Joshua Chamberlain Quotes

• In great deeds, something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls… generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Dream, Heart, Soul

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1994). “Bayonet! Forward: my Civil War reminiscences”, Butternut & Blue

  56 Copy quote

• We know not of the future, and cannot plan for it much. But we can hold our spirits and our bodies so pure and high, we may cherish such thoughts and ideals, and dream such dreams of lofty purpose, that we can determine and know what manner of men we will be whenever and wherever the hour stricks that calls to noble action..., No man becomes suddenly different from his habit and cherished thought.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Dream, Men, Different

  59 Copy quote

• The inspiration of a noble cause enables men to do things they did not dream themselves capable of before

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Dream, Inspiration, Men

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1994). “Bayonet! Forward: my Civil War reminiscences”, Butternut & Blue

  39 Copy quote

• The power of noble deeds is to be preserved and passed on to the future.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Military, Future, Noble

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Jeremiah E. Goulka (2004). “The grand old man of Maine: selected letters of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, 1865-1914”, The University of North Carolina Press

  71 Copy quote

• The inspiration of a noble cause involving human interests wide and far, enables men to do things they did not dream themselves capable of before, and which they were not capable of alone. The consciousness of belonging, vitally, to something beyond individuality; of being part of a personality that reaches we know not where, in space and time, greatens the heart to the limit of the souls ideal, and builds out the supreme character.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Life, Motivational, Dream

  37 Copy quote

• There is a way of losing that is finding. When soul overmasters sense. When the noble and divine self overcomes the lower self. When duty and honor and love immortal things bid the mortal perish. It is only when a man supremely gives that he supremely finds

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Men, Self, Giving

  29 Copy quote

• It is something great and greatening to cherish an ideal; to act in the light of truth that is far-away and far above; to set aside the near advantage, the momentary pleasure; the snatching of seeming good to self; and to act for remoter ends, for higher good, and for interests other than our own.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Light, Self, Cherish

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1994). “Bayonet! Forward: my Civil War reminiscences”, Butternut & Blue

  24 Copy quote

• Heroism is latent in every human soul - However humble or unknown, they (the veterans) have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all the self-denials - privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life-long hurts and losses, death itself - for some great good, dimly seen but dearly held.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Memorial Day, Courage, Hurt

  31 Copy quote

• But the cause for which we fought was higher; our thought wider... That thought was our power.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Causes, Higher, Our Thoughts

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1994). “Bayonet! Forward: my Civil War reminiscences”, Butternut & Blue

  24 Copy quote

• I never could be a partisan leader - a man of one idea.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Men, Ideas, Leader

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Jeremiah E. Goulka (2004). “The grand old man of Maine: selected letters of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, 1865-1914”, The University of North Carolina Press

  39 Copy quote

• Those who will may raise monuments of marble to perpetuate the fame of heroes. Those who will may build memorial halls to remind those who shall gather there in after times what manhood could do and dare for right, and what high examples of virtue and valor have gone before them. But let us make our offering to the ever-living soul. Let us build our benefactions in the ever-growing heart, that they shall live and rise and spread in blessing beyond our sight, beyond the ken of man and beyond the touch of time.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Memorial Day, Hero, Heart

  24 Copy quote

• We pass now quickly from each other's sight; but I know full well that where beyond these passing scenes you shall be, there will be Heaven.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Sight, Heaven, Scene

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1998). “The Passing of the Armies: An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army of the Potomac, Based Upon Personal Reminiscences of the Fifth Army Corps”, p.342, U of Nebraska Press

  23 Copy quote

• We know not of the future and cannot plan for it much.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Plans, Knows

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1994). “Bayonet! Forward: my Civil War reminiscences”, Butternut & Blue

  21 Copy quote

• I know in whom all my highest hopes and dearest joys are centered. I know in whom my whole heart can rest — so sweetly and so surely.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Heart, Joy, Whole

  13 Copy quote

• But we had with us, to keep and to care for, more than five hundred bruised bodies of men- men made in the image of God, marred by the hand of man and must we say in the name of God? And where is the reckoning for such things? And who is answerable? One might almost shrink from the sound of his own voice, which had launched into the palpitating air words of order- do we call it? - fraught with such ruin. Was it God's command we heard or His forgiveness we must forever implore?

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Men, Air, Hands

  21 Copy quote

• The pageant has passed. That day is over. But we linger, loath to think we shall see them no more together - these men, these horses, these colors afield.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Horse, War, Men

  19 Copy quote

• My officers and men understood wishes so well that this movement was executed under fire, the right wing keeping up fire, without giving the enemy any occasion to seize or even to suspect their advantage.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Men, Fire, Wings

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1994). “Bayonet! Forward: my Civil War reminiscences”, Butternut & Blue

  13 Copy quote

• The word was enough. It ran like fire along the line, from man to man, and rose into a shout, with which they sprang forward upon the enemy, now not 30 yards away.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Technology, Men, Fire

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Mark Nesbitt (1996). “Through Blood & Fire: Selected Civil War Papers of Major General Joshua Chamberlain”, p.91, Stackpole Books

  11 Copy quote

• Let me say no danger and no hardship ever makes me wish to get back to that college life again.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  College, Civil War, Wish

  Mark Nesbit, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1996). “Through Blood & Fire”, p.24, Stackpole Books

  7 Copy quote

• The edge of the conflict swayed to and fro, with wild whirlpools and eddies. At times I saw around me more of the enemy than of my own men; gaps opening, swallowing, closing again with sharp convulsive energy. All around, a strange, mingled roar.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  War, Men, Enemy

  10 Copy quote

• He had somehow, with all his modesty, the rare faculty of controlling his superiors as well as his subordinates. He outfaced Stanton, captivated the President, and even compelled acquiescence or silence from that dread source of paralyzing power, the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  War, Silence, President

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1998). “The Passing of the Armies: An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army of the Potomac, Based Upon Personal Reminiscences of the Fifth Army Corps”, p.29, U of Nebraska Press

  11 Copy quote

• I am not of Virginia blood; she is of mine.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  War, Virginia, Blood

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1998). “The Passing of the Armies: An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army of the Potomac, Based Upon Personal Reminiscences of the Fifth Army Corps”, p.27, U of Nebraska Press

  8 Copy quote

• A radiant fellowship of the fallen.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  War, History, Fellowship

  12 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

James Longstreet

George Pickett

Robert E. Lee

George Meade

Stonewall Jackson

John Buford

Michael Shaara

Ulysses S. Grant