Military Philosophy Quotes

“Foreknowledge cannot be gotten from ghosts and spirits, cannot be had by analogy, cannot be found out by calculation. It must be obtained from people, people who know the conditions of the enemy.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible, and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Even if you strive diligently on your chosen path day after day, if your heart is not in accord with it, then even if you think you are on a good path, from the point of view of the straight and true, this is not a genuine path. If you do not pursue a genuine path to its consummation, then a little bit of crookedness in the mind will later turn into a major warp. Reflect on this.”
― Musashi Miyomoto, A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“Yep, as my old pappy used to say, every man living has at least one flaw in his character and some have many for the perfect human is yet to be born. But a guy’s courage is a different matter aint it, a guy without courage is fucking useless in the same way as one who can’t keep his word is fucking useless. I guess what I am talking about here is honor, and a guy without honor just aint worth a goddamn to anyone.”

A sage-like moment, courtesy of Corporal "Bayou" Lejeune.

VC Lake, D 10 Special Zone, South Vietnam, in the fall of 67.”
― Sergeant Walker, Southlands Snuffys : Forest of Assassins - to - City of Hong Kong.

“There is great disadvantage in seeing the past as clearly as one sees the present, carrying in the mind visions of the past as vivid as on the day they happened.”
― Sergeant Walker, Southlands Snuffys : Forest of Assassins - to - City of Hong Kong.

“You know that when ex-military personnel start assassinating their own government's agents that something funky is going on.”
― Steven Magee

“Maybe I trust you to be a man and handle the gray reality of truth better than all these kids who still think in black-and-white.”

Commander Zeke Waters from The Only Way Out Is In”
― Lyn Gala

“It's hard to win a war with a front at your back.”
― Gregory S. Close, In Siege of Daylight

“As the demands of the positions differed, and as I grew in age and experience, I found that I had changed as a leader. I learned to ask myself two questions: First, what must the organization I command do and be? And second, how can I best command to achieve that?”
― Stanley McChrystal, My Share of the Task: A Memoir

“There is something in a war carried on by invasion which makes it differ in circumstances from any other mode of war, because he who conducts it cannot tell whether the ground he gains be for him, or against him, when her first obtains it.”
― Thomas Paine, The Crisis

“Evil as existed in all times, and in all places; and in all times and places, those willing to meet evil have also existed. This is the warrant for and the essence of the warrior.”
― Daniel Modell, The Warriors Manifesto: Ideals for Those Who Protect and Defend

“Regardless of all its faults, failings, or anything else, the United States of America is not a nation an enemy should ever underestimate, for it will destroy anything that comes at it.”
― Sergeant Walker, Southlands Snuffys

“Certainly, I believed that our democratic system of government was the best thing going. I was a flag-waver from way back. I was proud of my country. It was the moral weakness of our leaders that concerned me. They were prone to the same frailties of arrogance, greed, and sanctimony as those of any other country. The primitive concept of 'might makes right' still reigned supreme. Hadn't thousands of years of history taught us anything?”
― Richard Cezar, MP

“The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Was war just a power game for an elite few? Did the loss of human lives really matter to them, or was it just a way to keep score? In reading their own staff-authored speeches over and over again, had they deluded themselves, believing that any action they took was in the cause of freedom and thereby righteous?”
― Richard Cezar, MP

“War makes persons special, peoples cheap.”
― Brian Spellman, Cartoonist's Book Camp

“What is the difference? Tell me what is the difference between you and me. We both kill for what we want," the man asks.

"We lived here first.”
― Brittany Noel Bostic, The Fight

“Very few people in the USA realize that a nuclear war was waged with nature in the southwest by their own military.”
― Steven Magee

“I don’t train to be in a gunfight; I’d much rather be in a shooting—there’s a difference. A gunfight means he’s shooting back at me. In a shooting, I’m doing all the work.”
― Jamie Smith

“There are no second-place finishers—you don’t take silver, you simply lose gold. Second place is nothing but the best loser—nobody lost better than the guy in second place. But on the battlefield that guy usually winds up dead.”
― Jamie Smith

“Zombies don't bother me, sir," Faith said, dimpling cutely. "They're insane, hungry, angry animals. They won't kill me from professional courtesy, sir.”
― John Ringo, Islands of Rage & Hope

“Never leap into battle, when you may come quietly to victory at a walk.”
― Gregory S. Close, In Siege of Daylight

“The military gives you a title and makes you into somebody. You go from being “some guy named Zach” to being “Staff Sergeant Renfro.” However, when you crossover from military to veteran, you lose your previous identity. When you get your DD-214, “Staff Sergeant Renfro” ceases to exist, and suddenly you are “some guy named Zach” again.”
― Zachariah Renfro

“Be an evening general, content at manoeuvring the day’s skirmishes, and not a conscripted grunt griping about duty and suffering. At day’s end, plan tomorrow’s advances.”
― Stewart Stafford

“If a LEADER is using their time wisely, they don't have time to look for attention or feed an ego. The reward just happens as a pleasant byproduct.”
― Donavan Nelson Butler, MSG, US Army Retired

“The best plan in the world will fail if you cannot communicate it. Similarly, a
poor plan can be saved by good confident orders. Only competent orders will
leave a Marine in no doubt as to what is expected of him”
― Sergeant Walker, Southlands Snuffys

“Guilliman has always believed that the true purpose of a warlord, or a Battle King, or a warmaster, was not to wage war but to prevent it.”
― Dan Abnett, The Unremembered Empire

“When in war, everything this side of death can be endured.”
― Robin Blair-Crawford

“There comes a time in war where the best defense is no defense.”
― Robin Blair-Crawford

“ASSertive, ill-informed, and misguided leadership at the expense of organizational morale, climate, soldier well-being, and taking care of a soldier's support system isn't leadership at all; it's the chemistry for eroded trust, values, warrior ethos, ethics, and discipline, which takes far longer to rebuild than it took to destroy”
― Donavan Nelson Butler, Master Sergeant US Army

“There are two great things worth remembering. Number one, there's only one worse thing than working with allies. That is working without them. And when you do always remember, never above, never below, always side by side”
― Alistair Carns