Infantry Quotes

• I love the infantry because they are the underdogs. They are the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can't be won without.

  Ernie Pyle

  War, Rain, Boys

  Ernie Pyle, David Nichols (1987). “Ernie's war: the best of Ernie Pyle's World War II dispatches”, Touchstone

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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'm convinced that the infantry is the group in the army which gives more and gets less than anybody else.

  Bill Mauldin

  Army, Giving, Groups

  "Up Front". Book by Bill Mauldin, 1945.

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• By the last returns to the Department of War the militia force of the several States may be estimated at 800,000 men - infantry, artillery, and cavalry.

  James Monroe

  War, Men, May

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• Infantry must move forward to close with the enemy. It must shoot in order to move.... To halt under fire is folly. To halt under fire and not fire back is suicide. Officers must set the example

  George S. Patton

  Suicide, Military, Moving

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• The surest way to become a pacifist is to join the infantry.

  Bill Mauldin

  Way, Pacifist

  "Up Front". Book by Bill Mauldin, 1945.

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• The tank was originally invented to clear a way for the infantry in the teeth of machine-gun fire. Now it is the infantry who will have to clear a way for the tanks.

  Winston Churchill

  War, Gun, Fire

  Winston Churchill (1986). “The Hinge of Fate”, p.528, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• An aggressive war is the great crime against everything good in the world. A defensive war, which must necessarily turn to aggressive at the earliest moment, is the necessary great counter-crime. But never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead.

  Ernest Hemingway

  War, Crime, Asks

  "Treasury of the Free World". Book by Ben Raeburn. Introduction to the book, 1946.

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• Artillery conquers and infantry occupies.

  J. F. C. Fuller

  Military, Conquer, Artillery

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• I think of myself as Special Forces, clearing the path for the infantry.

  Geraldo Rivera

  Thinking, Special, Path

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• Once the mass of the defending infantry become possessed of low moral, the battle is as good as lost.

  Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig

  Battle, Moral, Lost

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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

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• Good infantry is without doubt the sinews of an army; but if it has to fight a long time against very superior artillery, it will become demoralized and will be destroyed.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  War, Army, Fighting

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• I am in the infantry for 17 weeks and after that I don't know where I am going.

  Eddie Slovik

  Week, Knows

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• The army consists of the first infantry division and eight million replacements.

  Sebastian Junger

  Army, Eight, Infantry Division

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• They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist...

  John Sedgwick

  Elephants, Civil War, Dodging Bullets

  Quoted in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1887 - 1888). This line is popularly said to have been Sedgwick's last words and to have been cut off in the middle of "distance." In fact, this was Sedgwick's second-to-last sentence and was completed before the bullet hit.

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• When everyone's focused on the conventional parts of war - doing infantry imbeds or chasing IEDs - you look at the thing that seems not that interesting to people, like the circumstances of logistics workers cooking the troops' food or cleaning their latrines.

  Sarah Stillman

  War, People, Interesting

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself.

  Wallace Stevens

  Inspirational, Beautiful, Travel

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.249, Vintage

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• Some say an army of horsemen, or infantry,
  A fleet of ships is the fairest thing
  On the face of the black earth, but I say
  It's what one loves.

  Sappho

  Army, Black, Earth

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• Of course, I also attribute some of my hearing loss to being in the infantry in World War II. It's probably a combination of heredity and noise exposure.

  George Kennedy

  War, Loss, Umpires

  "Movies, Hearing Loss and Hearing Aids". audiologyonline.com interview, www.audiologyonline.com. May 2, 2005.

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• Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Inspirational, Military, War

  Ernest Hemingway, Patrick Hemingway (2012). “Hemingway on War”, p.27, Simon and Schuster

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• Infantry, Artillery, Aviation - all that we have - are yours to dispose of as you will. . . . I have come to say to you that the American people would be proud to be engaged in the greatest battle in history.

  John J. Pershing

  War, People, Battle

  Gen. John Joseph Pershing to Gen. Foch, Letter written from Office of the Commander-in-Chief, American Expeditionary Forces, in France. "Literary Digest History of World War," Volume V, p. 43, March 28, 1918.

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• If we come to a minefield, our infantry attacks exactly as it were not there.

  Georgy Zhukov

  Military, Minefields, Ifs

  Said to General Eisenhower in 1945. "Russia: The People and the Power". Book by Robert G. Kaiser, p. 207, 1976.

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• There was something terrible, but also something sad and melancholy in this long cry uttered by the Russian infantry as they staged an attack. As it crossed the cold water, it lost its fervour. Instead of valour or gallantry, you could hear the sadness of a soul parting with everything that it loved, calling on its nearest and dearest to wake up, to lift their head from their pillows and hear for the last time the voice of a father, a husband, a son or a brother...

  Vasily Grossman

  Brother, Husband, Father

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• I've been in love (truly) with five women, the Spanish Republic and the 4th Infantry Division.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Infantry Division, Republic, Been In Love

  Letter to Marlene Dietrich, www.telegraph.co.uk. July 01, 1930.

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