Tag: Military

Quotes March 31, 2023

“The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
Douglas MacArthur
 
 
 
 
“Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace.”
Ulysses S. Grant
 
 
 
 
“The soldier’s heart, the soldier’s spirit, the soldier’s soul, are everything.”
George Marshall
 
 
 
 
“Soldiers, when committed to a task, can’t compromise. It’s unrelenting devotion to the standards of duty and courage, absolute loyalty to others, not letting the task go until it’s been done.”
John Keegan
 
 
 
 
“Soldiers have many faults, but they have one redeeming merit; they are never worshippers of force. Soldiers more than any other men are taught severely and systematically that might is not right.”
G. K. Chesterton
 
 
 
 
“I respect every soldier, from every country, who serves beside us in the hard work of history. America is grateful, and America will not forget.”
George W. Bush
 
 
 
 
“The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country.”
George S. Patton, Jr.
 
 
 
 
“Word to the Nation: Guard zealously your right to serve in the Armed Forces, for without them, there will be no other rights to guard.”
John F. Kennedy
 
 

Quotes March 10, 2023

In case of doubt, push on just a little further and then keep on pushing.
George S. Patton – 1885-1945 – General
 
 
 
 
“War is too important to be left to the generals.”
Georges Clémenceau
 
 
 
 
“In war, there is no substitute for victory.”
General Douglas MacArthur
 
 
 
 
”Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
 
 
 
“We live in a world that has walls and those walls need to be guarded by men with guns.”
Aaron Sorkin
 
 
 
 
“He loves his country best who strives to make it best.”
Robert G. Ingersoll
 
 

Quotes March 03, 2023

You manage things; you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington.
Rear Adm. Grace Murray Hooper
 
 
 
 
Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.
Franklin P. Jones
 
 
 
 
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston S. Churchill
 
 
 
 
Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
 
 
 
The truth is that you always know the right thing to do. The tough part is doing it.
General Norman Schwarzkopf
 
 
 
 
“Read over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederic…This is the only way to become a great general and master the secrets of the art of war…”
Napoleon Bonaparte
 
 
 
 
“An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.”
Alexander the Great
 
 
 
 
Who dares, wins. Who sweats, wins. Who plans, wins.
British Special Air Service (SAS)
 
 
 
 
Facta non verba (Translation: Deeds, not words)
Canadian Joint Task Force
 
 
 
 
Discipline is the soul of an army.
George Washington
 
 
 
 
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
Colin Powell
 
 

Quotes February 24, 2023

I may not have been the best combat commander, but I always strove to be. My men depended on me to carefully analyze every tactical situation, to maximize the resources that I had at my disposal, to think under pressure, and then to lead.
Major Dick Winters
 
 
 
 
Owning the facts is a prerequisite to leadership. But there are millions of technocrats out there with lots of facts in their quivers and little leadership potential. In many cases, what they are missing is empathy. No one is a leader who can’t put himself or herself in the other person’s shoes. Empathy and expertise command respect.
Lieutenant General, William Pagonis
 
 
 
 
Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It’s about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others’ success, and then standing back and letting them shine.
Chris Hadfield, Astronaut
 
 
 
 
When things go wrong in your command, start wading for the reason in increasingly larger concentric circles around your own desk.
General Bruce D. Clark
 
 
 
 
A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.
General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur
 
 
 
 
If officers desire to have control over their commands, they must remain habitually with them, industriously attend to their instruction and comfort, and in battle lead them well.
Stonewall Jackson
 
 
 
 
Leadership is of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision: its practice is an art. Management is of the mind, more a matter of accurate calculation, of statistics, of methods, timetables and routine; its practice is a science. Managers are necessary; leaders are essential.
Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim, Governor General of Australia

Quotes December 09, 2022

‘The green beret’ is again becoming a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom. I know the United States Army will live up to its reputation for imagination, resourcefulness, and spirit as we meet this challenge.
John F. Kennedy
 
 
 
 
You could be a Green Beret and a kid could jump out from behind a building and hit you with a rock. No matter how tough you become in the military, there’s a way to die: there’s nothing safe about it.
Ice T
 
 
 
 
Being in the special forces has really broken a lot of the limitations I thought I had. Thoughts like ‘We’ve done this much, so we should take a break now’ were ones that I had to ignore and overcome in my training. They taught me how to keep going, no matter how difficult a situation can get.
Lee Seung-gi
 
 
 
 
In 1967, I signed up for the Army, where I earned an equivalency diploma, then went on to join the Special Forces. That was really was the turning point in my life. I became more disciplined and focused. I went overseas and was in combat, got wounded a couple of times, lost a lot of good friends but matured a great deal.
Richard Carmona
 
 
 
 
Instead of large-scale occupations, we should rely on small units of Special Forces who have proved it’s infinitely more effective to work with a country’s soldiers and citizens at eye level.
Doug Stanton
 
 
 
 
It’s part of my Special Forces training. You’re taught to come up with a solutions, not look for excuses.
Nirmal Purja

Quotes December 02, 2022

“When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.”
Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States and former Captain in the Illinois state militia during the Black Hawk War.
 
 
 
 
“No man has ever listened himself out of a job.”
Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
 
 
 
 
“A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.”
General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur
 
 
 
 
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
 
 
 
 
“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”
Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States, and former Captain in the Army Reserves
 
 
 
 
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
Harry S Truman, 33rd President of the United States, and former Colonel in the U.S. Army
 
 
 
 
“All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters either. Every single man in this Army play a vital role. Don’t ever let up. Don’t ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain.”
General George S. Patton, U.S. Army
 
 
 
 
“Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.”
Napoleon Bonaparte, French military and political leader
 
 
 
 

Quotes October 28, 2022

Quotes courtesy of Bill Murphy Jr.
 
 
“We were at war. I wanted to do my part.”
Stephen Kraft, who joined the army at age 28 after 9/11. (Kraft was one of several soldiers in this compilation who were quoted in a special report I worked on for Stars & Stripes on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.)
 
 
 
 
“I love ‘Joe.'”
U.S. Army captain, to me, explaining why he stayed in the army after several deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan
 
 
 
 
“I can at least go out and defend my country and do something honorable as a father. Show my son something good.”
Joshua Hernandez, who joined after 9/11, and deployed to Iraq twice.
 
 
 
 
“I just wanted to do something to support those young people.”
Matthew Niblack, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran who joined the National Guard as a sergeant with an age wavier in his early 50s and deployed to Kuwait.
 
 
 
 
“This is all normal, routine stuff. Dude with the AK that I shot in the street? That’s routine. The dudes digging an IED? That’s an everyday occurrence.”
An Army lieutenant whose platoon I embedded with in Iraq in 2007
 
 
 
 
“I’d do it all again if I had the chance.”
Zachariah Chitwood, a veteran of the U.S. Army who was wounded in Iraq.
 
 
 
 
“I’d learned a lot in the Army. I knew that above all things in the world I had to become so big, so strong that people and their hatred could never touch me.”
Sammy Davis, Jr.
 
 
 
 
“Hooah!”
Pretty much the entire U.S. Army.
 
 
 
 
“They’ve got us surrounded again, the poor bastards.”
Gen. Creighton Abrams
 
 
 
 
“9/11 changed the entire direction of my life.”
Fred Wellman, who had served as a helicopter pilot in the Army and rejoined after September 11 to serve as a public affairs officer.
 
 
 
 
“It took me another 18 months to convince my wife to let me join the Army National Guard. We had two small children, so it was a very hard decision
for her.”
Joel Bottem, a veteran who rejoined after 9/11
 
 
 
 
“It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.”
Zell Miller
 
 
 
 
“The most striking thing I have seen throughout my almost four years of service are the NCOs who are willing to do anything for their soldiers. … It’s amazing to have and know people who are willing to go out of their way for you.”
Stephanie Schneider, Afghanistan veteran
 
 
 
 
“The sergeant is the Army.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
 
 
 
“My answer is bring ’em on.”
President George W. Bush, talking about insurgents attacking U.S. military members in July 2003
 
 
 
 
“I’m very happy with how it all played. I was very blessed. That was my idea, to go to enlist, do one tour and fight and get out.”
David Kaefring, U.S. Army veteran of Afghanistan
 
 
 
 
“So far, I’ve spent my entire adult life fighting.”
James Coleman, U.S. Army sergeant
 
 
 
 
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
Colin Powell
 
 
 
 
“Lead from the front.”
Audie Murphy, most decorated U.S. soldier in World War II
 
 
 
 
It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.
Norman Schwarzkopf
 
 
 
 
“What can we do to support the troops? Give them a nation that is worthy of protection.”
Two-tour Army veteran who emailed me when I was writing an article for The Atlantic in 2007

Quotes September 23, 2022

“I don’t know what awaits us on the other side of that berm,” “But I’ll tell you this. If I have to give my life for any of you I will do it in a heartbeat.”
22-year-old Joe DaSilva Platoon Leader told his troops.
 
 
 
 
“The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”
“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
 
 
 
“There’s no quitting, I can’t have quit in me. There was never an option to stop and quit.”
Major Lisa Jaster, third woman to graduate from U.S. Army Ranger School
 
 
 
 
“A passion for life is contagious and uplifting. Passion cuts both ways… I want to create passion in my own life and with those I care for. I want to feel, experience and live every emotion. I will suffer through the bad for the heights of the good.”
Pat Tillman, football star who joined the Army Rangers after 9/11 and was killed in action in Afghanistan
 
 
 
 
“In the military, you learn the essence of people. You see so many examples of self-sacrifice and moral courage. In the rest of life, you don’t get that many opportunities to be sure of your friends.”
Adam Driver, actor and Marine Corps veteran
 
 
 
 
“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.”
Marcus Aurelius
 
 
 
 
“Good luck, Godspeed, and come home safe.”
Bill Murphy Jr., (at the time, Capt. Bill Murphy), at the end of every law of war briefing I gave to deploying soldiers who were flying from Fort Drum, N.Y. to Iraq, during 2003

 
 
 
 

Quotes July 15, 2022

“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.
Thucydides”
Dave Grossman, On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace
 
 
 
 
Army: A body of men assembled to rectify the mistakes of the diplomats.
Josephus Daniels
 
 
 
 
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
John Quincy Adams
 
 
 
 
“These Marines left their home–all these great Americans left their home–signed up during a time of war and said, ‘I wanna do that.’ And we owe them so much gratitude. I am so, so proud. And they understand that in our profession there can be no second place. There can be no losing. Because the weight of our nation rests on their shoulders.”
Sergeant Major Bradley Kasal
 
 
 
 
Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.
Woodrow Wilson
 
 
 
 
“These fallen heroes represent the character of a nation who has a long history of patriotism and honor — and a nation who has fought many battles to keep our country free from threats of terror.”
Michael N. Castle
 
 
 
 
“True patriotism isn’t cheap. It’s about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.”
Robert Reich

Quotes July 08, 2022

I am a Soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.
George S. Patton
 
 
 
 
The Army is the true nobility of our country.
Napoleon Bonaparte
 
 
 
 
Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.
Alexander Hamilton
 
 
 
 
Military glory the attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood
Abraham Lincoln
 
 
 
 
In a military operation, the command and control elements are a legitimate target.
Stephen Hadley
 
 
 
 
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower