Respected for their discipline, honor and ability to face the most intense situations in the name of liberty, the U.S. military knows a thing or two about surviving combat. These are some of our favorite quotes from our armed forces.

“Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.”
– General James Mattis

“If I always appear prepared, it is because before entering an undertaking, I have meditated long and have foreseen what might occur. It is not genius where reveals to me suddenly and secretly what I should do in circumstances unexpected by others; it is thought and preparation.”
– Napoléon Bonaparte

“If you find yourself in a fair fight – you didn’t plan your mission properly.”
– David Hackworth

“Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.”
– Niccolò Machiavelli

“No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.”
– Helmuth von Moltke

“God is on the side with the best artillery.”
– Napoléon Bonaparte

“It would be a joke if the conduct of the victor had to be justified to the vanquished.”
– Napoléon Bonaparte

“If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.”
– Napoléon Bonaparte

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”
– William Arthur Ward

“The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.”
– Robert Lynd

“Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.”
– George Bernard Shaw

“Optimists study English; pessimists study Chinese; and realists learn to use a Kalashnikov.”
– Russian Proverb

“If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.”
– Niccolò Machiavelli

“That city is well-fortified which has a wall of men instead of brick.”
– Lycurgus

“To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.”
– James Carse

“Battles really are the wildfires of history, out of which the survivors float like embers and then land to burn far beyond the original conflagration. To teach us those important lessons we must go back through the past to see precisely how such calamities affected now lost worlds—and yet still influence us today.”
– Victor Davis Hanson

“In my opinion, the M1 rifle is the greatest battle implement ever devised.”
– General George S. Patton

“I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.”
– Napoléon Bonaparte

“If the enemy is in range, so are you.”
– Infantry Journal

“Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword, obviously never encountered automatic weapons.”
– General Douglas MacArthur

“Do you know what a soldier is, young man? He's the chap who makes it possible for civilized folk to despise war.”
– Allan Massie

“Tracer rounds work both ways.”
– Army Ordinance Manual

“When you’re short of everything but the enemy, you are in combat.”
– Unknown

“Every plan is a good one - until the first shot is fired.”
– Carl von Clausewitz

“You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”
– Leon Trotsky

“What you can't solve with politics, you can solve with a 5.56.”
– U.S. Marine Corps Expression

“These fallen heroes represent the character of a nation who has a long history of patriotism and honor – and a nation who has fought many battles to keep our country free from threats of terror.”
– Michael N. Castle

Military Wit and Wisdom Quotes: Quotes About Combat and War from the Military originally appeared on the Resistance Library on Ammo.com

“Upon the conduct of each determines the fate of all”
― Alexander the Great

“ I will either find a way, or make one.“ Aut viam inveniam aut faciam.
-Hannibal

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity”
― Sun-Tzu, The art of war

“There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning. ”
― Erwin Rommel

“Action speaks louder than words.”
― Heinz Guderian

“No plan survives contact with the enemy”
― Erwin Rommel

“There are no desperate situations, there are only desperate people.”
― Heinz Guderian

“I would rather be the hammer than the anvil”
― Erwin Rommel

“I have never advocated war except as means of peace, so seek peace, but prepare for war. Because war... War never changes. War is like winter and winter is coming.”
― Ulysses S Grant

“Time is everything- Five minutes May make the difference between victory and defeat “
- Horatio Nelson

If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.
-William Tecumseh Sherman

"America will not be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedom, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
-Abraham Lincoln.

Popularity is not leadership.
=Richard Marcinko

My all-time favourite -

'Never interrupt the enemy when he's making a an error.'

The full quote from the American Father of Scorched Earth warfare:
"I am sick and tired of fighting. Its glory is all moonshine. Even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands and fathers. Tis only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell".
William Tecumseh Sherman

“Dieu n’est pas pour les gros bataillons, mais pour ceux qui tirent le mieux.”
(“God is not on the side of the biggest battalions, but of the best shots.”)
— Voltaire

“Screaming is the difference between combat and training.”
— Ranger Keni Thomas, “The Real Story of Blackhawk Down,” The History Channel, 5 March 2006

“Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.”
— Samuel Johnson

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sigfreund,

My favorite of all time:

The German Commander:

"December 22nd 1944

To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.

The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A.

forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong

German armored units. More German armored units have crossed

the river Ourthe near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and

reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet.

Libramont is in German hands.

There is only one possibility to save the encircled

U.S.A troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable

surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over

a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the

presentation of this note.

If this proposal should be rejected one German

Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready

to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The

order for firing will be given immediately after this two

hours' term.

All the serious civilian losses caused by this

artillery fire would not correspond with the wellknown

American humanity."



Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe:

"NUTS!"

“Leave the Artillerymen alone, they are an obstinate lot. . .”
– Napoleon Bonaparte

See below.

.

"If it moves, salute it. If it doesn't move, pick it up. If you can't pick it up, paint it."

(Orders during ceasefire...)

What I learned in the Coast Guard…..”don’t paint it right, just paint it white”. From a BM1, a day before the Commandant visited GTMO and we were tied up while scooping Haitians before they either drowned, sank, or got to the US.

There is no problem that can't be solved with the suitable application of high explosives.

Embrace the suck.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

"If it moves, salute it. If it doesn't move, pick it up. If you can't pick it up, paint it."

Just don't paint the skipper's wife.

A crusty Gunny, whose name I forgot after five minutes, in a pre-EAS brief:

"Fighting is not normal in the real world. There is no NJP in the real world. You have no Command to get you out of jail in the real world. You will go to jail, not yelled at Monday morning, after you've been asked if you won".

" 'Fuck' is not an acceptable replacement for whatever word you cannot think of at the moment".

Doc- "Pain is not weakness leaving the body. It's just pain. Quit being fucking retarded".

"In my opinion, the American army as it now exists could beat the Russians with the greatest of ease, because, while the Russians have good infantry, they are lacking in artillery, air, tanks and the knowledge of the use of the combined arms, whereas we excel in all three of these. If it should be necessary to fight the Russians, the sooner we do it the better." - George S. Patton

All from Arthur Wellesley, The Duke Of Wellington:

quote:

Believe me, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won: the bravery of my troops hitherto saved me from the greater evil; but to win such a battle as this of Waterloo, at the expens of so many gallant friends, could only be termed a heavy misfortune but for the result to the public.

quote:

The history of a battle, is not unlike the history of a ball. Some individuals may recollect all the little events of which the great result is the battle won or lost, but no individual can recollect the order in which, or the exact moment at which, they occurred, which makes all the difference as to their value or importance. ..

quote:

All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I called "guessing what was at the other side of the hill."

Be kind to everyone but, have a plan to kill them all
- General Mattis

"We never have time to do it right, but we always have time to do it over"

"If you know how it works, you know why it breaks"


Some things I used to post on my desk in the old days...

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
My favorite of all time:

The German Commander:

"December 22nd 1944

Blah blah blah...



Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe:

"NUTS!"

Couple years ago I met a man who was standing just about next to Gen McAuliffe and witnessed this exchange!

"Friendly fire isn't"

quote:

“Tracer rounds work both ways.”
– Army Ordinance Manual