Military Leadership Quotes

A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He says 'I was beaten', he does not say 'My men were beaten. ~ Antoine De Saint Exupery

Success in past U.S. conflicts has not been strictly the result of military leadership but rather the judgment of the president in choosing generals and setting broad strategy. ~ Robert Dallek

Most people associate command and control leadership with the military. ~ Margaret J. Wheatley

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

Half a world away nations that once lived under oppression and tyranny are now budding democracies due in large part to America 's leadership and the sacrifices of our military. ~ Bob Riley

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

We need a president who will lead with a stronger, more consistent foreign policy. We also need our commander in chief to put more faith in military leadership who have all of the combat experience. It's bad policy to try to micromanage too much operationally and tactically from a desk in the Oval Office. ~ Lee Zeldin

I had examined myself pretty thoroughly and discovered that I was unfit for military service. ~ Joseph Heller

World War II had been such a tremendous success story for this country that the political and military leadership began to assume that they would prevail simply because of who they were. We were like the British at the turn of the 19th century. ~ Neil Sheehan

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. ~ Stonewall Jackson

A leader is the man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do, and like it. ~ Harry S. Truman

Military leadership is a journey, not a destination. It is continually challenged, and must continually prove it self anew against fresh obstacles. Sometimes those obstacles are external events. Other times they are the doubts of those being led. Still other times they are a result of the leaders's own failures and shortcomings.
Political power and influence are different. Once certain levels have been reached, there is no need to prove leadership or competence. A person with such power is accustomed to having every word carefully considere, and every whim treated as an order. And all who recognize that power know to bow to it.
A few have the courage or the foolishness to resist. Some succeed in standing firm against the storm. More often, they find their paths yet again turned form their hopes for goal. ~ Timothy Zahn, Star Wars: Thrawn

I've got to tell you what, the soldier doesn't fight very hard for a leader who is going to shoot him, okay, on his own whim. That's not what military leadership is all about. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf

The moment a leader loses his value for humanity, he loses his significance. ~ Ephantus Mwenda

Having strength, having a strong military, is the ally of peace. Exercising that strength through military action is not always necessary if you have the confidence and clarity of vision and purpose which America demands. ~ Mitt Romney

Charles Kernaghan is a legitimate American hero ... Through his determination he has forced the leadership in our country and many other countries around the world to pay attention. Kernaghan has done more to expose child labor than has the whole Department of Labor that has a budget of hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, because he has the guts and determination to do it. ~ Bernie Sanders

I've never boxed in my life, never been in a military base in my life, never grew up with anyone in the military. ~ Tyrese Gibson

Hope is the spotlight that shines on the mine fields of possibility ~ Tony Dovale

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them. ~ Steve Alten

Every solution has a problem. ~ Andy Hargreaves

In other words if a man is armed, then one pretty much has to take his opinions into account. One can see how this worked at its starkest in Xenophon's Anabasis, which tells the story of an army of Greek mercenaries who suddenly find themselves leaderless and lost in the middle of Persia. They elect new officers, and then hold a collective vote to decide what to do next. In a case like this, even if the vote was 60/40, everyone could see the balance of forces and what would happen if things actually came to blows. Every vote was, in a real sense, a conquest. ~ David Graeber

Education is 'the guardian genius of our democracy.' Nothing really means more to our future, not our military defenses, not our missiles or our bombers, not our production economy, not even our democratic system of government. For all of these are worthless if we lack the brain power to support and sustain them. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

In this country we find it pays to shoot an admiral from time to time to encourage the others. ~ Voltaire

Moderate' Muslims, and apologists and propagandists for Islam, will attempt to deny or obscure the real meaning, nature, and intent of jihad. Some will say that jihad means only a Muslim's 'inner struggle' to be a better person, and that jihad has no military meaning whatever. Others will acknowledge that Muslims have a religious duty to spread Islam throughout the world, but insist that it is to be spread only peacefully, through dawah - literally 'the call' - meaning persuasion and reasoning. Finally, some will go so far as to admit that it can also mean warfare, but insist that in Islam, warfare is allowed only in self-defense or against oppression. However, all of these assertions are examples of a tactic that Islam encourages in waging jihad: taqiyya or Kithman - 'lying,' 'deception,' 'deceit.' Muslims are encouraged to lie if, in the opinion of the liar, telling the lie will be 'good' for Islam. This is a documented fact according to both ancient and modern scholars of Islam. ~ Brigitte Gabriel

I try never to let my schooling get in the way of my education. ~ Mark Twain

Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory. ~ Miguel De Cervantes

COVID-19 created social distance and united hearts. It shook people up to see what matters most in life and reminded us that God is still in control. ~ Farshad Asl

Leadership is about creating a domain in which human beings continually deepen their understanding of reality and become more capable of participating in the unfolding of the world. Ultimately leadership is about creating new realities. ~ Joseph Jaworski

Be excellent in your own terms. ~ Abhijit Naskar

Wisdom is hard to get but hardest to lose if once obtained. ~ Deepak Burfiwala

We need to focus on building a military that is second-to-none so that we can destroy Islamic terrorism. ~ Jeb Bush

Nobody ever lost a dollar by underestimating the taste of the American public. ~ P.T. Barnum

In his second term, [Ronald] Reagan completed the work of his first term - the rich got really rich, everything was deregulated, advocacy programs were quashed, the Savings and Loan program was trashed, the deficit was tripled, unions were busted, Housing and Urban Developing was in shambles, banks were closing, the military got lots of new toys, the religious right was strong, and AIDS was ignored. ~ Kate Clinton

One reason the concept of becoming better can scare us is that it requires us to step out of a place that we recognize and have possibly grown comfortable with. ~ Sara Milne Rowe

The great difference between the real leader and the pretender is that the one sees into the future, while the other regards only the present; the one lives by the day, and acts upon expediency; the other acts on enduring principles and for the immortality. ~ Edmund Burke

Success is within the reach of just about everyone. ~ Lolly Daskal

A low morality will not sustain leadership long, its influence quickly vanishes, it cannot produce its own succession. ~ Chester Barnard

We shall all respect the principle of each other and do nothing that would be regarded as an act oppression to any portion of the people ~ Alexander Mackenzie

VJ had gone to the Naval Academy, where he competed as a powerlifter and developed a distaste for military customs such as short hair and addressing people by rank. ~ Nathaniel Fick

Leadership is a privilege to serve and make a difference. Take care of what belongs to another as if it were your own. Be accountable to others or to another because you realize you are not a master. Be considerate of those you serve because they, not you, perceive the difference you are or you are not making, in their lives. ~ Archibald Marwizi

Life isn't easy, and leadership is harder still. ~ Walter Russell Mead

An Appreciative inquiry Conversation is the catalyst for strengths based innovation. ~ Tony Dovale

(John) Adams acknowledged that he had made himself obnoxious to many of his colleagues, who regarded him as a one-man bonfire of the vanities. This never troubled Adams, who in his more contrarian moods claimed that his unpopularity provided clinching evidence that his position was principled, because it was obvious that he was not courting popular opinion. His alienation, therefore, was a measure of his integrity. ~ Joseph J. Ellis

No food, you die in weeks. No water, you die in days. ~ Henry V. O'Neil

The story is complicated and contradictory. Sometimes this proclaimed 'war on drugs' has followed shifts in military threats; at times it is coloured by religious paranoia; often it is rooted in genuine fear of widespread social misery. But mostly, and sometimes quite unintentionally, it is the result of political strategies that have very little to do with its expressed goal of fighting drugs. ~ Magnus Linton

I am very optimistic about the long run prospects for democracy in China. Chinese society is being dramatically and rapidly transformed. And there's rising evidence that the new generation not only lacks faith in communism anymore, they think it's a joke. They're very cynical about their leadership and they want democratic change. ~ Larry Diamond

If I do my full duty, the rest will take care of itself. ~ George S. Patton

In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity. ~ Sandra Day O'Connor