American Soldier Quotes

• With courage and character, American soldiers continue to put themselves on the line to defend our freedom, and so many have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

  Dan Lipinski

  Character, Sacrifice, Soldier

  16 Copy quote

• Sacrificing American soldiers or innocent civilians in an unprecedented preemptive attack on a separate sovereign nation may well prove itself a most temporary medicine.

  Sean Penn

  Sacrifice, Medicine, Soldier

  Open Letter to the President George W. Bush, www.snopes.com. November 3, 2002.

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• The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.

  George Washington

  Veterans Day, Military, War

  70 Copy quote
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  War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Death, Military, War

  "The Civil War Generation". Book by Norman K. Risjord, p. 143, 2002.

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  What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Inspirational, Life, Basketball

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1959). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958”, p.135, Best Books on

  130 Copy quote

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• It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

  Zell Miller

  Veterans Day, Military, Army

  2004 Republican National Convention Address, delivered 1 September 2004, Madison Square Garden, New York

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• Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Military

  Ernest Hemingway, William Kozlenko (1942). “Men at War: The Best War Stories of All Time”, New York : Crown Publishers

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• To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

  George Washington

  Inspirational, Leadership, Motivation

  1790 First Annual Address, 8 Jan.

  181 Copy quote

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• The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

  Desmond Tutu

  Memorial Day, Peace, Freedom

  68 Copy quote

• Get the hell out of my way!

  Ayn Rand

  Strength, Courage, Philosophy

  Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.2340, Penguin

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• The last man in the world who should have been criticized was the American soldier. They should have criticized me.

  William Westmoreland

  Military, Men, Should Have

  7 Copy quote

• Don't forget, incoming fire has the right of way.

  Clint Smith

  Military, Gun, Fire

  73 Copy quote

• When this war is over, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell!

  William Halsey

  Memorial Day, Military, War

  112 Copy quote

• I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way.

  John Paul Jones

  Life, Fear, Military

  Letter to Le Ray de Chaumont, 16 Nov. 1778

  63 Copy quote

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• American soldiers had to guard prisoners on the inside while receiving mortar and weapons fire from the outside. Guantanamo is distant from any battlefield, making it far more secure.

  John Yoo

  Fire, Soldier, Receiving

  21 Copy quote

• No matter what you think about the Iraq war, there is one thing we can all agree on for the next days - we have to salute the courage and bravery of those who are risking their lives to vote and those brave Iraqi and American soldiers fighting to protect their right to vote.

  Hillary Clinton

  Courage, War, Fighting

  17 Copy quote

• A man 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

  Freedom, War, Military

  89 Copy quote

• American soldiers in battle don't fight for what some president says on T.V., they don't fight for mom, apple pie, the American flag...they fight for one another.

  Hal Moore

  Mom, Military, Fighting

  146 Copy quote

• We have met the enemy and they are ours.

  Oliver Hazard Perry

  Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Military

  Message toWilliam Henry Harrison, 10 Sept. 1813. The source is Perry's dispatch from the U.S. brig Niagara to General Harrison, announcing that victory at the Battle of Lake Erie was secure. The dispatch was written in pencil on the back of an old letter; it is quoted in Robert B. McAfee, History of the LateWar in theWestern Country (1816). SeeWalt Kelly 2; Walt Kelly 3

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  People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

  Richard Grenier

  Strength, Wisdom, Veterans Day

  159 Copy quote

• 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.

  John Stuart Mill

  Military, War, Patriotic

  "The Contest in America", Fraser's Magazine, February 1862.

  136 Copy quote

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• **** the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

  David Farragut

  War, Military, Marine

  At the battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864 ('torpedoes' were mines). Capt. A. T. Mahan 'Admiral Farragut' (1892) ch. 10

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• It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Funny, Motivational

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.53, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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  I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

  Nathan Hale

  Inspirational, Life, Country

  Before being executed as a spy by the British, 22 September 1776, in Henry Phelps Johnston 'Nathan Hale, 1776' (1914) ch. 7.

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• Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.

  Chester W. Nimitz

  Military, War, Marine

  62 Copy quote