American Army Quotes

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  No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

  George S. Patton

  Country, Military, War

  Attributed in Patton (motion picture) (1970). This is sometimes said to have been uttered in a speech by Patton to the Sixth Armored Division of the Third Army, 31 May 1944, but documentation is lacking. The following poem appeared in the Bureau of Aeronautics Navy Department News Letter, 1 Jan. 1943: "The greatest duty of a sailor / Is duty from worries and cares, / Not to die for his country, / Make our enemies die for theirs!"

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• The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.

  Robert H. Schuller

  Inspirational, Life, Truth

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• The 50,000 Korean mercenaries we had in Vietnam were professional killers and just massacred people outright. And the American army did plenty of that too, but it couldn't take it after awhile. It's not the kind of job you can give to conscripts who are not trained to be murderers.

  Noam Chomsky

  Jobs, Army, People

  Source: chomsky.info

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• I was born in Munich, and my father was stationed in Salzburg. For the first three years of my life, I lived in Austria back when the American Army was still in Austria. I grew up subsequently in posts around the country around veterans.

  Rick Atkinson

  Thank You, Country, Memorial Day

  "Rick Atkinson talks "The Guns at Last Light"". Interview with John Barron, www.chicagotribune.com. May 10, 2013.

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• We have great information. They're going to welcome us. It'll be like the American Army going through the streets of Paris. They're sitting there ready to form a new government. The people will be so happy with their freedoms that we'll probably back ourselves out of there within a month or two.

  Dick Cheney

  Army, Government, Streets Of Paris

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• As a matter of fact, that was a bit of a problem for me at the beginning of my career - the problem of identification. In The Conversation I played a character who was gay, so nobody recognised me from American Graffiti. When I did Apocalypse Now, after Star Wars, I played an intelligence officer of the American army. George Lucas saw the footage I had done and didn't recognise me until halfway through the scene.

  Harrison Ford

  Stars, War, Character

  "Star Wars Archive: Harrison Ford, Solo Artist". Interview with William Thomas, www.empireonline.com. June, 2002.

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• The spring of 1942 was given over to a very impassioned, strategic debate about where we should first attack in counterpunching against the Germans and Italians. The British argued very persuasively on the part of Winston Churchill, prime minister, that this was a very green American Army, green soldiers, green commanders.

  Rick Atkinson

  Spring, Army, Soldier

  "Military Historian Writes Of Wars Past And Present". Interview with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. July 1, 2010.

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• The American army between world wars after World War I had virtually disintegrated. It was a very small force, given largely to practicing cavalry charges on western outposts.

  Rick Atkinson

  War, Army, World

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• The world came so close to self-destruction during my lifetime. I was serving in the American Army, in the Pacific, at the time they bombed Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, and I felt there something like a foretaste of the end of the world.

  Gore Vidal

  Army, Self, World

  "The End of Gore Vidal". Interview with Lila Azam Zanganeh, www.guernicamag.com. August 15, 2012.

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• The gallantry and aggressive fighting spirit of the Russian soldiers command the American army's admiration.

  George C. Marshall

  War, Army, Fighting

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• The eventual place the American army should take on the western front was to a large extent influenced by the vital question of communication and supply.

  Kelly Miller

  Communication, Army, Should

  Kelly Miller (1919). “Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights: An Intensely Human and Brilliant Account of the World War; why American Entered the Conflict; what the Allies Fought For; and a Thrilling Account of the Important Part Taken by the Negro in the Tragic Defeat of Germany ...”

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• In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation. It isn't happening now, but I will tell you, there has never been an American army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq.

  Seymour Hersh

  Baby, Army, Iraq

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• When it was reported to General Washington that the army was frequently indulging in swearing, he immediately sent out the following order: The general is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing - a vice little known heretofore in the American army - is growing into fashion. Let the men and officers reflect "that we can not hope for the blessing of heaven on our army if we insult it by our impiety and folly."

  George Washington

  Fashion, Sorry, Army

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• The point is, that the function of the novel seems to be changing; it has become an outpost of journalism; we read novels for information about areas of life we don't know - Nigeria, South Africa, the American army, a coal-mining village, coteries in Chelsea, etc. We read to find out what is going on. One novel in five hundred or a thousand has the quality a novel should have to make it a novel - the quality of philosophy.

  Doris Lessing

  Philosophy, Army, Should Have

  Doris May Lessing (1994). “The Golden Notebook”, HarperCollins Publishers

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