“No plan ever survives its first encounter with the enemy.”

It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear.

The untruthful soldier trifles with the lives of his countrymen and the honor and safety of his country.

The great question is, can war be outlawed from the world? If so, it would mark the greatest advance in civilization since the Sermon on the Mount.

Men will not fight and die without knowing what they are fighting and dying for.

Nine times of ten an army has been destroyed because its supply lines have been severed

War’s very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war there is no substitute for victory.

If I had one more division like this First Marine Division I could win this war.

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others.

Old soldiers never die, they just lose their grip on reality after traumatic brain injuries.

We are bound no longer by the straitjacket of the past and nowhere is the change greater than in our profession of arms. What, you may well ask, will be the end of all of this? I would not know! But I would hope that our beloved country will drink deep from the chalice of courage.

Defensive strategy never has produced ultimate victory.

It points to no single instance where this end has justified that means, where appeasement has led to more than a sham peace. Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and successively greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only other alternative.

The chickens are coming home to roost, and you happen to have just moved into the chicken house.

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

Even when opportunity knocks, a man still has to get up off his seat and open the door.

It reminds me that no embrace will ever feel the same again, because no one will ever be like her again, because she’s gone. She’s gone, and crying feels so useless, so stupid, but it’s all I can do.

Hitting the bottle again, ever than I’ve drunker been. Or is it drunker than I’ve ever been?

No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion.

I have every confidence in the ultimate success of our joint cause; but success in modern war requires something more than courage and a willingness to die: it requires careful preparation.

I don’t think you will ever fully understand how you’ve touched my life and made me who I am.

It is ever thus that the things which we do wrong – although they may seem little at the time, and though from the hardness of our hearts we pass them lightly by – come back to us with bitterness.

Nobuddy ever listened t’ reason on a empty stomach.

Throughout history, every mystery ever solved has turned out to be NOT magic.