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Colin L. Powell
(5 Apr 1937 - 18 Oct 2021)
American army officer a retired four-star general in the U.S. Army, born of Jamaican immigrants who impressed the value of education and accomplishment. He served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for President George H.W. Bush, and Secretary of State for President G. W. Bush.
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Science Quotes by Colin L. Powell (5 quotes)
Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.
— Colin L. Powell
In My American Journey (1996), 99.
I did enjoy the [CCNY geology] field trips. We went upstate and clambered over formations of synclines and anticlines. We had to diagram them, and figure out their mirror images. If you had an anticline here, you should be able to predict a complementing syncline bulging out somewhere else. Very satisfying when I got it right. Geology allowed me to display my brilliance to my non-college friends. “You know, the Hudson really isn’t a river.” “What are you talking about? … Everybody knows the Hudson River’s a river.” I would explain that the Hudson was a “drowned” river, up to about Poughkeepsie. The Ice Age had depressed the riverbed to a depth that allowed the Atlantic Ocean to flood inland. Consequently, the lower Hudson was really a saltwater estuary.
— Colin L. Powell
In My American Journey (1996), 30-31. [Powell graduated with a B.S. degree in Geology.]
Much of American life for the previous twenty-five years had been defined by this adversary. American budgets, politics, weapons, foreign policy, science, research, and domestic priorities and the lives of millions of military-age Americans were influenced almost as much by what happened in Moscow as by what happened in Washington.
— Colin L. Powell
In My American Journey (1996), 165.
My two Jamaican cousins … were studying engineering. “That’s where the money is,” Mom advised. … I was to be an engineering major, despite my allergy to science and math. … Those who preceded me at CCNY include the polio vaccine discoverer, Dr. Jonas Salk … and eight Nobel Prize winners. … In class, I stumbled through math, fumbled through physics, and did reasonably well in, and even enjoyed, geology. All I ever looked forward to was ROTC.
— Colin L. Powell
Explaining his original reason for going to the City College of New York, where he shortly turned to his military career, in My American Journey (1996), 23-26. ROTC is the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) school-based program of the U.S. military. From there, the self-described “C-average student out of middling Morris High School” went on to become a four-star general.
When they fall down, pick ’em up, dust ’em off, pat ’em on the back, and move ’em on.
— Colin L. Powell
On the model of humane leadership he learned from Captain Miller. Colin L. Powell and Joseph E. Persico, My American Journey (1996), 45.
See also:
- Education - Colin Powell - One Minute Read
- Humane Leadership - Colin Powell - One Minute Read
- My American Journey, by Colin Powell. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
