Quotes September 29, 2023

“That two battalions of Marines be raised consisting of one colonel, two lieutenant colonels, two majors and officers as usual in other regiments, that they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions; that particular care be taken that no person be appointed to office or enlisted into said battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea.”
(Resolution of the Continental Congress, 10 November 1775.)
 
 
 
 
“The Continental ship Providence, now lying at Boston, is bound on a short cruise, immediately; a few good men are wanted to make up her complement.”
(Marine Captain William Jones, Providence Gazette, 20 March 1779.)
 
 
 
 
“A ship without Marines is like a garment without buttons.”
(Admiral David D. Porter, USN, 1863.)
 
 
 
 
“The Marines have landed and have the situation well in hand.”
(Attributed to many sources and popularized by the correspondent Richard Harding Davis during the late nineteenth-century.)
 
 
 
 
“To our Marines fell the most difficult and dangerous portion of the defense by reason of our proximity to the great city wall and the main city gate. . .The Marines acquitted themselves nobly.”
(Mr. Edwin N. Conger, U.S. Minister, in commending the Marines for the defense of the legations at Peking, China, in 1900.)
 
 
 
 
“Your Marines having been under my command for nearly six months, I feel that I can give you a discriminating report as to their excellent standing with their brothers of the army and their general good conduct.”
(General John J. Pershing, USA, in a letter to Major General Commandant George Barnett, USMC, 10 November 1917.)
 
 
 
 
“Retreat Hell! We’ve just got here!”
(Attributed to several World War I Marine Corps officers, Belleau Wood, June 1918.)
 
 
 
 
“Once a Marine, always a Marine!”
(MSgt Paul Woyshner, a 40-year Marine, is credited with originating this expression during a taproom argument with a discharged Marine.)
 
 
 
 
“Come on, you sons of bitches-do you want to live forever?”
(Attributed to Gunnery Sergeant Daniel Daly, USMC, Belleau Wood, June 1918.)