Inspiring Military Quotes to Motivate and Lead

"The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow."

- General Colin Powell

"When you become a leader you give up the right to think about yourself."

- Gerald Brooks

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

- Winston Churchill

"Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

- Winston Churchill

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"The soldier is the army. No army is better than its soldiers."

- Gen. George S. Patton Jr.

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

- Colin Powell

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."

- General George S. Patton

"Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."

- General George S. Patton Jr.

"Always do everything you ask of those you command."

- General George S. Patton

"When things go wrong in your command, start wading for the reason in increasing larger concentric circles around your own desk."

- General Bruce D. Clark

"The hard part is doing it."

- Norman Schwarzkopf

"Be an example to your men, in your duty and in private life. Never spare yourself and let your troops see that you don’t in your endurance of fatigue and privation. Always be tactful and well-mannered. Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice, which usually indicates the man who has shortcomings of his own to hide."

- German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

"The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instruction and give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice as to inspire in the soldier no feeling but an intense desire to obey, while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite strong resentment and a desire to disobey. The one mode or the other in dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them respect for himself; while he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward others, especially his subordinates, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself."

- LTG John M. Schofield

"Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking."

- Ferdinand Foch

"The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it."

- John F. Kennedy

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave."

- Elmer Davis

"An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep."

- Alexander the Great

"In war there is no substitute for victory."

- General Douglas MacArthur

"War makes extremely heavy demands on the soldier’s strength and nerves. For this reason, make heavy demands on your men in peacetime exercises."

- German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

"If you are going to win any battle, you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do… the body is never tired if the mind is not tired."

- General George S. Patton Jr.

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

- President John Quincy Adams

"Victory belongs to the most persevering."

- Napoleon Bonaparte

"We're all one team - and together, we're strong and we're in this together."

- Bo Brabo

"The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave…"

- Patrick Henry

"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself."

- Joseph Campbell

"Veni, Vedi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered)"

- Julius Caesar

"Don't stop trying or fighting for what you believe in the first time someone tells you no."

- General (Retired) Ann Dunwoody

"Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end."

- Field Marshal Douglas Haig

"Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best."

- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

"The truth is that you always know the right thing to do. The tough part is doing it."

- General Norman Schwarzkopf

"On the battlefield, the military pledges to leave no soldier behind. As a nation, let it be our pledge that when they return home, we leave no veteran behind."

- Dan Lipinski

"From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots."

- Thomas Jefferson

"To spend a few minutes with people is simply not productive. If one wants to get anything across, one has to spend a fairly large minimum quantum of time. The manager who thinks that he can discuss the plans, direction, and performance of one of his subordinates in fifteen minutes – and many managers believe this – is just deceiving himself. If one wants to get to the point of having an impact, one needs probably at least an hour and usually more. And if one has to establish a human relationship, one needs infinitely more time."

- Peter F. Drucker

"I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor food; I offer only hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles, and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart, and not merely with his lips, follow me."

- Giuseppe Garibaldi

"We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training."

- Archilochus

"Success is peace of mind that is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best that you are capable of becoming."

- Coach John Wooden

"In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten; then he who continues the attack wins."

- General Ulysses S. Grant

"A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him."

- Napoleon Bonaparte

"I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but by how high he bounces when he hits bottom."

- General George S. Patton

"We are defined by what we do repeatedly, therefore excellence is a habit, not an act."

- Aristotle

"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

- Charles George Gordon

"Every hour be firmly resolved…to accomplish the work at hand with fitting and unaffected dignity, goodwill, freedom, justice."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Read over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederic…This is the only way to become a great general and master the secrets of the art of war…"

- Napoleon Bonaparte

"Who dares, wins. Who sweats, wins. Who plans, wins."

- British Special Air Service (SAS)

"Men mean more than guns in the rating of a ship."

- John Paul Jones

"Discipline is the soul of an army."

- George Washington

"Who kept the faith and fought the fight; the glory theirs, the duty ours."

- Wallace Bruce

"The brave die never, though they sleep in dust: Their courage nerves a thousand living men."

- Minot J. Savage

"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

"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 Miller Hemmingway

"Now I recall the Recon Marines ragged, filthy cammie shirted young men in green paint who move silent like the fog with deadly purpose in their eyes. Swift, Silent, Deadly. I smile."

- GYSGT Correll, USMC, Retired– Recon Marine

"Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid."

- Col. David Hackworth

"We have met the enemy and they are ours!"

- Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry

"True patriotism isn't cheap. It's about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going."

- Robert Reich

"Soldiers usually win the battles and generals get the credit for them."

- Napoleon Bonaparte

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

- George Orwell

"Leaders must be seen to be up front, up to date, up to their job and up early in the morning."

- Marcus Sieff

"Soldiers are men…most apt for all manner of services and best able to support and endure the infinite toils and continual hazards of war."

- Henry Knyvett

"We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship."

- Omar Bradley

"War is cruelty. There’s no use trying to reform it, the crueler it is the sooner it will be over."

- William Tecumseh Sherman

"Be selective about whom you take on as friends, colleagues, and neighbors. The world is full of agreeable and talented folk. The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best."

- Epictetus

"Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war."

- Thucydides

"It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it."

- General Robert E. Lee

"We do not seek peace in order to be at war, but we go to war that we may have peace. Be peaceful, therefore, in warring, so that you may vanquish those whom you war against, and bring them to the prosperity of peace."

- St. Augustine

"The ‘eathen in ‘is blindness must end where ‘e began. But the backbone of the Army is the non-commissioned man!"

- Rudyard Kipling

"The friend of my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity."

- Ulysses S. Grant

"Plan the flight and fly the plan, but don’t fall in love with the plan. Be open to a changing world and let go of the plan when necessary so that you can make a new plan."

- Laurence Gonzales

"Those who gain experience while retaining a firm hold on a beginner’s state of mind become long term survivors."

- Laurence Gonzales

"Opportunity is missed by most because is it dressed in overalls and looks like work."

- Thomas Edison

"In the absence of orders, go find something and kill it."

- Field Marshall Erwin Rommel

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

- John Stuart Mills

"Who you are on a daily basis is who you are when you compete. If you want to be a champion, you have to have the mindset of a champion every day."

- Jerry Ingalls

"A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living."

- John F. Kennedy

"We make war that we may live in peace."

- Aristotle

"I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy…in order to give their children the right to study painting, poetry, and music."

- John Adams

"A ship without Marines is like a garment without buttons."

- Admiral David D. Porter, USN

"There are three kinds of people: Those who are immovable, those who are moveable, and those who move them."

- Li Hung

"To be pleased with one’s limits is a wretched state."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Discipline is simply the art of making the soldiers fear their officers more than the enemy."

- Helvetius

"Happiness is found not in doing what one likes to do, but in liking what one has to do."

- Sir James M. Barrie

"Diplomats are just as essential in starting a war as soldiers are in finishing it."

- Will Rogers

"I don’t know whether this is the best of times or the worst of times, but I assure you it’s the only time you’ve got."

- Art Buchwald

"Army: A body of men assembled to rectify the mistakes of the diplomats."

- Josephus Daniels

"The number of medals on an officer’s breast varies in inverse proportion to the square of the distance of his duties from the front line."

- Charles Edward Montague

"When you act on your priority, you’ll automatically go out of balance, giving more time to one thing over another."

- Gary Keller

"Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier."

- Samuel Johnson

"Always forgive your enemies–nothing annoys them so much."

- Oscar Wilde

"Tell them of us and say, For their tomorrow, We gave our today."

- The Kohima Epitaph

"Being in the army is like being in the Boy Scouts, except that the Boy Scouts have adult supervision."

- Blake Clark

"No man is a leader until he is ratified in the minds and hearts of his men."

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power."

"The majority of men devote the greater part of their lives to making their remaining years unhappy."

"A soldier is he whose blood makes the glory of the general."

"Some succeed because they are destined to; most succeed because they are determined to."

"A lack of planning on your part does not constitute a crisis on mine…unless of course I failed to lead you."