Soldier Quotes - Page 19

• However much pains may be taken to combine the soldier and the citizen in one and the same individual, whatever may be done to nationalize wars, never will it be possible to do away with the professionalism of the business; and if that cannot be done, then those who belong to it will always look upon themselves as a kind of guild, in the regulations, laws, and customs in which the "Spirit of War" finds its expression. It would be very wrong to look down upon this corporate spirit, or esprit de corps, which may and should exist more or less in every Army.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Pain, War, Taken

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• The only absolutely and unapproachably heroic element in the soldier's work seems to be-that he is paid little for it-and regularly.

  John Ruskin

  Elements, Littles, Heroic

  John Ruskin, John D. Rosenberg (1964). “The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings”, p.288, University of Virginia Press

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• This is no time for wimpy Christians. It's time for soldiers of Christ to arise!

  Alistair Begg

  Christian, Christ, Arise

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• War loses a great deal of its romance after a soldier has seen his first battle. I have a more vivid recollection of the first that the last one I was in. It is a classical maxim that it is sweet and becoming to die for one's country; but whoever has seen the horrors of a battlefield feels that it is far sweeter to live for it.

  John S. Mosby

  Country, Sweet, War

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• Maybe we're all a little too desperate these days for a simple formula to explain how our safe world came unhinged. That, as much as anything, may explain one of the more enduring conspiracy theories of the moment, the notion that we are about to send a quarter of a million American soldiers to war for the sake of Israel.

  Bill Keller

  War, Simple, Israel

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• I have never understood why the politicians who are most eager to send soldiers into harm's way are always depicted as their most ardent friends.

  Joe Conason

  Way, Politician, Harm

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• Iraqi fighters on the front lines, You courageous officers and soldiers who have been fighting valiantly and efficiently - you have restored the glories of your great Iraq. You have proved that you are the true descendants of those great fighters throughout the ages. You have given the most remarkable example of Arab military power, of which the Arab nation is in need today and tomorrow in its struggle to maintain its existence and integrity, and to restore its usurped rights and territories.

  Saddam Hussein

  Military, Integrity, Struggle

  "President Saddam Hussein's Speech on National Day", Baghdad : Dar al-Ma'mun for Translation and Pub, 1981.

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• Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any Canadian or Indian in his person or property, I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment, as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it shall not be disproportioned to its guilt, at such a time and in such a cause.

  George Washington

  Punishment, Guilt, May

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1834). “(v. 9) Containing correspondence from the time of resigning his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, to that of his inauguration as president”, p.90

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• I'm always embarrassed when people say that I'm courageous. Soldiers are courageous. Policemen are courageous. Firemen are courageous. I just have a thick hide and disregard what silly people say.

  Thomas Sowell

  Silly, People, Courageous

  "Live: Thomas Sowell". Interview with David Isaac, www.aei.org. January 1, 2004.

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• Earnestly recommended to all officers and soldiers, diligently to attend divine services.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Divine, Officers

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• The U.S. Army cancelled an order for 600,000 black berets that were made in China. It's not just that they were made by slave laborers. It's that no soldier can feel good about himself wearing headgear from the Kathie Lee Collection.

  Argus Hamilton

  Army, Order, Feel Good

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• The brave men die in war. It takes great luck or judgment not to be killed. Once‚ at least‚ the head has to bow and the knee has to bend to danger. The soldiers who march back under the triumphal arches are death's deserters.

  Jean Giraudoux

  War, Men, Brave

  Jean Giraudoux (1963). “Judith. Tiger at the gates. Duel of angels”

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• Should any Iraqi officer or soldier receive an order from Saddam Hussein.... don't follow that order. Because if you choose to do so, when Iraq is liberated, you will be treated, tried and persecuted as a war criminal.

  George W. Bush

  War, Order, Iraq

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• Coming up through the ranks of any calling can be rough, but that battered soul who survives the early years of courting the comic muse comes close to knowing what only the soldier knows: What combat is like.

  Dick Cavett

  Years, Knowing, Soul

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• I am a soldier and accustomed to risking my life every day. I am full of the fire of youth; I cannot act with the restraint of an accomplished diplomat.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Fire, Diplomats, Youth

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• Memorial Day orators will say that a G.I.'s life is priceless. Don't believe it. I know what value the U.S. government assigns to a soldier's life: I've been handed the check. It's roughly what the Yankees will pay Roger Clemens per inning once he starts pitching next month.

  Andrew Bacevich

  Memorial Day, Believe, Yankees

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• Two things are to blame for our predicament, one a corollary of the other. The first reason is that we did not have enough troops in Samarra. The skill and courage of 150 American soldiers prevented chaos, but was never enough to fully secure a city of 120,000 people or maintain the rule of law [...] Second, because of a lack of troops, American military leaders are forced to make a choice between mission objectives and self-preservation.

  Pete Hegseth

  Military, Self, Law

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• Despite all the dire predictions made in 2001, the Afghans have given the international community, its aid workers and soldiers a large window of opportunity to repair the damage done by 25 years of war. That window, which has stayed open for nearly five years, with amazing good will from the Afghans, is threatening to close unless the world wakes up and deals with the crisis.

  Ahmed Rashid

  War, Opportunity, Years

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• Grasp the opportunity with both hands to feel really very special as an Indian reading these quotes on the Indian Independence Day. A number of famous and reputed persons have thrown some light on the chapter of Indian Independence. India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border!"

  Hu Shih

  Reading, Opportunity, Light

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• You have the energy when you're a kid to really fight for rights - that's why kids make great soldiers, right?

  Milla Jovovich

  Kids, Fighting, Rights

  Interview with Michelle Rodriguez, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 12, 2015.

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• I wasn't trying to write a corrective novel - that would just end up tasting like medicine, and I tried to stay away from polemics as best I could. I think that, if anything, Fobbit is my way of showing readers there's another side to war - the backstage of combat, if you will. If you play a word association game with Americans and say "war," what's the first thing that comes to mind? Soldiers running across a battlefield through a hail of bullets, right? Rambo, smoke, explosions. In Fobbit, I hope readers will see something a little different

  Dave Abrams

  Running, War, Writing

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I think it's possible - perhaps even necessary - to find comedy in any war. I mean, look at the brilliant work which was done by Joseph Heller and Richard Hooker (M*A*S*H) and Jaroslav Hasek (The Good Soldier Svejk - which I haven't read, but have heard was funny).

  Dave Abrams

  War, Mean, Thinking

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I think I'm still just as conflicted about the war as I always was. On the one hand, I was a soldier carrying out his duty, following his allegiance to his country and to the mission at hand. But yet, there was always this unease plaguing me. "What are we doing here?" "Are we really fixing this country or are we doing more harm than good?" And the most pressing question: "How do we pull ourselves out of this quicksand?" I think I'm still there in that white space you mentioned, trying to get clarity for myself on what this war did to us as a nation.

  Dave Abrams

  Country, War, Thinking

  Source: therumpus.net

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• In art class at school we learned how to draw tanks and soldiers opening fire at [Iranian leader Ayatollah] Khomeini and his beard. They didn't teach us the names of the flowers that grew around us in the city - wild flowers of all kinds and all colors. The math teacher used to whip the kids with his trouser belt. My father was constantly violent toward my mother for the most trivial reasons.

  Hassan Blasim

  Mother, Teacher, Art

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• We used to watch executions. I mentioned that in one of my stories. There was a piece of open ground near the area where we lived and we used to play soccer there. That was where they used to hold public executions for soldiers who deserted the army and members of the Kurdish resistance.

  Hassan Blasim

  Soccer, Army, Play

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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