the military and not have the military control the military.

The Taliban is resilient.

The United States has to be a leader in the world, because the problem is: If we are not leading, nobody else will.

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

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

The White House was so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests,

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

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

We are a nation at war. This is also a time for hard choices. It's about ensuring that we are able to prevail in the conflicts in which we are now engaged. But it's also about being able to be strong and disciplined in applying our nation's limited resources to defending America.

You don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on,