Military Leader Quotes

A military leader often faces a situation he has to deal with, but because it is his duty, no court can try him. ~ Albert Kesselring

No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique. ~ Sun Tzu

The equipment and weaponry will continually change and improve, and the size of the military will expand as needed, decreasing during times of peace. But the unyielding will of the soldier and the dedication of professional military leaders will not change. Our soldiers can do a great deal more under pressure than people think. You'd have to see them perform in combat to believe it. ~ George W. Dunaway

… not only the women of the Qurashi aristocracy were highly enough esteemed as a social group to come, like the men, to swear allegiance and to take part in the negotiations with the new military leader of the city, but also that they could express a boldly critical attitude toward Islam. They were not going to accept the new religion without knowing exactly how it would improve their situation. This critical spirit on the part of women toward the political leader remained alive and well during the first decades of Islam. It only disappeared with the onset of absolutism, with Mu'awiya and the turning of Islam into a dynastic system. This meant, on the one hand, the disappearance of the tribal aristocratic spirit with the formation of the Muslim state, and, on the other hand, the disappearance of Islam as the Prophet's experiment in living, in which equality, however merely potential it might be, opened the door to the dream of a practicing democracy. ~ Fatema Mernissi

The pictures that were coming from Vietnam were showing us what was really happening on the ground level. It was in contradiction to what our political and military leaders were telling us. They were straight forward documentary images. A powerful indictment of the war, of how cruel and unjust it was. When I finally decided what to do with my life, it was to follow in that tradition. ~ James Nachtwey

A military leader thinks about casualties and losses, but a strategic one only aims the win. ~ M.F. Moonzajer

Often times the best military leaders were soldiers. ~ Jim Caviezel

As our leader Saddam Hussein said, 'God is grilling their stomachs in hell.' ~ Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity. ~ Carl Von Clausewitz

Always do everything you ask of those you command. ~ George S. Patton

Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship. ~ Omar Nelson Bradley

Those prisoners who were eventually liberated and returned to the Soviet Union - well over one and a half million - had to face extensive discrimination following an order issued by Stalin in August 1941 equating surrender with treason. Many of them were despatched to the labour camps of the Gulag after being screened by Soviet military counter-intelligence. Despite attempts after Stalin's death by top military leader Marshal Georgi Zhukov to end discrimination against former prisoners of war, they were not formally rehabilitated until 1994.217 ~ Richard J. Evans

Gates should have exceeded Washington as a military leader. He had long experience in a professional army and was more loved by his men. But Washington's character was superior to that of his rival, and it made him a great man, whereas Gates was merely a good soldier. ~ John Ferling

It is this fact which gives America its utter newness. All civilizations we know of were shaped by exclusive minorities of kings, nobles, priests, and the equivalents of the intellectual. It was they who formulated the ideals, aspirations, and values, and it was they who set the tone. America is the only instance of a civilization shaped and colored by the tastes and values of common folk. No elite of whatever nature can feel truly at home in America. This is true not only of the aristocrat proper, but also of the intellectual, the military leader, the business tycoon, and even the labor leader. ~ Eric Hoffer

You cannot be a military leader without physical courage. But there are Plenty of soldiers with physical courage who are not leaders ~ John Adair

United States military leader General Norman Schwarzkopf stated, "Leaders need two things - character and strategy. If you can do only one, drop strategy. ~ E. LeBron Fairbanks

Whenever I hear and see a politician or a military leader, a bank of American flags at his back, trying to convince us of the rightness of a policy or a deed that will cause harm to others; when I am almost convinced myself that setting humanitarian concern in abeyance can be justified in the interest of a greater good, I pause and ask myself what my brain-smoked friends would have to say. ~ James Lee Burke

Live for something rather than die for nothing.
- George Patton ~ Cindy Gerard

It is of course true that many modern combat sports are extremely demanding in terms of physical force, skill, and endurance. Indeed many athletes are much fitter and better trained than the vast majority of soldiers. However, all those various kinds of sport are based on artificial rules as to what is and is not permitted. Furthermore, and with the exception of fencing, a highly ritualized form of combat to which we shall return, even the most violent ones do not permit the players to use weapons. In their absence, most of those skills are too specialized to be of much military relevance. ~ Martin Van Creveld

Deaf rage that hears no leader. ~ Friedrich Schiller

Leaders know that the fruit of life is out on a limb. ~ Orrin Woodward

I've made this statement many times: If I would have to do it over again, I would have made known the forthcoming Tet Offensive. ~ William Westmoreland

When you talk about the security and safety of average Americans it doesn't do average Americans a lot of good to expand America's military footprint if the daily lives of average Americans are being undermined by the fact that we're no longer able to compete in a global economy. I think that's the kind of human security we have to pay more attention to. ~ Peter Beinart

Fixing things requires change and change always creates conflict. But that is why you are a leader. ~ Andy Stanley

Always remember: Business is War.
At the end of the day, the one with access to the best intel wins. This
applies as much to business and politics as it does to the military. Ask
every single billionaire and military or political strategist out there.
They will all confirm that as fact. ~ Ziad K. Abdelnour

My father was a military judge, and my mother was a psychiatric social worker. My brother and sister and I were moved around constantly, in and outside the U.S., living in Germany for much of our teens. ~ Julianne Moore

He is dead, right?"
"Graveyard dead," Bran admitted without a hint of remorse.
"Oh, forgive us," Rick murmured, crossing himself.
"Forgiveness is between him and God," Bran insisted. "It was my job to arrange the meeting."
"Man on Fire," Maddy blurted. ~ Julie Ann Walker

If you're a serious minded leader, you will read. You will read all you can. You will read when you feel like it, and you will read when you don't. You will do whatever you have to do to increase your leadership input, because you know as well as I do that it will make you better. ~ Bill Hybels

I felt like I should salute. If only I knew how. ~ Tucker Elliot

Impartial, compassionate, brave, and understanding ... these are the traits that come with putting the Noble Eightfold Path into practice. By following this path, anyone can become the kind of leader the Buddha hoped to see - a leader of peace. ~ Victoria Stoklasa

They are wrong who think that politics is like an ocean voyage or a military campaign, something to be done with some particular end in view, something which leaves off as soon as that end is reached. It is not a public chore, to be got over with. It is a way of life. It is the life of a domesticated political and social creature who is born with a love for public life, with a desire for honor, with a feeling for his fellows; and it lasts as long as need be. ~ Plutarch

Any great leader in any society probably gives better than he gets ~ Rick Atkinson

As we celebrate the 100th birthday of Margaret Sanger, our outrageous and our courageous leader, we will probably find a number of areas in which we may find more about Margaret Sanger than we thought we wanted to know ... ~ Faye Wattleton

The new leader is a facilitator, not an order giver. ~ John Naisbitt

We [Black people] have always used our creativity to battle and we're not the only ones. Black Americans are certainly leaders in that simply because we were denied education and dealt with enforced illiteracy. But people seem to always forget that literacy is not the only way of learning things or conveying knowledge. ~ Nikki Giovanni

She said that it was a mistake to have made as few superficial friends as I have done in my life, and to have concentrated only on the few things I have concentrated on
her, for one. My children, for another. Sportswriting and being an ordinary citizen. This did not leave me well enough armored for the unexpected, was her opinion. She said this was because I didn't know my parents very well, had gone to a military school, and grown up in the south, which was full of betrayers and secret-keepers and untrustworthy people, which I agree is true, though I never knew any of them. ~ Richard Ford

Kids have always play-fought, but I think my generation had a particularly privileged cultural fantasy surrounding military violence. ~ Nate Powell

There's no such thing as an ex-marine. ~ EX-MARINES

Enough!" Romanoff barked. "Look around you. You're on a military transport. Nobody's flirting. S.H.I.E.L.D. does not run a dating service." "Well," Coulson said, "technically it's frowned upon, but I'd be lying if - " Romanoff glared at Coulson, and he fell silent. ~ Margaret Stohl

The contradictions within Pakistan became still more apparent at my next event, a luncheon hosted in my honor by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and attended by several dozen accomplished women in Pakistan. It was like being rocketed forward several centuries in time. Among these women were academics and activists, as well as a pilot, a singer, a banker and a police deputy superintendent. They had their own ambitions and careers, and, of course, we were all guests of Pakistan's elected female leader. Benazir ~ Hillary Rodham Clinton

Our world leaders ... need our help. They need the cavalry, and the cavalry's not going to come from Mars; it's got to come from us. ~ Jamie Drummond

She got the feeling that as long as she was with Alex, she was going to have to get used to orgasming a lot more often than she had in the past.
It was something she thought she could handle. ~ Paige Tyler

But blaming Islam is a simple answer, easier and less controversial than re-examining the core political issues and grievances that resonate in much of the Muslim world: the failures of many Muslim governments and societies, some aspects of U.S. foreign policy representing intervention and dominance, Western support for authoritarian regimes, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, or support for Israel's military battles with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (p. 136-137) ~ John L. Esposito

Every time I criticize what I consider to be excesses or faults in the news business, I am accused of repression, and the leaders of various media professional groups wave the First Amendment as they denounce me. That happens to be my amendment, too. It guarantees my free speech as it does their freedom of the press ... There is room for all of us - and for our divergent views - under the First Amendment. ~ Spiro T. Agnew

I learned to be far more skeptical of what I'm told by presidents, no matter who the presidents are, and also to be much more cautious, always, in any action or vote that could lead to the use of American military power and most particularly what we call 'boots on the ground.' ~ Hillary Clinton

I joined the military because there is someone I have to protect. ~ Hiromu Arakawa

It is better for a country to have a strong leader, this applies to the United States as well as to Rwanda. ~ Paul Kagame

My father, Ronald Reagan, held the presidency in such honor and reverence that he was never in the Oval Office without a coat and tie. Bill Clinton has such disrespect for the presidency that he was often in the Oval Office without his pants. Behold the leader of 'the most ethical administration in history'. ~ Michael Reagan

As the leader of the Republicans what I'm telling that we elected the president to be president. It's time for him to step up to the plate and lead us in the direction of reducing our excessive spending. ~ Mitch McConnell

Some anti-Americanism derives simply from our being a colossus that bestrides the earth. But much anti-Americanism derives from the role U.S. political, economic and military power has played in denying such freedoms to others. ~ Samantha Power

Local prohibitions cannot block advances in military and commercial technology ... Democratic movements for local restraint can only restrain the world's democracies, not the world as a whole. ~ K. Eric Drexler

At some stage of development an officer had to stop following orders and start generating them. ~ Lois McMaster Bujold

My advice to African leaders is to make sure that if, in fact, China is putting in roads and bridges, number one, that they are hiring African workers; number two, that the roads don't just lead from the mine to the port to Shanghai ~ Barack Obama

Israel is a big provider of military technology to Brazil and this has caused a big breach in the two sides of the government. On the one hand, you have the diplomatic side. On the other side, Brazil's military has been quoted in the local press as being quite upset that this diplomatic standoff could affect the military relationship. ~ Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

The next leader of this country needs to be someone who believes heart and soul that Britain should be outside the European Union. ~ Michael Gove

The Guns, Thank God, The Guns ... ~ Rudyard Kipling

No one is charismatic. Someone becomes charismatic in history, socially. The question for me is once again the problem of humility. If the leader discovers that he is becoming charismatic not because of his or her qualities but because mainly he or she is being able to express the expectations of a great mass of people, then he or she is much more of a translator of the aspirations and dreams of the people, instead of being the creator of the dreams. In expressing the dreams, he or she is recreating these dreams. If he or she is humble, I think that the danger of power would diminish. ~ Myles Horton

Borrowing other people's culture and adopting other people's way of life does destroy nation's self-respect which is the greatest asset a true citizen can enjoy more than food and clothes, more than all amenities and more than military glory. You can adopt a system of government and a way of life, but can you adopt the past history, travail and tradition out of which that system of government and a way of life were evolved? Can we adopt King Charles, King John, Magna Carta and civil wars and Cromwell as our own? They can always say "We evolved a system and a way of life", but we must always sing in refrain, "We borrowed them". Adopting a culture is not the same as adopting the use of a gadget. It is like tying other peoples' mangoes to your tree, while plucking and throwing away your own. How absurd! ~ Manasa Rao

We are an adaptable species and this adaptability has enabled us to survive. However, adaptability can also constitute a threat; we may become habituated to certain dangers and fail to recognize them until it's too late. Nuclear armaments are the most conspicuous example; as you read this you are in effect wearing a military uniform and sitting in a very exposed trench. You exist at the whim of people whose power does not derive from your own consent and who regard you as expendable, disposable. You merely failed to notice the moment at which you were conscripted. A "normal" life consists in living as if this most salient of facts was not a fact at all. ~ Christopher Hitchens

I think business leaders all over the world should not just think of how we can make lots of money, which is fine, but to take some of the problems in the world and get out there and tackle them using business. I think that if businesses do that we can get on top of these problems. ~ Richard Branson

It is not a struggle merely of economic theories, or forms of government or of military power. At issue is the true nature of man. Either man is the creature whom the psalmist described as a little lower than the angels ... or man is a soulless, animated machine to be enslaved, used and consumed by the state for its own glorification. It is, therefore, a struggle which goes to the roots of the human spirit, and its shadow falls across the long sweep of man's destiny. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Military operations cannot be tidy or free of friction - particularly in a coalition whose contributing nations see the campaign through national prisms. ~ Mike Jackson

Russia is still the leader in world space exploration. But its position of leader involves great responsibility - we have no right to lag behind. We can and we must move constantly forward. ~ Valentina Tereshkova

It's not easy being number two. As a marketer, you have limited choices - you can pretend you're not defined by the market leader, or, you can embrace your position and go directly after your nemesis. ~ John Battelle

Our duties naturally emerge form such fundamental relations as our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, our state or nation. Make it your regular habit to consider your roles-parent, child, neighbor, citizen, leader-and the natural duties that arise from them. Once you know who you are and to whom you are linked, you will know what to do. ~ Epictetus

On 9/11, 2001, the Navy stood at 316 ships. By 2008, after one of the great military buildups in American history, we were at 278 ships and had 49,000 fewer sailors. ~ Ray Mabus