Greatest Military Quotes of All Time – Military heroes are often inspired and encouraged by military quotes to act courageously and selflessly. Because of them, people will be more willing to risk their lives for their country.
Our collection of military quotes in this piece will motivate military men and women to put others before themselves for the sake of duty and honor.
In addition, military quotes remind us how fortunate we are to live in a free country. However, they also show how crucial it is to protect our independence at all costs.
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Greatest Military Quotes of All Time
Check out our collection of powerful and inspiring military quotes below:
Most Inspiring Military Quotes
“If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.” – Andre Malraux
“The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The Soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country”- George S. Patton Jr.
“We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.”- George Orwell
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” –
“The most dangerous people in the world are not the tiny minority instigating evil acts, but those who do the acts for them. For example, when the British invaded India, many Indians accepted to work for the British to kill off Indians who resisted their occupation. So in other words, many Indians were hired to kill other Indians on behalf of the enemy for a paycheck. Today, we have mercenaries in Africa, corporate armies from the western world, and unemployed men throughout the Middle East killing their own people – and people of other nations – for a paycheck. To act without a conscience, but for a paycheck, makes anyone a dangerous animal. The devil would be powerless if he couldn’t entice people to do his work. So as long as money continues to seduce the hungry, the hopeless, the broken, the greedy, and the needy, there will always be war between brothers.” –
“I don’t want unnecessary violence, sergeant,” said Blouse.
“Right you are, sir!” said the sergeant. “Carborundum! First man comes through that door runnin’, I want him nailed to the wall!” He caught the lieutenant’s eye, and added: “But not too hard!” – Monstrous Regiment
Most Powerful Military Quotes
“Military guys are rarely as smart as they think they are, and they’ve never gotten over the fact that civilians run the military.” –
“My centre is giving way, my right is in retreat, situation excellent. I attack.” –
“Is killing a known terrorist wrong? I ask this, did the terrorist allow any of his victims quarter? No, then allow him no quarter, and hoist the black flag.” –
“I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: ‘I served in the United States Navy.” –
Military Quotes Worth Remembering
“America’s finest – our men and women in uniform, are a force for good throughout the world, and that is nothing to apologize for.” –
“America without her Soldiers would be like God without His angels.” –
“Aim towards the enemy.” – instructions on U.S. rocket launcher” – U.S. instruction manual
“Civilians are like beans; you buy ’em as needed for any job which merely requires skill and savvy. But you can’t buy fighting spirit.” – Robert A. Heinlein
“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.” – George F. Kennan
“For some twenty years the window that opened at the end of the Cold War has been allowed to hang flapping in the wind. It is high time that the five nuclear-weapon states take seriously their commitment to negotiate toward nuclear disarmament.” – Hans Blix, Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters
“His name was Rambo, and he was just some nothing kid for all anybody knew, standing by the pump of a gas station at the outskirts of Madison, Kentucky.” – David Morrell, First Blood
“Pick a leader who is strong and confident yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the welder, the doctor, and the environmentalist — not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist.” – Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
Best Military Quotes from the Past
“It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.” – Alexander Hamilton
“War makes extremely heavy demands on the soldier’s strength and nerves. For this reason, make heavy demands on your men in peacetime exercises.” – General Field Marshall Erwin Rommel
“It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it.” – General Robert E. Lee
“In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten; then he who continues the attack wins.” – General Ulysses S. Grant
“When things go wrong in your command, start wading for the reason in increasingly larger concentric circles around your own desk.” – General Bruce C. Clarke
“If officers desire to have control over their commands, they must remain habitually with them, industriously attend to their instruction and comfort, and in battle lead them well.” – General Stonewall Jackson
“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.” – Alexander the Great
“Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.” – John Adams
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.” – Abraham Lincoln
Military Quotes from Historic Americans
“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with lots of pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.” – Woodrow Wilson
“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” – George Washington
“I can’t spare this man, he fights!” – Abraham Lincoln
“Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.” – John Dickinson
“Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but the Marines don’t have that problem.” – Ronald Reagan
“Here men endured that a nation might live.” – Herbert Hoover
“Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Discipline is the soul of an army.” – George Washington
“I almost always feel inclined, when I happen to say anything to soldiers, to impress upon them in a few brief remarks the importance of success in this contest.” – Abraham Lincoln
“It is a proud privilege to be a soldier – a good soldier with discipline, self-respect, pride in his unit and his country, a high sense of duty and obligation to comrades and to his superiors, and a self-confidence born of demonstrated ability.” – George S. Patton Jr.
“Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace.” – Ulysses S. Grant
Military Quotes to Inspire and Motivate
“War means fighting, and fighting means killing.” – Nathan Bedford Forrest
“Once we have a war, there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.” – Ernest Hemingway
“No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.” – William Penn
“Soldiers win battles, and generals get the medals.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never peril.” – Sun Tzu
“Battles are sometimes won by generals; wars are nearly always won by sergeants and privates.” – F. E. Adcock
“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” – Winston Churchill
“We make war that we may live in peace.” – Aristotle
“If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.” – Sun Tzu
“America is hope. It is compassion. It is excellence. It is valor.” – Paul Tsongas
Military Quotes to Elevate Your Thoughts
“One who loses his life for his country will get it” – Dr.P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar
“Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.” – Samuel Johnson
“If I charge, follow me. If I retreat, kill me. If I die, revenge me.” – USMC
“The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.” – Edward Gibbon
“Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.” – George S. Patton
“I loved the Army as an institution and loathed every single thing it required me to do.” – Simon Raven
“It’s almost worth having been in the army for the joy your freedom gives you.” – John Dos Passos
“Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.” – George S. Patton
“Success in battle is not a function of how many show up, but who they are.” – Robert H. Barrow
“Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Powerful Military Quotes
“Those of us who have never been in the military don’t understand what it is like to serve in the military.” – Gina Barreca
“The army teaches boys to think like men.” – Elvis Presley
“I am a Soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.” – George S. Patton
“I owe everything to the army.” – Norman Wisdom
“The army is always the same. The sun and the moon change. The army knows no seasons.” – Frank Nugent
“A leader leads by example, not by force.” – Sun Tzu
“An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.” – Mao Zedong
“No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war.” – Calvin Coolidge
“Therefore a victorious army first wins and then seeks battle; a defeated army first battles and then seeks victory.” – Sun Tzu
“The Army was my bread and butter.” – Brian Lumley
More Military Quotes and Sayings
“The military is not so much a job; it is more of a death sentence.” – Steven Magee
“Military guys are rarely as smart as they think they are, and they’ve never gotten over the fact that civilians run the military.” – Maureen Dowd
“The military system of a nation is not an independent section of the social system but an aspect of its totality.” – Tony Judt
“Bein’ a soldier is not hard. If it was, soldiers would not be able to do it.” – Terry Pratchett
“Those who do not appreciate the soldiers and instead pompously talk about peace, should try to live a single day without the soldiers.” – Abhijit Naskar
“War is life multiplied by some number that no one has ever heard of.” – Sebastian Junger
“The power of the army is his weapon, the power of the homeland is his lovers.” – Azadshah Ganjali
“Heroes may not live long in years, but they live forever in the stories.” – Amit Kalantri
“The hero’s sacrifice becomes just the story for people.” – Amit Kalantri
“Civilians enjoy their time because soldiers sacrifice their time.” – Amit Kalantri
Final Thoughts
These powerful quotes from genuine patriots, military commanders, and statesmen are a potent reminder that freedom does not come without a price.
Moreover, the quotes make us realize the enormous price many people paid to secure the freedom we enjoy today.
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We hope you enjoyed this collection of excellent military quotes. Use them as a source of daily inspiration and motivation to perform heroic acts even as you go about your daily activities. We need this kind of inspiration to win because we are all soldiers fighting our own battles.
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