Combat Quotes - Page 11

• I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can...And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same...I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

  Socrates

  Life, Courage, Men

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• As far as this citizen is concerned, the decision to commit men and women, who are also sons and daughters, to combat is an extraordinarily important one, and not to be done to just feel good; to be done to absolutely accomplish a mission.

  Richard Armitage

  Daughter, Mother, Son

  9/11 Commission Hearings, www.washingtonpost.com. March 24, 2004.

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• It is to the United States that all freemen look for the light and the hope of the world. Unless we dedicate ourselves completely to this struggle, unless we combat hunger with food, fear with trust, suspicion with faith, fraud with justice - and threats with power, nations will surrender to the futility, the hopelessness, the panic on which wars feed.

  Omar N. Bradley

  Fear, War, Struggle

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• I'm a combat diver, I've never done something like this.

  Joe Teti

  Survival, Done

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• Often, during combat, the warrior of light receives blows that he was not expecting. And he realizes that, during a war, his enemy is bound to win some of the battles. When this happens, the warrior of light weeps bitter tears and rests in order to recover his energies a little. But he immediately resumes the battle for his dreams.

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, Dream, War

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• Like the fighter, the Warrior is aware of his own immense strength; he never fights with anyone who does not deserve the honor of combat.

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, Strength, Inspiration

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• He remembers the five rules of combat set down by Chuan Tzu - faith, companions, time, space and strategy.

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, Inspiration, Space

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• Our families may be corrupted by worldly trends and teachings unless we know how to use the [Book of Mormon] to expose and combat the falsehoods in socialism, organic evolution, rationalism, humanism, and so forth.…And our nation will continue to degenerate unless we read and heed the words of the God of this land, Jesus Christ, and quit building up and upholding the secret combinations which the Book of Mormon tells us proved the downfall of both previous American civilizations.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Jesus, Book, Teaching

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• Democracy acknowledges the right to differ as well as the duty to settle differences peacefully. Authoritarian governments see criticism of their actions and doctrines as a challenge to combat.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Government, Differences, Challenges

  Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). “Freedom from fear: and other writings”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• This world belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak. We must face up to this. No more than right that it should be this way. We must learn to accept it as a law of the natural world. The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about. And he endures, he goes on. He knows his place. He most certainly doesn't challenge the wolf to combat. Now, would that be wise? Would it?

  Ken Kesey

  Wise, Strong, Law

  Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.33, Hamilton Books

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• Everything I had ever learned about air fighting taught me that the man who is aggressive, who pushes a fight, is the pilot who is successful in combat and who has the best opportunity for surviving battle and coming home.

  Robert S. Johnson

  Home, Fighting, Successful

  Robert S. Johnson, Martin Caidin “Thunderbolt! The Extraordinary Story of a World War II Ace”, Lulu.com

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• Good flying never killed an enemy yet.

  Mick Mannock

  Flying, Enemy, Aviation

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• A top World War II ace once said that fighter pilots fall into two broad categories: those who go out to kill and those who, secretly, desperately, know they are going to get killed-the hunters and the hunted.

  Nathan Farragut Twining

  War, Fall, Two

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• You lived and died alone, especially in fighters. Fighters. Somehow, despite everything, that word had not become sterile. You slipped into the hollow cockpit and strapped and plugged yourself into the machine. The canopy ground shut and sealed you off. Your oxygen, your very breath, you carried into the chilled vacuum, in a steel bottle.

  James Salter

  Oxygen, Vacuums, Steel

  James Salter (2012). “The Hunters”, p.193, Counterpoint Press

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• The more mechanical becomes the weapons with which we fight, the less mechanical must be the spirit which controls them.

  Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell

  Fighting, Weapons, Spirit

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• I mean, I had fast motor cars and fast motor bikes, and when I wasn't crashing airplanes, I was crashing motor bikes. It's all part of the game.

  Harry Broadhurst

  Airplane, Mean, Games

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• To the aircraft I aim, not the man.

  Francesco Baracca

  Men, Aviation, He Man

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• You don't think much of the individual, because you don't think you've hit him and you hope that he will bail out or something; it's the aeroplane you've hit . . . normally it was more of a game if you like, you were outwitting and shooting down another aircraft, you were simply hitting metal.

  Peter Malam Brothers

  Thinking, Games, Bail

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• Of all my accomplishments I may have achieved during the war, I am proudest of the fact that I never lost a wingman.

  Erich Hartmann

  War, Accomplishment, May

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• During their college years the oarsmen put in terrbily long hours, often showing up at the boathouse at 6:00am for preclass practices. Both physically and psychologically, they were separated from their classmates. Events that seemed earth-shattering to them-- for example, who was demoted from the varsity to the junior varsity -- went almost unnoticed by the rest of the students. In many ways they were like combat veterans coming back from a small, bitter and distant war, able to talk only to other veterans.

  David Halberstam

  War, College, Years

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• So it was that the war in the air began. Men rode upon the whirlwind that night and slew and fell like archangels. The sky rained heroes upon the astonished earth. Surely the last fights of mankind were the best. What was the heavy pounding of your Homeric swordsmen, what was the creaking charge of chariots, besides this swift rush, this crash, this giddy triumph, this headlong sweep to death?

  H. G. Wells

  War, Hero, Fighting

  H. G. Wells (2015). “The World Set Free: H. G. Wells Collections”, p.62, 谷月社

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• Watching the Dallas Cowboys perform, it is not difficult to believe that coach Tom Landry flew fourengines bombers during World War II. He was in B17 Flying Fortresses out of England, they say. His cautious, conservative approach to every situation and the complexity of the plays he sends in do seem to reflect the philosophy of a pilot trained to doggedly press on according to plans laid down before takeoff. I sometimes wonder how the Cowboys would have fared all this years had Tom flown fighters in combat situations which dictated continuously changing tactics.

  Len Morgan

  Philosophy, War, Believe

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• The aggressive spirit, the offensive, is the chief thing everywhere in war, and the air is no exception.

  Manfred von Richthofen

  War, Air, Spirit

  Manfred Von Richthofen (2009). “The Red Baron”, p.107, Pen and Sword

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• If I were, to pick out the most valuable personal traits of a fighter pilot, aggressiveness would rate high on the list. Time and again, I have seen aggressive action, even from a disadvantageous position, completely rout a powerful Nip formation.

  Charles H. MacDonald

  Powerful, Pilots, Lists

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• There are pilots and there are pilots; with the good ones, it is inborn. You can't teach it. If you are a fighter pilot, you have to be willing to take risks.

  Robin Olds

  Risk, Pilots, Aviation

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