If you google Rumsfeld quotes you would find over one million sites. You might even discover that a recording artist has put some of his quotations to music.
I was thrilled to discover that someone has actually assembled a book of his poetry, and many of these I had not seen elsewhere. I have memorised and used a couple of his patterns, and used them.
Here is an example not in the book, the absence evidence pattern:
There is another way to phrase that, and that is that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. It is simply saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something does exist, does not mean that you have evidence that it does not exist.
In this example Rumsfeld is using a chiasmic language pattern, where the phrase is repeated but the key words are inverted. Absence- evidence evidence -absence. In addition he uses negation, making it even more confusing.
Here's another one:
If I said yes, that would then suggest that that might be the only place where it might be done which would not be accurate, necessarily accurate. It might also not be inaccurate, but I'm disinclined to mislead anyone.
So, just because Rumsfeld says he is disinclined to mislead anyone, does that necessarily mean he is not disinclined to mislead anyone?
As you can see these are written at such a high level of abstraction that they can be used in any context.
If you're like me, as you read this book, you can discover Rumsfeld quotes you won't see elsewhere, you can also discover Rumsfeld quotes elsewhere that you won't see in this book. Its as inspiring as it is confounding. Personal favorites are chasing chickens, and the Deer Moose border quote.
I hope you find this review helpful.
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