He who whets his steel, whets his courage.
We came to realise – first with astonishment, then bitterness, and finally with indifference – that intellect apparently wasn't the most important thing ... not ideas, but the system; not freedom, but drill. We had joined up with enthusiasm and with good will; but they did everything to knock that out of us.
In this world, a man, himself, is nothing. And there ain’t no world but this one.
We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial – I believe we are lost.
We didn’t join the Corps ‘cause we felt like it, we joined ‘cause it was a life decision. We wanted to live by a code, sir. And we found it in the Corps. And now you’re asking me to sign a piece of paper that says we have no honor. We have no Code. You’re asking us to say we’re not Marines.
She had been proud of his decision to serve his country, her heart bursting with love and admiration the first time she saw him outfitted in his dress blues.
War is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one’s will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god.
Three marines made a fire team, three fire teams made a squad, three squads made a platoon, three platoons made a company, three companies made a battalion, and three battalions made a regiment.
I’ll have you know that a soldier is the most holy of all humans because he is the most tested – most tested of all.
I signed up to protect this country. I do not choose the wars. It happens that I love to fight. But I do not choose which battles I go to. Y’all send me to them. I had to wonder why these people weren’t protesting at their congressional offices or in Washington. Protesting the people who were ordered to protect them – let’s just say it put a bad taste in my mouth.
It makes no difference what men think of war. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here.
A good general reports successes and conceals mishaps.