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Soldiers, Sailors & Airmen - In Quotes.
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| 05-23-02
| PsyOp
Posted on 05/23/2002 11:51:39 PM PDT by PsyOp
SOLDIERS, SAILORS & AIRMEN
A few words to think upon this Memorial Day.
“I’ve long since forgotten the name of the speaker, but I’ll never forget what he said. ‘Imagine this. In the spring of 1945, around the world, the sight of a twelve-man squad of teenage boys, armed and in uniform, brought terror to people’s hearts. Whether it was a Red Army squad in Berlin, Leipzig, or Warsaw, or a German squad in Holland, or a Japanese squad in Manila, Seoul, or Beijing, that squad meant rape, pillage, looting, wanton destruction, sensless killing. But there was one exception: a squad of Gis, a sight that brought the biggest smiles you ever saw to people’s lips, and joy to their hearts.’” - Stephen H. Ambrose, The Victors, 1998.
”The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation. - George Washington.”
They've got us surrounded again, the poor bastards. - General Creighton W. Abrams.
Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity! - John Quincy Adams, Speech at Plymouth, Dec. 22, 1802.
Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts in a uniform manner. - Joseph Addison.
And, pleased the Almighty's orders to perform,
Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm. 4
- Joseph Addison, The Campaign, 1704.
It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. – Aesop (620-560 BC).
It seems to me inconceivable that any troops should be left alive after eight hours of such terrific hammering. - General Alexander, after allied bombardment of Monte Cassino.
The lessons that I and my fellow captives learned about surviving with honor apply to all aspects of personal and national life. What we were before the ordeal, what we have become since, what we still believe, are the essential ingredients in understanding the ability to get through lifes toughest tests. - Everet Alvarez, Jr., Code of Conduct.
The informed soldier fights best. - Army Orientation Booklet, WWII.
The man, then, who faces and who fears the right things and from the right motive, in the right way at the right time, and who feels confidence under the corresponding conditions, is brave. - Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. c.334-23 b.c.
It is quite normal for the same persons to be found bearing arms and tilling the soil. - Aristotle, Politics, Bk.IV, c.334-23 B.C.
Neither among animals nor among foreign races do we find courage to be a characteristic of the most fierce, but rather of the gentler and lion-like dispositions.... One cannot imagine a wolf or any other wild animal engaging in a struggle against noble danger; but that is what a good man will do. - Aristotle, Politics, Bk. V, c.334-23. b.c.
A plentiful supply of sailors is sure to exist wherever the outlying dwellers and agricultural laborers are numerous. - Aristotle, Politics, Bk.VII, c.334-23 B.C.
But I dreamed a dreary dream,
Beyond the Isle of Skye;
I saw a dead man win a fight,
And I think that man was I.
- Ballad "The Battle Of Otterbourne."
The fellows that does his job every day. The mother who has children and gets breakfast and keeps them clean and sends them off to school. The fellow who keeps the streets clean--without him we wouldn't have any sanitation. The Unknown Soldier. - Bernard Baruch.
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
- Katherine Lee Bates, America The Beautiful.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. - Francis Bellamy, “The Pledge of Allegiance,” September 8, 1892.
Fate often saves an undoomed warrior when his courage endures. - Beowulf, c.900 a.d.
So Beowulf
Chose the mightiest men he could find,
The bravest and best of the Geats, fourteen
In all, and led them down to their boat.
- Beowulf, c. 900 AD.
A mighty warrior, he lent his weapon
To a better one.
- Beowulf, c. 900 AD.
No one who goes visiting far-off lands
Is more welcome than a strong and noble warrior.
- Beowulf, c. 900 AD.
This fiend is a bold
And famous fighter, but his claws and teeth
Scratching at my shield, his clumsy fists
Beating at my sword blade, would be helpless. I will meet him
With my hands empty — unless his heart
Fails him, seeing a soldier waiting
Weaponless, unafraid. Let God in His wisdom
Extend His hand where He wills, reward
Whom He chooses.
- Beowulf, c. 900 AD.
Out in the darkness the monster
Began to walk. The warrior slept.
- Beowulf, c. 900 AD.
They slept with their shining shields at the edge
Of their pillows; the hall was filled with hemets
Hanging near motionless heads; spears
Stood by their hands, their hammered mail shirts
Covered their chests. It was the Dane's custom
To be ready for war, wherever they rested,
At home or in foreign lands, at their lord's
Quick call if he needed them, If trouble came
To their king. They knew how soldiers must live.
- Beowulf, c. 900 AD.
Great King. They have seen my strength for themselves,
Have watched me rise from the darkness of war,
Dripping with my enemies blood. I drove
five great giants into chains, chased
All of that race from the earth. I swam
In the blackness of night, hunting monsters
Out of the ocean, and kiling them one
By one; death was my errand and the fate
They had earned.
- Beowulf, c. 900 AD.
A sodier should know the difference between words
And deeds, and keep that knowledge clear in his Brain.
- Beowulf, c. 900 AD.
Glittering at the top
Of their golden hemets wild boar heads gleamed,
Shining decorations, swinging as they marched,
Erect like guards, like sentinels, as though ready
To fight. They marched....
- Beowulf, c. 900 AD.
He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steal is broken by mine arms. - The Bible, Old Testament, Psalms 18:34.
Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. - The Bible, Old Testament, Isaiah 4:25.
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. - The Bible, New Testament, I Corinthians 16:13.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. - The Bible, Old Testament, Judges 6:12.
Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the Lord do that which is good in his sight. - The Bible, Old Testament, I Chronicles 19:13.
And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages. - The Bible, New Testament, Luke 3:14.
No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. - The Bible, New Testament, II Timothy 2:4.
The Lord is a man of war. - The Bible: Old Testament, Exodus, 15:3.
Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. - The Bible, Old Testament, Deuteronomy 33:25.
And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. - The Bible, Old Testament, Genesis, 27:40.
The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepard, the stone of Isreal:). - The Bible, Old Testament, Genesis, 49:23,24.
Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness. - The Bible: Old Testament, Isaiah, 46:12.
I am brother to dragons. - The Bible: Old Testament, Job.
As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. - The Bible, Old Testament, Joshua 14:11.
One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you. - The Bible, Old Testament, Joshua 23:10.
Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain. - The Bible, Old Testament, Numbers 23:24.
Yea he did fly upon the wings of the wind. - The Bible: Old Testament, Psalms, 18:10.
Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my finger to fight: My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me. - The Bible, Old Testament, Psalms 144:1-2.
they all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. - The Bible, Old Testament, Song of Solomon 3:8.
How say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war. - The Bible, Old Testament, Jeremiah 48:15.
Who shall descend into the deep? - The Bible, New Testament, Romans 10:7.
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. - The Bible, Old Testament, Proverbs 23:34.
Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. - The Bible, Old Testament, Daniel 7:2.
Admiral, n. That part of a warship which does the talking while the figure head does the thinking. - Ambrose Bierce. The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911.
Barrack, n. A house in which soldiers enjoy a portion of that of which it is their business to deprive others. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary. 1911.
Daring, n. One of the most conspicuous qualities of a man in security. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911.
Dragoon, n. A soldier who combines dash and steadiness in so equal measure that he makes his advances on foot and his retreats on horseback. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary. 1911.
Duel, n. A formal ceremony preliminary to the reconciliation of two enemies. Great skill is necessary to its satisfactory observance; if awkwardly performed the most unexpected and deplorable results sometimes ensue. A long time ago a man lost his life in a duel. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911.
Epaulet, n. An ornamented badge, serving to distinguish a military officer from the enemy--that is to say, from the officer of the lower rank to whom his death would give a promotion. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary. 1911.
Recruit, n. A person distinguishable from a civilian by his uniform and from a soldier by his gait. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary. 1911.
Valor, n. A soldierly compound of vanity, duty, and the gamblers hope. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary. 1911.
War, n. A by-product of the arts of peace. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary. 1911.
Soldiers win battles and generals get the credit. - Napoleon Bonaparte.
I have rarely met with two-O'clock-in-the-morning courage. - Napoleon Bonaparte.
There are only two powers in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit. - Napoleon Bonaparte.
Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared to death. - General Omar Bradley.
The American soldier is a brave one and he demands professional competence in his leaders. In battle, he wants to know that the job is going to be done right, with no unnecessary casualties. The non-commissioned officer wearing the chevron is supposed to know how to perform the duties expected of him. The American soldier expects his sergeant to be able to teach him how to do his job. And he expects more from his officers. - General Omar N. Bradley.
Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of Liberty. - Justice Louis D. Brandeis, The Employer and Trade Unions.
A good soldier has his heart and soul in it. When he receives an order, he gets a hard on, and when he drives his lance through his enemy's guts, he comes. - Bertolt Brecht, The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
For Americans war is almost all of the time a nuisance, and military skill a luxury like Mah-Jongg. But when the issue is brought home to them, war becomes as important, for the necessary period, as business or sport. And it is hard to decide which is likely to be the more ominous for the Axis – an American decision that this is sport, or that this is business. - D. W. Brogan, The American Character.
There are... in the experience of nations, ordeals so novel, so disastrous, physically or morally, so dramatic a destruction of hope, the prelude to some long period of humiliation or despair, that they are watersheds in the nations history.... For the Americans it was the Civil War. - D.W. Brogan, “Fresh Appraisal of The Civil War.”
If I should die, think only this of me: that there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England. - Rupert Brooke, "The Soldier."
And each man stands with his face in the light
Of his own drawn sword,
Ready to do what a hero can.
- Elizibeth Barrett Browning, Poems Before Congress. 1860.
I was ever a fighter, so -- one fight more, the best and the last. - Robert Browning.
"Why me?" That is the soldier's first question, asked each morning as the patrols go out and each evening as the night settles around the foxholes. - William Broyales, Jr.
Great has been the Greek, the Latin, the Slav, the Celt, the Teuton, and the Anglo-Saxon, but greater than any of these is the American, in which are blended the virtues of them all. - William Jennings Bryant.
It's guid to be merry and wise,
It's guid to be honest and true,
It's guid to support Caledonia's cause,
And bide by the buff and the blue.
- Robert Burns, Here ‘s a Health to Them that 's Away.
As that great captain, Ziska, would have a drum made of his skin when he was dead, because he thought the very noise of it would put his enemies to flight. - Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621.
Pay your legions. Nothing else matters. - Julius Caesar.
Few, few shall part where many meet!
The snow shall be their winding-sheet,
And every turf beneath their feet
Shall be a soldier's sepulchre.
- Thomas Campbell, HohenLinden, c.1800.
By torch and trumpet fast arrayed,
Each horseman drew his battle-blade,
And furious every charger neigh'd,
To join the dreadful revelry.
Then shook the hills with thunder riven,
Then rushed the steed to battle driven,
And louder than the bolts of heaven,
Far flashed the red artillery.
- Thomas Campbell, HohenLinden, 1800.
Over and above the general quarrel which all sons of Adam maintain with their lot here below, the grievances of the French soldiery reduce themselves to two. First, that their officers are aristocrats; secondly, that they cheat them of their pay. - Thomas Carlyle, during the French Revolution.
The army is a school in which the niggardly becomes generous and the generous prodigal; if there are soldiers who are misers, like monsters they are very rarely seen. - Miguel de Cervantes.
A stout man's heart breaks bad luck. - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra , Don Quixote, 1605.
The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his own life even in order to keep it. - Gilbert K. Chesterton.
Such professions [as] the soldier and the lawyer... give ample opportunity for crimes but not much for mere illusions. If you have composed a bad opera you may persuade yourself that it is a good one; if you have carved a bad statue you can think yourself better than Michelangelo. But if you have lost a battle you cannot believe you have won it; if your client is hanged you cannot pretend that you have got him off. - G.K. Chesterton
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms: it means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. - Gilbert K. Chesterton.
Nothing is more exciting than to be shot at without result. - Winston Churchill.
In Sir David Beatty we have a Commander-in-Chief who, by his gifts and also by his exceptional training, not only possesses the regular qualifications which admirals of distinction possess, but he has, perhaps, in a greater degree than almost any of the principal officers of the fleet, what may be called the “war mind.” It is not only seamanship or technical attainments or even leadership of men that are required of a Commander-in-Chief, but also that feeling towards the art of war, that deep comprehension of its somber yet simple problems, without which, all other qualifications, however valuable, however laboriously attained, still only receive a limited scope. - Winston Churchill, speech, House of Commons. February 21, 1917.
This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure. - Winston Churchill.
Come then: let us to the task, to the battle, to the toil — each to our part, each to our station. Fill the armies, rule the air, pour out the munitions, strangle the U-boats, sweep the mines, plough the land, build the ships, guard the streets, succour the wounded, uplift the downcast and honour the brave. Let us go forward together in all parts of the Empire, in all parts of the Island. There is not a week, nor a day, nor an hour to lose. - Winston Churchill, speech, Free Trade Hall, Manchester. January 27, 1940.
The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British Airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day. - Winston Churchill, speech, House of Commons. August 20, 1940.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others. - Winston Churchill.
I am very sorry that we have had to debar so many miners from going in the armed forces. I respect their feelings, but we cannot afford it; we cannot allow it. Besides the need for their services is in the pits, there is danger in the pits too, and where there is danger there is honour. "Act well thy part, there all the honor lies, " and that is the motto I want to give out to all those who in an infinite variety of ways are playing an equaly worthy part in the consummation of our high purpose. - Winston Churchill, speech, Westminster Central Hall, London. October 31, 1942.
I would turn aside for a moment to emphasize how perfect is the co-operation between the commanders of the British and American Armies. Nothing like it has ever been seen before among allies. No doubt language is a great help, but there is more in it than that. In all previous alliances the staffs have worked with opposite numbers in each department and liason officers, but in Africa General Eisenhower built up a uniform staff, in which every place was filled with whoever was thought to be the best man, and they all ordered each other about according to their rank, without the slightest regard to what country they belonged to. The same unity and brotherhood is being instituted here throughout the Forces which are gathering in this country, and I cannot doubt that it will be found most serviceable, and unique also in all the history of alliances. - Winston Churchill, speech, House of Commons. February 22, 1944.
What, even the least notable, gladiator ever so much as uttered a groan? Which of them ever so much as changed countenance? Which of them, standing or even falling, did so ignominiously? which of them, when he was down, and commanded to receive the stroke of the sword, ever shrunk in his neck? - Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestor, c.50 b.c.
The outstanding officer is the one who gets superior results from average people. - General Bruce Clark.
The end for which a soldier is recruited, clothed, armed, and trained, the whole object of his sleeping, eating, drinking, and marching is simply that he should fight at the right place and the right time. - Carl von Clausewitz.
Within the soul of each Vietnam Veteran there is probably something that says, "bad war, good soldier." - Max Cleland.
Providence and courage never abandon the good soldier.... Never punished, always present at roll call, indefatigable in all marches and counter-marches; I took whatever came without complaint. - Capitaine Coignet.
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner, 1798.
Alone, alone, — all, all alone;
Alone on a wide, wide sea.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner, 1798.
If a country is worth living in it is worth fighting for. - Manning Coles.
How sleep the brave who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes bless'd!
- William Collins, Ode, 1746.
A brave man appears rash compared with a coward, and cowardly compared with a rash man. - Confucius, Analects, Bk. II. c. 400 b.c.
Neither great goodness nor great wickedness can be achieved by a man devoid of courage. - Confucius, Analects. c.400 b.c.
These doomsday warriors look no more like soldiers than the soldiers of the Second World War looked like conquistadors. The more expert they become, the more they look like lab assistants at a small college. - Alistair Cooke.
One shouldn’t see ones honored dead until they are safely tucked away in flag draped coffins with volleys being fired and last post is being played. Only soldiers should see other soldiers being killed. Death is the military’s trade and they understand it. Civilians never do. - Alfred Coppel, The Apocolypse Brigade, 1981.
Toll for the brave! —
The brave that are no more!
All sunk beneath the wave,
Fast by their native shore!
- William Cowper, On the Loss of the Royal George.
I had rather have a plain russet-coated Captain that knows what he fights for and loves what he knows than what you call a gentleman and is nothing else. - Oliver Cromwell.
Once you have flown, you will walk the earth withyour eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, there you long to return." – Leonardo da Vinci.
I was only good once - in a war. Some men should never come back from war. - John Dall.
Alone in its grandeur stands forth the character of Washington in history; alone like some peak that has no fellow in the mountain-range of greatness....
Conquerors who have stretched your sceptres over boundless territories; founders of empire who have held your dominions in the reign of law; reformers who have cried aloud in the wilderness of oppression; teachers who have striven to cast down false doctrine, heresy, and schism; statesmen whose brains have throbbed with mighty plans for the amelioration of human society; scar-crowned vikings of the sea, illustrious heroes of the land, who have born the standards of siege and battle, come forth in bright array from your glorious fanes, and would ye be measured by the measure of his stature? Behold you not in him a more illustrious and more venerable presence? Statesman, soldier, patriot, sage, reformer of creeds, teacher of truth and justice, achiever and preserver of liberty, the first of men, founder and saviour of his country, father of his people – this is he, solitary and unapproachable in his grandeur! - John W. Daniel, speech, House of Representatives, February 21, 1885.
The graveyards are full of indispensable men. - Charles De Gaulle.
When a soldier goes to war everything is pre-forgiven. - Nelson Demille, Word of Honor.
If any man haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot. - Major General John A. Dix, 1861.
Men met each other with erected look,
The steps were higher that they took;
Friends to congratulate their friends made haste,
And long inveterate foes saluted as they pass'd.
- John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis, Line 124.
None but the brave deserves the fair. - John Dryden, Alexander's Feast, 1697.
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,
And welt'ring in his blood;
Deserted, at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed,
On the bare earth expos'd he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.
- John Dryden, Alexander's Feast, 1697
Arms and the man I sing, who, forced by fate
And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate.
- John Dryden, Fables, Ancient and Modern: Virgil, Æneid. 1699.
The most terrible job in warfare is to be a Second Lieutenant leading a platoon when you are on the battlefield. - Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Men acquainted with the battlefield will not be found among the numbers who glibly talk of another war. - Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Nothing is easy in war. Mistakes are always paid for in casualties and troops are quick to sense any blunder made by their commanders. - Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. - Amelia Earhart.
What a new face courage puts an everything! - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
We [officers] can permit even our own rank and file to let us down on occasion; that's one of the prerequisites of their doom and fate as rank and file forever. They may even stop the wars, as they have done before and will again; ours merely to guard them from the knowledge that it was actually they who accomplished the act. - William Faulkner, A Fable.
"Without you Americans we Germans would have easily won over France and Britain. - K. Finkel, German soldier from the 7th Army, 1944.
They fought well, let them keep their weapons. - Marshall Ferdinand Foch.
I bend but do not break. - Fontain.
Orion had fully risen and stood at the eastern horizon, and from that Inman made the time to be long past midnight. The great figure of hunter and warrior stood up there like an accusation, like a sign in the sky pointing out your shortfalls. Orion was girded about tight, his weapon ready to strike. Sure of himself as a man can be, if posture is any indication of character....
Before them was the battlefield falling away to the town and the river. The land lay bleak as a nightmare and seemed to have been recast to fit a new and horrible model, all littered with bodies and churned up by artillery. Hell’s newground, one man had called it. To turn his mind from such a place that night, Inman had looked toward Orion. - Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain, 1997.
Rascals, would you live for ever ?! - Prussian King Frederick the Great addressed to his reluctant soldiers at the Battle of Kolin, 18 June 1757.
Give this soldier a free hand and he will run it all over you!" - A French woman about American soldiers during WW2, 1944.
Come cheer up my lads! 'tis to glory we steer,
To add some thing more to this wonderful year;
To honour we call you, not press you like slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of the waves?
Heart of oak are our ships,
Heart of oak are our men;
We always are ready;
Steady, boys, steady;
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.
- David Garrick.
OH, I am a cook and a captain bold,
And the mate of the Nancy brig,
And a bosun tight, and a midshipmite,
And the crew of the captains gig.
- Sir W.S. Gilbert, "Yarn of The Nancy Bell."
Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done,
Shoulder'd his crutch, and shew'd how fields were won.
- Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, 1770.
[There is] but one debt contracted in the last four years which the people of the United States cannot pay. That is the debt of gratitude to the rank and file of our Army and Navy. -Ulysses S. Grant, letter to J.J. Talmadge. May 25, 1865.
There's no such thing as a crowded battlefield. Battlefields are lonely places. - General Alfred M. Gray.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave. - Thomas Gray, Elegy in a Country Churchyard, 1751.
We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again. - Nathaniel Greene, Revolutionary war general.
He smiles with the faraway, sea-remembering smile of all desk Admirals. - Peter Grier.
If a few soldiers failed, they cannot derogate from the heroic. - Heinz Guderian, Achtung Panzer! 1937.
Those who avoided Vietnam through loopholes (or more correctly, loop highways) in the draft, being in the main honorable men, now fell guilty. They relieve these feelings either by venomous attacks on all things military, including the draft; or, becoming 200 percent American, make Atilla the Hun sound like Mother Goose and advocate colossal military expenditures. - Arthur T. Hadley. Washington Post, April 6, 1980.
Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement with our backs against the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end." - Earl Haig, order to the British troops. April 12, 1918.
Someone has said that "God takes care of drunken men, sailors, and the United States." This expedition apparently relied on the probability that that axiom was true. - Richard Harding Davis, on the US campaign to Cuba.
There are only two classes who, as categories, show courage in war - the front-line soldier and conscientious objector. - B.H. Liddel Hart.
More dreadful-looking fellows than Napoleon's Guard I had never seen. They had the look of a thoroughbred, veteran, disciplined banditti. Depravity, recklessness, and blood-thirstyness were burned into their faces.... Black mustachios, gigantic bearskins, and ferocious expression were their character. - Benjamin Haydon, 1814.
Music played at weddings always reminds me of the music played for soldiers before they go into battle. - Heinrich Heine.
No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and in the long run, no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: "Come back with your shield, or on it." Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome. - Robert A. Heinlein.
Courage is the compliment of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous (he is also a fool). - Robert A. Heinlein.
Contrary to some opinions, it is better to be a dead hero than a live louse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Have Space Suit Will Travel, c.1958.
Most people coming out of war feel lost and resentful. What had been minute-to-minute confrontation with yourself, your struggle with what courage you have against discomfort, at the least, and the death at the other end, ties you to the people you have known in the war and makes for a time others seem alien and frivolous. - Lilian Hellman.
Courage is grace under pressure. - Ernest Hemingway.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
- W.E. Henly.
If we wish to be free – if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending – if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us. - Patrick Henry, “Call to Arms” speech, 2d Virginia Convention, St. Johns Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1775.
If they've been put there to fight, there are far too few. If they've been put there to be killed, there are far too many. - Ernest F. Hollings.
Pay them well, command them well, hang them well. - Sir Ralph Hopton.
These, in the day heaven was falling,
The hour when earths foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and earths foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay.
- A.E. Housman.
I have always regarded the forward edge of the battlefield as the most exclusive club in the world. - Sir Brian Horrocks.
The government claims the right, and it is conceded that the government has the right, to go to your house, while you are sitting by your fireside with your wife and children about you, and the old lady knitting, and the cat playing with the yarn, and everybody happy and sweet—the government claims the right to go to your fireside and take you by force, and put you in the army; take you down to the valley and the shadows of hell, set you by the ruddy roaring guns, and to make you fight for your flag. Now, that being so, when the war is over, and your country is victorious, and you go back to your home, and a lot of Democrats want to trample upon your rights, I want to know, if it is not bound to fight for you. The flag that will not protect its protectors is a dirty rag that contaminates the air in which it waves. The government that will not defend its defenders is a disgrace to the nations of the world. - Robert G. Ingersoll, speech in Indianapolis. 1876.
We see them all as they march proudly away under the flaunting flags, keeping time to the wild, grand music of war — marching down the streets of the great cities — through the town and accross the prairies — down to the fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right. - Robert G. Ingersoll, speech in Indianapolis. 1876.
A little while ago I stood by the grave of the old Napoleon. It is a magnificent sepulcher of gilt and gold, fit almost for a dead diety. I gazed upon the sarcophagus of rare and nameless marble in which rest at last the ashes of the restless man. I leaned upon the balustrade and thought of all the career of the greatest soldier of the modern world. I saw him upon the banks of the Seine contemplating suicide. I saw him quelling the mob in the streets of Paris. I saw him at the head of the army of Italy. I saw him crossing the bridge of Lodi with the tricolor in his hand. I saw him in Egypt in the shadows of the pyramids. I saw him conquer the Alps and mingle the eagles of France with the eagles of the crags. I saw him in Russia, where the infantry of the snows and the cavalry of the wild beasts scattered his legions like winter’s withered leaves. I saw him at Leipsic in defeat and disaster, driven by a million bayonets, clutched like a beast, banished to Elba. I saw him escape and retake an empire by the magnificent force of his genius. I saw him upon the frightful field of Waterloo, where Chance and Fate combined to wreck the fortunes of their former king, and I saw him a prisoner on the rock at St. Helena, with his arms calmly folded behind his back gazing steadfastly out upon the sad and solemn sea.
And I thought of all the widows and orphans he had made; of all the tears that had been shed for his glory; of the only woman who had ever loved him torn from his heart by the ruthless hand of ambition. And I said, I would rather have been a poor French peasant and worn wooden shoes; I would rather have lived in a hut with the vines growing purple in the armorous kisses of the autumn sun, with my loving wife knitting by my side the day died out of the sky, with my children upon my knees and their arms about my neck; yes, I would rather have been that poor peasant and gone down to the tongueless silence of the dreamless dust, than to have been that imperial impersonation of force and murder known as Napoleon the Great. - Robert G. Ingersoll, The Liberty of Man, Woman & Child, 1877.
Rally, brave men, and press forward! Your general will lead you! Jackson will lead you. - General Stonewall Jackson.
As long as members of the military elite consider themselves to be special because they embody the martial spirit, it is indispensable that they consider themselves gentlemen. - Morris Janowitz.
Every citizen must be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state. - Thomas Jefferson.
The creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are the first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses. - Thomas Jefferson, letter to General Baily. February 1813.
We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves. - Lyndon B. Johnson.
Tonight Americans and Asians are dying for a world where each people may choose it's own path to change. This is the principle for which our ancestors fought in the valleys of Pennsylvania. It is a principle for which our sons fight tonight in the jungles of Vietnam. - Lyndon B. Johnson, April 7, 1965.
Grant stood by me when I was crazy and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other. - Union General Richard W. Johnson.
Recruit
Fresh from farm or factory or street,
His marching, in pursuit or in retreat,
Were an impressive martial spectacle
Except for two impediments--his feet.
- Thompson Johnson.
As a soldier, preferring loyal and chivalrous warfare to organized assassination, if it be necessary to make a choice, I acknowledge that my prejudices are in favor of the good old times when the French and English Guards courteously invited each other to fire first,-as at Fontenoy,-preferring them to the frightful epoch when priests, women, and children throughout Spain plotted the murder of isolated soldiers. - Baron Henri De Jomini, The Art of War. 1838.
German prisoners, asked to assess their various enemies, have said that the British attacked singing, and the French attacked shouting, but that the American attacked in silence. They liked better the men who attacked singing or shouting than the men who kept coming on stubbornly without a sound. - James Jones, WW2.
It is easier to find false witness against the civilian than anyone willing to speak the truth against the interest and honor of the soldier. - Juvenal.
Who shall stand guard to the guards themselves? - Juvenal.
The only war is the war you fought in. Every veteran knows that. - Allan Keller.
Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe. - John F. Kennedy, inaugural address. January 20, 1961.
Any dangerous spot is tenable if brave men will make it so. - John F. Kennedy, television address. July 26, 1961.
Ye thought! Ye are not paid to think. - Rudyard Kipling.
There's a legion that never was listed, that carries no colors nor crest. - Rudyard Kipling.
When you're wounded an' left on Afghanistan's plains,
An the Women come out to cut up your remains,
Just roll to your rifle an' blow out your brains,
An' go to your God like a soldier.
- Rudyard Kipling.
To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned. - Rudyard Kipling.
It's Tommy this, and Tommy that, and chuck him out, the brute,
But it's "Savior of his country." when the guns begin to shoot.
- Rudyard Kipling.
When the 'arf-made recruity goes out to the East,
'E acts like a babe an' 'e drinks like a beast,
An' 'e wonders because 'e is frequent deceased
Ere 'e's fit to serve as a soldier....
- Rudyard Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads, "The Young British Soldier."
If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, We ha' paid in full. - Kipling, The Song O' The Dead.
First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his country-men. - Henry Koe, of George Washington.
Children play at being soldiers. That is sensible. But why should soldiers play at being children? - Karl Kraus.
soldiers who don’t know what they’re fighting for know, nevertheless, what they’re not fighting for. - Karl Kraus.
Those who do not go to war roar like lions. - Kurdish Proverb.
Let us hope that future generations, when they remember the deeds of heroism and devotion done on both sides, will speak, not of Northern prowess or Southern courage, but of the heroism, fortitude, and courage of Americans in a war of ideas — a war in which each section signalized its consecration to the principles, as each understood them, of American liberty, and of the Constitution received from their fathers. - Lucius Q.C. Lamar, speech, House of Representatives, April 27, 1874.
There have been formidable armies composed of men having no interest in the cause for which they fought beyond pay and hope of plunder. But it is certain that they surest foundation upon which the fidelity of an army can rest, especially in a service which imposes peculiar hardships and privation, is the personal interest of the soldier in the issue of the contest. - Robert E. Lee, letter to Andrew Hamilton, Jan. 11, 1865.
Feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that may have attended the continuance of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen. - Robert E. Lee, General Order #9, April 9, 1865.
I have carefully searched the military records of both ancient and modern history, and never found [ Ulysses S.] Grant's superior as a general. - Robert E. Lee.
God rest you, happy gentlemen,
Who laid your good lives down,
Who took the khaki and the gun
Instead of cap and gown.
- Winifred Letts, “The Spires of Oxford.” 1917.
Dear Madam:
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming, but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic that they died to save. I pray that the Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom.
Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln. Letter written to Mrs. Bixby of Boston Massachusetts, mother of five sons lost in the Civil War.
I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other Generals. - Abraham Lincoln, New York Herald. November 26, 1863.
I could make more of them. - Abraham Lincoln, When he heard of the death of a private, he said he was sorry it was not a general because.
Military glory — that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood. - Abraham Lincoln.
They ought not be charged as guilty of the violence and injustice that is committed in an unjust war, any farther than they actually abet it. - John Locke, The True End of Civil Government. 1690.
He who presents himself to the foe, sells his life dear. - Lucan, Pharsalia, c.60 a.d.
He stood on a mound, his face all intrepid, and merited to be feared, he fearing nothing. - Lucan, Pharsalia, v, c.60 a.d.
O Death! I would have thee spare the coward, and have that valor alone should merit thee. - Lucan, Pharsalia, iv.580, c.60 a.d.
We are the battling Bastards of Bataan. No Mamma, no pappa, no Uncle Sam. - Song sung by MacArthur's troops in the Philippines.
The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. - General Douglas MacArthur.
I find in existence a new and heretofore unknown and dangerous concept, that the members of our Armed Forces owe primary allegiance or loyalty to those who temporarily exercise the authority of the Executive Branch of the Government rather than to the country and its Constitution which they are sworn to defend. No proposition could be more dangerous. - General Douglas MacArthur.
The soldier, be he friend or foe, is charged with the protection of the weak and unarmed. It is the very essence and reason for his being. When he violates this sacred trust, he not only profanes his entire cult but threatens the fabric of international society. - General Douglas MacArthur.
They asked no quarter and they gave none. They died hard--those savage men--not gently like a stricken dove folding its wings in peaceful passing, but like a wounded wolf at bay, with lips curled back in sneering menace, and always a nerveless hand reaching for that long sharp machete knife which long ago they substituted for the bayonet. And around their necks, as we buried them, would be a thread of dirty string with its dangling crucifix. They were filthy, and they were lousy, and they stank. And I loved them. - General Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences.
...The American man-at-arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then as I regard him now--as one of the world's nobelest figures....His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty he gave--All that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast. - General Douglas MacArthur.
Last, but by no means least, courage -- moral courage, the courage of one's convictions, the courage to see things through. The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle -- the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other. - Douglas MacArthur.
The Shadows are lengthening for me. The twighlight is here. My days of old have vanished tone and tint; they have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. - General Douglas MacArthur, Farewell speech to West Point.
Then out spoke brave Horatius,
The Captain of The Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late,
And how can men die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And temples of his Gods?"
- Thomas Babington Macauly.
No war ought ever to be undertaken but under circumstances which render all interchange of courtesy between the combatants impossible. It is a bad thing that men should hate each other; but it is far worse that they should contract the habit of cutting one another's throats without hatred. - Thomas Babington MacAulay. 1824.
I maintain, then, contrary to the general opinion, that the sinews of war are not gold; but good soldiers; for gold alone will not procure good soldiers, but good soldiers will always procure gold. - Niccoló Machiavelli, The Discourses, Bk. II. 1517.
If great commanders have employed extraordinary means for reassuring veteran troops, much greater precautions are necessary with fresh troops that have never met an enemy face to face. - Niccoló Machiavelli, The Discourses, Bk. III. 1517.
A commander cannot depend upon untrained soldiers who have learned nothing, nor can he expect them to do anything well. - Niccoló Machiavelli, The Discourses, Bk. III. 1517.
We find many instances in history where the soldiers, deprived of their captains, have given wonderful proofs of valor, and displayed more order and intrepidity after the death of their consuls than before.... So that on the whole we shall find many instances of battles won solely by the valor of the soldier, and many others where the same result was achieved by the courage of the general alone. - Niccoló Machiavelli, The Discourses, Bk. III. 1517.
The kindred blood which flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood which they have shed in defence of their scared rights, consecrate their union, and excite horror at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies. - James Madison, The Federalist #14, November 30, 1787.
[The] right of killing without crime is confided, among us, only to the executioner and the soldier. “The one kills the guilty, convicted and condemned, and his executions are happily so rare that one of these ministers of death suffices in a province. As for the soldiers, there are never enough of them. They must kill without limit, and always honest men. Of these two professional killers, the soldier and the executioner, one is very honored and always has been among all the nations of the world; the other is equally generally regarded as infamous. Which of these men would be the one who was honored?” - Josef De Maistre, Les Soirées de Saint-Petersburg, 1821.
Our people sometimes say that soldiers are stupid. I must admit that sometimes we are. Sometimes our people think we are extravagant with the public money, that we squander it, spend it recklessly. I don't agree that we do. We are in a business where it's difficult always to administer your affairs as a businessman can administer his affairs in a company, and good judgement sometimes requires us to build a tank that turns out not to be what we want, and we scrap it and build another one. - General George C. Marshall.
The good company has no place for the officer who would rather be right than loved, for the time will quickly come when he walks alone, and in battle no man may succeed in solitude. - Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall, Men Against Fire. 1947.
Men who have been in battle know from first-hand experience that when the chips are down, a man fights to help the man next to him, just as a company fights to keep pace with its flanks. Things have to be that simple. - Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall, Men Against Fire. 1947.
They wish to hell they were someplace else, and they wish to hell they would get relief. They wish to hell the mud was dry and they wish to hell their coffee was hot. They want to go home. But they stay in their wet holes and fight, and then they climb out and crawl through minefields and fight some more. - Bill Mauldin, Up Front.
Tell them to say some prayers for the soldiers, the Army's on the move. - Major General Barry R. McCaffrey.
Night fell on a scene of horror beyond imagining. Nearly 6,000 men lay dead or dying, and another 17,000 wounded groaned in agony or endured in silence. The Casualties at Antietam numbered four times the total suffered by American soldiers at the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944. - James M. McPherson.
War may make a fool of man, but it by no means degrades him; on the contrary, it tends to exalt him, and its net effects are much like those of motherhood on women. - H.L. Mencken.
Among those in Uniform the American Soldier stands out as unique. Without detracting a bit from those who endured long periods at sea or faced the challenges in the air, I would argue vigorously that the soldier, on the ground, face-to-face with the Warsaw Pact soldier just across the border, occupies a special place in the pantheon of heroes.
For something like sixteen thousand days and nights young American soldiers have stood in rain and snow, heat and cold, looking across borders at those who would reduce or destroy freedom--rather than bring its blessings to others. They looked and they did not blink. - General Jack N. Merritt, 1990.
This was not an interesting war for troops on the ground. There was no marching or maneuvering, no songs, no flying colors and bands playing while going into action. It was just groveling in dirty mud holes. The only interest and romance was in the air. - Billy Mitchell, commenting on WWI.
War hath no fury like a non-combatant. - C.E. Montague.
Who but must conclude that these are wild sallies pushed on by a courage that has broken loose from its place. - Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Bk II.3, 1588.
You stake... your valor and your fortune upon that of your horse; his wounds or death bring your person into the same danger; his fears or fury shall make you reputed rash or cowardly; if he have an ill mouth, or will not answer to the spur, your honour must answer for it. - Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Bk I. 48, , 1588.
The battle of the Ardennes was won primarily by the staunch fighting abilities of the American soldier. - British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery.
The minstrel boy to war has gone,
In the ranks of death you'll find him;
His father's sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him.
- Thomas Moore.
Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights by my side
In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?
- Thomas Moore, Come, send round the Wine.
To Greece we give our shining blades. - Thomas Moore, Evenings in Greece.
Good at a fight, but better at a play;
Godlike in giving, but the devil to pay.
- Thomas Moore, On a Cast of Sheridan's Hand.
How shall we rank thee upon glory's page,
Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage?
- Thomas Moore, To Thomas Hume.
A courage mightier than the sun —
You rose and fought and, fighting, won!
- Angela Morgan, "Know Thyself."
For those of us who were there, Guadalcanal is not a name but an emotion, recalling desperate fights in the air, furious night naval battles, frantic work at supply or construction, savage fighting in the sodden jungle, nights broken by screaming bombs and deafening explosions of naval shells. - Admiral Samuel Eliot Morrison.
It is said the warrior’s is the twofold way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both ways. - Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings. 1645.
The functions of a citizen and a soldier are inseparable. - Benito Mussolini.
Although the American soldier has generally given a good account of himself in combat, he is extremely unlikely to voice patriotic rhetoric or overt political sentiments. Indeed, anti-ideology is itself an integral part of the soldier's belief system. - Charles Moskos, Jr.
To speak the truth and be skillful with bow and arrow. - Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. 1885.
To whom does the war bring prosperity? Not to the soldier who for the munificent compensation of $16.00 per month shoulders his musket and goes into the trench, there to shed his blood and to die if necessary; not to the broken hearted widow who waits for the return of the mangled body of her husband; not to the mother who weeps at the death of her brave boy.... - Senator George Norris, speech to Congress. April 4, 1917.
I'm glad to be leaving. Not just because it is an escape from the hell of war--but an escape from the particular hell of this war. An escape from the indecision of fighting an enemy that is allowed a safe harbor from the power of our storm. An escape from the haunted looks of men who have seen their friends and brothers die because they were collectively hamstrung by political gestures and spineless decision makers. Oh, but it's been a swell war! - Oliver North, 1969 letter, Under Fire.
If the war didn't happen to kill you it was bound to start you thinking. - George Orwell.
What passing-bells for those who died as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them; no prayers or bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs —
The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from shires.
- Wilfred Owen, The Anthem For Doomed Youth, 1915.
Remember, Sir, you are a man as well as a soldier. You did not give up your privileges as a citizen when you put on your sword. - Thomas Paine, "A diaogue Between Wolfe and Gage," Pennsylvania Journal. January 4, 1775.
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and women. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, 1776-1783.
I believe most men have more courage than they know of, and that a little at first is enough to begin with. I knew the time when I thought that the whistling of a cannon ball would have frightened me almost to death; but I have since tried it, and find that I can stand it. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #2, January 13, 1777.
Some men have naturally a military turn, and can brave hardships and the risk of life with a cheerful face; others have not; no slavery appears to them so great as the fatigue of arms, and no terror so powerful as that of personal danger. What can we say? We cannot alter nature... - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #2. January 13, 1777.
Our support and success depend on such a variety of men and circumstances, that everyone who does but wish well, is of some use: there are men who have a strange aversion to arms, yet have hearts to risk every shilling in the cause, or in support of those who have better talents for defending it. Nature, in the arrangement of mankind, has fitted some for every service in life: were all soldiers all would starve and go naked, and were none soldiers, all would be slaves. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #3. April 19, 1777.
We have always been masters at the last push, and always shall be while we do our duty. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #4, September 12, 1777.
Though fleets and armies, by an alliance with France, will, in a great measure, become useless, yet the persons who have devoted themselves to those services, and have thereby unfitted themselves for other lines of life, are not to be sufferers by the means that make others happy. They are different description of men to those who form or hang about a court....
Suppose, then, fifteen thousand soldiers to be disbanded, and to allow to each of those men three shillings a week during life, clear of all deductions, to be paid, and for them to return to their trades and their friends. - Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, Pt.II, 1792.
No nation was ever blessed with more stout-hearted men than the Americans who fought and died in southeast Asia. - General Bruce Palmer Jr.
There are the countless hosts who fought on the world’s battlefields. We know them well.
The light streams from their faces. Their helmets gleam. Their swords flash fire. A fearless, dauntless, invincible army they march on and on and on to the fullness of Freedom. They live.
They are with us children of America. They urge us on. They command us to go forward.
Man has slaved through the ages that we might be free. He has battled that we might have peace. He has studied that we might know. He has left us the heritage of the ages that we in our turn might carry it on. - Angelo Patri, The Spirit of America.
Courage is fear holding on a minute longer. - General George S. Patton, Jr.
Wars may be fought by weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and the man who leads that gains victory. - General George S. Patton, Jr.
The American soldier is willing to die but not to kill. - General George S. Patton, Jr. Concerning the statistic that only one rifleman in four could bring himself to fire his weapon.
In spite of their magnificent appearance, our men do not put up a good show in reviews. I think that we still lack pride in being soldiers, and must develope it. - General George S. Patton, Jr., diary. may 20, 1943.
Soldiers of the Seventh Army: Born at sea, baptized in bood, and crowned with victory, in the course of thirty-eight days of incessant battle and unceasing labor, you have added a glorious chapter to the history of war. - General George S. Patton, Jr., General Order #18, August 22, 1943.
The successful soldier wins his batte cheaply so far as his own casuaties are concerned, but he must remember that violent attacks, although costly at the time, save live in the end. - General George S. Patton, Jr., letter of instruction. April 3, 1944.
The history of our invariablly victorious armies demonstrates that we are the best soldiers in the world. This should make your men proud. This should make you proud. This should imbue your units with unconquerable self-confidence and pride in demonstrated ability. - General George S. Patton, Jr., letter of instruction. April 3, 1944.
From the bloody corridor at avranches, to brest, thence across France to the Saar, over the Saar into Germany, and now onto Bastogne, your record has been one of continuous victory. Not only have you invariably defeated a cunning and ruthless enemy, but also you have overcome by your indomitable fortitude every aspect of terrain and weather. Neither heat not dust nor floods nor snow have stayed your progress. The speed and brilliance of your achievements are unsurpassed in military history. - General George S. Patton, Jr., commendation issued to the troops of the 3rd Army XIX Tactical Air Command, January 1, 1945.
There is a great difference between an old division, irrespective of the individuals composing it, and a new division. War develops a soul in a fighting unit, and while there may not be many of the old men left, it takes a very little yeast to leaven a lump of dough. I suppose I might be funny and say it takes very few veterans to leaven a division of doughboys. - General George S. Patton, Jr., War as I Knew It. 1947.
Montsec was a huge monument to our dead [in WWI]. I could not help but think that our delay in pushing forward would probably result, after due course of time, in the erection of many other such monuments for men who, had we gone faster, would not have died. - General George S. Patton, Jr.,War As I Knew It, 1947.
The fact that the Allies made a successful landing [in Normandy] demostrates that good troops can land anywhere. - General George S. Patton, Jr., War as I Knew It. 1947.
Soldiers like to play on a winning team. - General George S. Patton, Jr., War as I Knew It. 1947.
During this operation [the Battle of The Bulge] the Third Army moved farther and faster and engaged more divisions in less time than any other army in the history of the United States — possibly in the history of the world. The results attained were made possible only by the superlative quality of American officers, American men, and American equipment. No country can stand against such an army. - General George S. Patton, Jr.,War As I Knew It. 1947.
The professiona soldier is certainly conservative. - General George S. Patton, Jr., War as I Knew It. 1947.
It is an unfortunate and, to me, tragic fact that, in our attempts to prevent war, we have taught our people to belittle the heroic qualities of the soldier. - General George S. Patton, Jr., War as I Knew It. 1947.
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. Hence it is a proud priviege to be a soldier — a good soldier.... To be a good soldier a man must have discipline, self-respect, pride in his unit and in his country, a high sense of duty and obligation to his comrades and to his superiors, and self-confidence born of demonstrated ability. - General George S. Patton, Jr., War as I Knew It. 1947.
American soldiers are most ingenious. When they could not capture a town to sleep in, they would roll three large snowballs or snow rolls, place one on each side and the third on the windward end, and, lining them with pine-tree branches, they slept in groups of three or four. How human beings could endure this continuous fighting at sub-zero temperatures is still beyond my comprehension. - General George S. Patton, Jr., War as I Knew It. 1947.
The Americans, as a race, are the foremost mechanics in the world. America, as a nation, has the greatest ability for mass production of machines. It therefore behooves us to devise methods of war which exploit our inherent superiority. We must fight the war by machines on the ground, and in the air, to the maximum of our ability, particularly in view of the fact that the two races left which we may have to fight are both poor mechanics but have ample manpower. While we have ample manpower, it is to valuable to be thrown away. - General George S. Patton, Jr., War as I Knew It, 1947.
If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows not fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened. The courageous man is the man who forces himself, in spite of his fear, to carry on. Discipline, pride, self-respect, self-confidence, and the love of glory are attributed which make a man courageous even when he is afraid. - General George S. Patton, Jr.,War As I Knew It, 1947.
Americans, with arms in their hands, are fools as well as cowards to surrender. If they fight on, they will conquer. - General George S. Patton, Jr., letter of instruction. April 3, 1944.
His helmut now shall make a hive for bees;
And, lover's sonnets turned to holy psalms,
A man-at-arms must now serve on his knees,
And feed on prayers, which are age his alms:
But though from court to cottage he depart,
His Saint is sure of his unspotted heart.
- George Peele, Farewell to Arms, 1950.
These guardians of our state, inasmuch as their work is the most important of all, will need the most complete freedom from other occupations and the greatest amount of skill and practice.... And also a native aptitude for their calling. - Plato, The Republic, c.387-347 b.c.
By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,
By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,
By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned,
By strangers honored, and by strangers mourned.
- Alexander Pope.
See how the World its Veterans rewards!
A youth of frolicks, an old Age of Cards,
Fair to no purpose, artful to no end,
Young without Lovers, old without a Friend,
A fop their Passion, but their Prize a Sot,
Alive, ridiculous, and dead, forgot!
- Alexander Pope.
Our gallant fellows at the front are carrying their football training into practice on the battlefield. They are 'playing the game' in all conscience. - Lord Baden-Powell, Headquarters Gazette, 1914.
Let the sailor content himself with talking of the winds; the herd of his oxen; the soldier of his wounds; the shepherd of his flocks. - Propertius, Laws, ii.I, 43, c.25 b.c.
A veteran of the last war pretty well summed up the two wars when he said, "this is just like the last war, only the holes are bigger." - Ernie Pyle, Brave Men.
In wartime it is an axiom that the closer you get to the front the less you know about what is going on. - Ernie Pyle, Brave Men.
The American soldier can be majestic when he needs to be. - Ernie Pyle, Brave Men.
The front-line soldier I knew lived for months like an animal, and was a veteran in the cruel, fierce world of death. Everything was abnormal and unstable in his life. He was filthy dirty, ate if and when, slept on hard ground without cover.
The front-line soldier has to harden his insides as well as his outside or he would crack under the strain. - Ernie Pyle, Brave Men.
A front-line soldier has to fight everything all the time. It makes a difference in a man's character. - Ernie Pyle, Brave Men.
One of the paradoxes of war is that those in the rear--no matter what their battle experience--want to get up into the fight, while those in the lines want to get out. - Ernie Pyle, Brave Men.
They weren't warriors. They were American boys who by mere chance of fate had wound up with guns in their hands, sneaking up a death-laden street in a strange and shattered city in a faraway country in a driving rain. They were afraid, but it was beyond their power to quit. They had no choice. They were good boys. I talked with them all afternoon as we sneaked slowly forward along the mysterious and rubbled street, and I know they were good boys, And Even though they weren't warriors born to kill, they won their battles. That's the point. - Ernie Pyle, Brave Men.
Submersion in war does not necessarily qualify a man to be a master of the peace. All we can do is fumble and try once more--try out of the memory of our anguish--and be as tolerant with each other as we can. - Ernie Pyle, Brave Men.
I make no bones about the fact that I am a tremendous admirer of General Bradley. I don't believe I have ever known a person to be so unanimously loved and respected by the men around and under him. - Ernie Pyle, Brave Men.
The ties that grow between men who live savagely together, relentlessly communing with death, are ties of great strength. There is a sense of fidelity to each other in a little corps of men who have endured so long, and whose hope in the end can be so small. - Ernie Pyle, Brave Men.
War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth. - Ernie Pyle, Here is Your War.
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free. - President Ronald Reagan, Normandy, France, June 6, 1984.
The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. - President Ronald Reagan, Normandy, France, June 6, 1984.
We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them -- this morning, as they prepared for their journey, and waved good-bye, and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God." - President Ronald Reagan, Speech about the Challenger disaster, January 28, 1986.
It was leadership here at home that gave us strong American influence abroad, and the collapse of imperial Communism. Great nations have responsibilities to lead, and we should always be cautious of those who would lower our profile, because they might just wind up lowering our flag. - President Ronald Reagan, Republican National Committee Annual Gala, Feb. 3, 1994.
Their signs said make love, not war, but they didn't look like they could do either. - President Ronald Reagan, 1969.
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. - President Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.
Fame is a bugle call Blown past a crumbling wall. - Lizette Reese, "Taps."
Courage: Doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared. - Eddie Rickenbacker, WWI Ace.
For no soldiers or sailors, in any of our forces today, would so willingly endure the rigors of battle if they thought that in another twenty years their own sons would be fighting still another war on distant deserts or seas or in far-away jungles or skies. - Franklin Roosevelt.
Yesterday, December 7, 1941--a date which will live in infamy--the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, address to Congress. December 8, 1941.
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt.
Thank God for the iron in the blood of our fathers, the men who upheld the wisdom of Lincoln and bore sword or rifle in the armies of Grant! - Theodore Roosevelt, speech in Chicago, April 10, 1899.
A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled to, and less than that no man shall. - Theodore Roosevelt, speech, Springfield Illinois. June 4, 1903.
In military affairs, only military men should be listened to. - Theodore Roosevelt.
Three-quarters of a soldiers life is spent in aimlessly waiting about. - Eugene Rosenstock-Huessy.
The warrior provides for his grandfather and his grandson at the cost, if necessary, of his life. But his sacrifice only makes sense within a time span of at least three generations. There can be no genuine soldier or army unless there is a past to hand on to the future after a war is over. - Eugene Rosenstock-Huessy.
The oath taken by the soldiers of Fabius was, to my mind, a fine one. They did not swear to ‘conquer or to die,’ but to ‘conquer and return,’ and they kept their word. - Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract. 1762.
A man must have a hearth of his own before he could be accorded the right to defend it. Of all the out-at-elbows rascals who today lend glitter to the armies of kings, there is not one who would not, probably, have been driven with contempt from the ranks of a Roman cohort in the days when soldiers were the defenders of liberty. - Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract. 1762.
War, therefore, is something that occurs not between man and man, but between States. The individuals who become involved in it are enemies only by accident. They fight not as men or even as citizens, but as soldiers; not as members of this or that national group, but as its defenders. A state can have as its enemies only other States, not men at all, seeing that there can be no true relationship between things of a different nature. - Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract. 1762.
The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty. - Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract. 1762.
To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain and a positive crime in a statesman. - George Santayana.
It would repel me less to be a hangman than a soldier, because the one is obliged to put to death only criminals sentenced by the law, but the other kills honest men who like himself bathe in innocent blood at the bidding of superiors. - George Santayana, Persons and Places, 1943.
I don’t think there has ever been, ever, in the history warfare, a successful count of the dead. - H. Norman Schwarzkopf, command briefing, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. February 25, 1991.
It's no fish ye're buying, it's men's lives. - Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, 1815.
And the stern joy which warriors feel
In foemen worthy of their steel.
- Sir Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake, 1810.
Where, where was Roderick then?
One blast upon his bugle horn
Were worth a thousand men.
- Sir Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake, 1810.
Although too much of a soldier among sovereigns, no one could claim with better right to be a sovereign among soldiers. - Sir Walter Scott, Life of Napoleon, 1827.
What can they see in the longest kingly line in Europe, save that it runs back to a successful soldier? - Sir Walter Scott, Woodstock, 1826.
....Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the bard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick to quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon mouth.
- William Shakespeare.
I saw them in war
Like to a pair of lion smear'd with prey.
- William Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen, 1.4.17, 1612.
The painful warrior famoused for fight. - William Shakespeare, S 25.9
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once. - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 1600.
You can always tell an old soldier by the insides of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges: the old ones, grub. - George Bernard Shaw.
The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War office. - George Bernard Shaw.
Never expect a soldier to think. - George Bernard Shaw.
It is enough for the world to know that I am a soldier. - General William T. Sherman.
[The general] will recall the look in the eyes of men who trusted. "I have failed them," he will say to himself, "and failed my country!" He will see himself for what he is – a defeated general. In a dark hour he will turn in upon himself and question the very foundations of his leadership and his manhood.... And then he must stop! For, if he is ever to command in battle again, he must shake off these regrets, and stamp on them, as they claw at his will and self-confidence. He must beat off these attacks he delivers against himself, and cast out the doubts born of failure. Forget them, and remember only the lessons to be learned from defeat – they are more than from victory. - General William Slim.
The lottery of the sea is not altogether so disadvantageous as that of the army. The son of a creditable labourer or artificer may frequently go to sea with his father's consent; but if he enlists as a soldier, it is always without it. Other people see some chance of his making something by the one trade: nobody but himself sees any chance of his making anything by the other. The great admiral is less the object of public admiration than the great general, and the highest success in the sea service promises a less brilliant fortune and reputation than equal success in the land. The same difference runs through all the inferior degrees of preferment in both. By the rules of precedency a captain in the navy ranks with a colonel in the army: but he does not rank with him in the common estimation. As the great prizes in the lottery are less, the smaller ones must be more numerous. Common sailors, therefore, more frequently get some fortune and preferment than common soldiers: and the hope of those prizes is what pricipally recomends the trade. - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Bk.I, pt.1, ch.10, 1776.
In a long peace the generals, perhaps, may sometimes forget their skill; but, where a well-regulated standing army has been kept up, the soldiers seem never to forget their valour. - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Bk.V, pt.1, ch.1, 1776.
the soldiers of a standing army, though they may never have seen an enemy, yet have frequently appeared to possess all the courage of vetren troops, and the very moment that they took the field to have been fit to face the hardiest and most experienced veterens. - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Bk.V, pt.1, ch.1, 1776.
Avoid shame, but do not seek glory, — nothing so expensive as glory. - Sydney Smith, Lady Holland's Memoir.
For wherever a man’s place is, whether the place which he has chosen or that in which he has been placed by a commander, there he ought to remain in the hour of danger; he should not think of death or of anything but of disgrace. - Socrates in Plato’s Apology, c.395 b.c.
He [Adolf Hitler] charged the Russians with being "Untermenchen" for conduct--at least as far as their unyielding determination to resist was concerned--that he again and again demanded of our own soldiers. But this contradiction, which today strikes me as infuriating, did not bother me at the time. How was that possible? - Albert Speer, Former Nazi Minister of Armaments.
Do you see what a complicated thing is a man's soul, a man's psyche? Well then, imagine a man who has fought from Stalingrad to Belgrade--over thousands of kilometers of his own devastated land, across the dead bodies of his comrades and dearest ones! How can such a man act normally? And what is so awful in his having fun with a woman, after such horrors. The Red Army is not an ideal. The important thing is that it fights Germans--and it is fighting them well, while the rest does not matter. - Joseph Stalin, in response to charges that his soldiers were raping German Women in recently occupied Territories.
Lafayette, we are here. - Colonel C.E. Stanton, in an address delivered at the grave of Lafayette in Paris, 1917. This quote has been ascribed to General Pershing who has disclaimed it.
Only the brave know how to forgive.... A coward never forgave; it is not his nature. - Lawrence Sterne.
The history of a soldier’s wound beguiles the pain of it. - Laurence Sterne.
Although bravery, good spirits, and courage are necessary everywhere and for all cases, they are only in vain if they do not emanate from skill. - Aleksandr Vasiliyevich Suvorov, The Science of Victory, 1797 .
Every soldier should understand your maneuver. - Aleksandr Vasiliyevich Suvorov, The Science of Victory, 1797.
When I came eye to eye with the first of the soldiers there was more anger in his eye than in mine.... He had an automatic rifle over his shoulder and his cartridge pouches were full. You go and provoke him now (I thought), and he'll kill you without a moments hesitation.... The soldiers could not understand why such a beautiful country had to be driven by force into the same state of poverty in which we lived. - Victor Suvorov, during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Only the brave know how to forgive.... A coward never forgave; it is not his nature. - Lawrence Sterne.
The bravest are the tenderest,
The loving are the daring.
- Bayard Taylor.
I'm glad I'm in the Army, not only for the people who are in it and for the breadth of experience which it offers, but because of the feeling I have of belonging to an outfit which really matters, one which has a mission of tremendous significance. - General Maxwell D. Taylor.
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade. Stanza 2, 1854.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ulysses, 1842.
That tower of strength
Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew.
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, 1850.
For I dipt into future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twighlight, dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue.
- Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 1842.
Fortune favors the brave. - Terence, Phormio, 161 b.c.
As a rule, hatred of strangers and love of his native soil comprise the whole of a soldiers feeling for the public good, even in free societies. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.
When men have at last learned to make a peaceful and profitable use of freedom, and have felt its blessings, — when they have conceived a manly love of order, and have freely submitted themselves to discipline, — these same men, if they follow the profession of arms, bring into it, unconsciously and almost against their will, these same habits and manners.... Teach but the citizens to be educated, orderly, firm and free, and the soldiers will be disciplined and obedient. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.
When a military spirit forsakes a people, the profession of arms immediately ceases to be held in honor, and military men fall to the lowest rank of public servants: they are little esteemed, and no longer understood.... It is then not matter of surprise that democratic armies are often restless, ill-tempered, and dissatisfied.... The soldier feels that he occupies an inferior position, and his wounded pride either stimulates his taste for hostilities which would render his services necessary, or gives him a desire for revolution, during which he may hope to win by force of arms the political influence and personal importance now denied him. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.
The man who has long lived amidst the calm and lukewarm atmosphere of democratic manners, can at first ill adapt himself to the harder toils and sterner duties of warfare ; and if he has not absolutely lost the taste for arms, at least he has assumed a mode of life which unfits him for conquest. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.
All men of military genius are fond of centralization, which increases their strength; and all men of centralizing genius are fond of war, which compels nations to combine all their powers in the hands of government. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.
Having found the bomb we have to use it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order t save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans. - President Harry S. Truman.
America was not built on fear, America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. - Harry S. Truman, message to Congress. January 8, 1947.
There is no profound difference between the farmers and the soldiers. You must have courage. You simply leave your farms and become soldiers. That you are farmers is of no difference, and if you have education, that is so much the better. When you take arms in your hands, you become soldiers; when you are organized, you become military units. - Mao Tse-Tung, On Guerilla Warfare. 1937.
Dully I hoisted myself out of the mud and gave the signal to advance, which was answered, by every man rising and stepping unhesitatingly into the barrage. The effect was so striking that I felt no more that awful dread of shellfire, but followed them calmly into the crashing, spitting hell until we were surrounded by bursting shells and singing fragments, while above us a stream of bullets added their whining to the general Pandemonium. The men were wonderful. - Edward Campion Vaughan, 1917.
How hope of glory excites the young soldier in the first essay of arms. - Vergil, The Aeneid, xi.154, c.40 b.c.
The fatal shaft sticks in the wounded side. - Vergil, The Aeneid, iv, 73, c.40 b.c.
There is nothing left for us but to sell our lives dear. - Voltaire, Candide, 1759.
“By all the Gods!” said the soldier, “I know of nothing about it. It is none of my business; my trade is to kill and be killed to earn my living; it makes no difference whom I serve. Indeed I might well go over to the Indian camp tomorrow, for people say they give their soldiers a copper half-drachma a day more than we get in this cursed service of Persia. If you want to know why we are fighting, talk to my captain. - Voltaire, The World As It Is. 1748.
The child she would have born might have been a cabin-boy, become an admiral, won a naval battle at the mouth of the Ganges and completed the dethroning of the Grand Mogul. That alone would have changed the constitution of the universe. - Voltaire, Count Chesterfields Ears. 1775.
The first who was king was a successful soldier. He who serves well his country has no need of ancestors. - Voltaire, Mérope, 1743.
When we assumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citizen. - Washington.
When men are irritated and their passions inflamed, they fly hastily and cheerfully to arms: but, after the first emotions are over... a soldier reasoned with upon the goodness of the cause he is engaged in and the inestimable rights he is contending for, hears you with patience and acknowledges the truth of our observations, but adds that it is of no more importance to him than others. The officer makes you the same reply, with this further remark, that his pay will not support him, and he cannot ruin himself and his family to serve his country, when every member of the community is equally interested and benefitted by his labors. - General George Washington.
Venerable men! You have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day. - Daniel Webster, Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825.
Thank God! I — I also — am an American! - Daniel Webster, Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843.
I shall know but one country. The ends I aim at shall be my country's, my God's, and Truth's. I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American. - Daniel Webster, Speech, July 17, 1850.
Americans have a long and proud tradition of irreverence toward and distrust of their military. - General Fred C. Weyand.
There is no use agonizing over it. If we cannot be loved, we can be trusted and respected. - General Fred C. Weyand.
Vietnam was a reaffirmation of the peculiar relationship between the American Army and the American people. The American Army really is a peoples army in the sense that it belongs to the American people who take a jealous and proprietary interest in its involvement. when the Army is committed the American people is committed, when the American people lose their commitment it is futile to try to keep the Army Committed. - General Fred C. Weyand. Army Chief of Staff. 1976.
During the Vietnam War there were those--many with the best intentions--who argued that the Army should not obey its orders and should refuse to serve in Vietnam. But their argument that soldiers should obey the "dictates of their conscience" is a slippery slope. At the bottom of this slope is military dictatorship. - General Fred C. Weyand.
Let everyone who finds the generals guilty of not rescuing the heroes of the late sea-fight deposit his vote in one urn. Let him who is of the contrary opinion deposit his vote in the other urn. Further, in the event the afore-said generals being found guilty, let death be the penalty. - Xenophon, Hellenica, Bk.I, c.400 b.c.
"The Soldier's Catechism."
If it moves, salute it.
If it doesn't move, pick it up.
If you can't pick it up, paint it. - Anonymous.
We are Satan's elite, but you, are you God's elite? -Soviet General to Catholic priest van Straaten, 1949.
The soldiers fight and the kings are heroes. - Jewish proverb.
God and the Soldier, we adore
In time of danger, not before;
The danger passed and all things righted,
God is forgotten, and the Soldier slighted.
- One of Marlborough's veterans.
Bullfight critics ranked in rows
Crowd the enormous plaza full;
But only one is there who knows
And he's the man who fights the bull.
- Unknown.
They’ll never make a pack large enough to carry the loneliness of a soldier in battle. - Unknown.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: airmen; history; quotes; sailors; soldiers; war
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To all who have gone before and that stand their post today.
1
posted on
05/23/2002 11:51:40 PM PDT
by
PsyOp
To: Marine Inspector; infowars; 2Trievers; sleavelessinseattle; Righty1; twyn1; mountaineer...
Memorial Day Ping.
2
posted on
05/23/2002 11:52:57 PM PDT
by
PsyOp
To: PsyOp
Whew ! where in the world do you collect such gems ??
Awesome ! Thanks ...........Stay Safe !
3
posted on
05/24/2002 12:18:53 AM PDT
by
Squantos
To: PsyOp
A Memorial Day salute to you Psy and to all who serve(d). A red, white and blue bump! &;-)
4
posted on
05/24/2002 2:15:12 AM PDT
by
2Trievers
To: PsyOp
Great Post. Long Live the Republic! And God bless our warriors!
"Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by,
That faithful to their precepts here we lie."
Simonides of Ceos (556-468 BC) of King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans after the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC
5
posted on
05/24/2002 7:26:59 AM PDT
by
g'nad
To: PsyOp
Good heavens, you've posted a book!
I'll be back over the weekend to peruse the quotes at length.
6
posted on
05/24/2002 7:27:30 AM PDT
by
VOA
To: PsyOp
"Impressive...most impressive!"
To: Squantos
where in the world do you collect such gems ??Reading. Lots of reading!
8
posted on
05/24/2002 8:55:46 AM PDT
by
PsyOp
To: 2Trievers
A Memorial Day salute.Thanks. Great Gif! Have a great weekend.
9
posted on
05/24/2002 9:05:30 AM PDT
by
PsyOp
To: PsyOp
BUMP and bookmarked.
``War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. '' -- John Stuart Mill
To: g'nad
Go tell the Spartans...Great quote. I'll add to the data-base for future reference. Keep 'em coming if you have more.
Thanks, PsyOp.
11
posted on
05/24/2002 9:24:58 AM PDT
by
PsyOp
To: PsyOp; sleavelessinseattle
BTTT ... actually it looks like ... Well, I won't say here ... but sleavester will know ... &;-)
To: PsyOp;Squantos;Travis McGee;harpseal;Lazamataz
For all the brave lads...
SQUAD! PRE-SENT...ARMS!
13
posted on
05/24/2002 9:46:03 AM PDT
by
Poohbah
To: PsyOp
One of my favorites:
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf"
George Orwell
14
posted on
05/24/2002 9:51:54 AM PDT
by
TADSLOS
To: 2Trievers
actually it looks like...O.K. You lost me there. Lack of sleep is taking its toll.
15
posted on
05/24/2002 10:21:32 AM PDT
by
PsyOp
To: PsyOp
You have FReepmail ... &;-)
To: PsyOp;2Trievers
I didn't get it either Psy...Our 2trievers appears to have a highly developed knack for detecting (or inventing) subliminal messages. We should applaud her intrepid examination of the male psyche, as long as she doesn't spill the beans about "sick friends" and poker/stripper club nights;-D
To: sleavelessinseattle
I didn't get it either.She splained it to me in an e-mail. Check your mail.
18
posted on
05/24/2002 12:37:47 PM PDT
by
PsyOp
To: sleavelessinseattle; PsyOps
You secrets are safe with me gentlemen! LOL &;-)
To: PsyOp
Mussolini?
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