Bill Mauldin Quotes

• Look at an infantryman's eyes and you can tell how much war he has seen.

  Bill Mauldin

  Military, War, Eye

  Up Front cartoon caption (1945)

  47 Copy quote

• Humor is really laughing off a hurt, grinning at misery.

  Bill Mauldin

  Hurt, Humor, Laughing

  Time magazine, July 21, 1961.

  25 Copy quote

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

  Bill Mauldin

  Way, Infantry, Pacifist

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

  9 Copy quote

• 'Peace' is when nobody's shooting. A 'just peace' is when our side gets what it wants.

  Bill Mauldin

  Cynical, Shooting, Want

  4 Copy quote

• The American public highly overrates its sense of humor. We're great belly laughers and prat fallers, but we never really did have a real sense of humor. Not satire anyway. We're a fatheaded, cotton-picking society. When we realize finally that we aren't God's given children, we'll understand satire. Humor is really laughing off a hurt, grinning at misery.

  Bill Mauldin

  Hurt, Children, Real

  Time magazine, July 21, 1961.

  4 Copy quote

• I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages.

  Bill Mauldin

  Funny, Motivation, Science

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  39 Copy quote

• I was a born troublemaker and might as well earn a living at it.

  Bill Mauldin

  Might, Born, Trouble Maker

  Bill Mauldin, Todd DePastino (2008). “Willie & Joe: The WWII Years”, Fantagraphics Books

  13 Copy quote

• I drew pictures for and about the soldiers because I knew what their life was like and understood their gripes. I wanted to make something out of the humorous situations which come up even when you don't think life could be any more miserable.

  Bill Mauldin

  Humorous, Thinking, Soldier

  4 Copy quote

• When we realize finally that we aren't God's given children, we'll understand satire. Humor is really laughing off a hurt, grinning at misery.

  Bill Mauldin

  Hurt, Children, Laughing

  Time magazine, July 21, 1961.

  6 Copy quote

• Certainly none of the advances made in civilization has been due to counterrevolutionaries and advocates of the status quo.

  Bill Mauldin

  Civilization, Made, Status Quo

  Bill Mauldin (1947). “Back Home”

  4 Copy quote

• My outlook on warfare is best illustrated by a cartoon I did some thirty-odd years ago of a soldier in an Italian foxhole reading about the Normandy invasion and observing to his buddy that: "The hell this ain't the most important hole in the world . I'm in it.

  Bill Mauldin

  Reading, Italian, Years

  Bill Mauldin, United States. National Park Service. Division of Publications (1978). “Mud & guts: a look at the common soldier of the American revolution”, Government Printing Office

  17 Copy quote

• If you're a leader, you don't push wet spaghetti, you pull it. The U.S. Army still has to learn that. The British understand it. Patton understood it. I always admired Patton. Oh, sure, the stupid bastard was crazy. He was insane. He thought he was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn't like that attitude, but I certainly respected his theories and the techniques he used to get his men out of their foxholes.

  Bill Mauldin

  Attitude, Dark, Soldier

  "The Brass Ring". Book by Bill Mauldin, 1971.

  7 Copy quote

• If you're a leader, you don't push wet spaghetti, you pull it.

  Bill Mauldin

  Leadership, Spaghetti, Wet

  "The Brass Ring". Book by Bill Mauldin, 1971.

  7 Copy quote

• A soldier's life revolves around his mail. Like many others, I've been able to follow my kid's progress from the day he was born until now he is able to walk and talk a little, and although I have never seen him I know him very well.

  Bill Mauldin

  Kids, Soldier, Progress

  16 Copy quote

• I would like to thank the people who encouraged me to draw army cartoons at a time when the gag man's conception of the army was one of mean ole sergeants and jeeps which jump over mountains.

  Bill Mauldin

  Mean, Army, Men

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

  87 Copy quote

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