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"There are unknown unknowns" is a phrase from a response United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave to a question at a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) news briefing on February 12, 2002, about the lack of evidence linking the government of Iraq with the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups. [1]
“There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don't know.” ― Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown
In its changing reception over time, Rumsfeld "unknowns" quote illustrates continuity with other famous comments in history whose meaning is far different today than it was at the time.
Maya Angelou. "There are known knowns. These are things we..." - Donald Rumsfeld quotes from BrainyQuote.com.
- There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
- If you can't solve a problem, make it bigger. Donald Rumsfeld. Problem, Bigger, Solve.
- If you are working from your inbox, you are working on other people’s priorities. Donald Rumsfeld. People, Priorities, Inbox.
- You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time. Donald Rumsfeld. War, Army, Iraq.
Find quotes by Donald Rumsfeld, the former U.S. secretary of defense and author of Known and Unknown. See his famous remarks on knowledge, war, leadership, and more.
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4 days ago · But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, or vice versa.
