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"Nothing concentrates the military mind so much as the discovery that you have walked into an ambush." 
-Thomas Packenham, British historian

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value."
   - Thomas Paine ("The American Crisis")

"Good logistics is combat power"
- Lieutenant-General William G. Pagonis, 
Director of Logistics during the Gulf War of 1991

Intuition is often crucial in combat, and survivors learn not to ignore it.
- Col F.F. Parry, USMC (Ret.)

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.
-Norman Vincent Peale

"No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself."
   - William Penn

We have met the enemy and they are ours!
-Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, dispatch, Battle of Lake Erie, Sept. 10, 1813

"Soldiers’ bellies are not satisfied with empty promises and hopes." 
-Peter the Great

In the moment of action remember the value of silence and order.
-Phormio of Athens

"I don’t care how they dress so long as they mind their fighting." 
-Sir Thomas Picton, British general killed at Waterloo, 1815, when questioned about the slovenly appearance of his troops

"A force engaged is out of the hand of its commander"
- Colonel Charles Ardant du Picq, "Battle studies" 1880

If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country I never would lay down my arms, never! Never! Never! 
- William Pitt, 1708-1778

A ship without Marines is like a garment without buttons.
- Admiral David D. Porter, USN

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who allows the protestor to burn the flag."
   - Charles M. Province

"Paper-work will ruin any military force"
- Lieutenant-General Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller

"Our Country won't go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won't be any AMERICA because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race!"
-Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller, USMC

"The concentration of troops can be done fast and easy, on paper." 
-Radomir Putnik, Serbian field marshal, 1912-17

“You pick out the big men! I’ll make them brave!”
- Pyrrhus (319-272 BC), Molossian king of Epirus, to his recruiters.
Quoted in Frontinus “Stratagems” ca 90 AD.