86 Inspiring Military Quotes to Fuel Your Courage and Strength

"A true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him but because he loves what is behind him."

- G.K. Chesterton

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

- George Orwell

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

- Archilochus

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

- Elmer Davis

"Honor to the soldier, and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause."

- Abraham Lincoln

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

- Minot J. Savage

"The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war."

- Norman Schwarzkopf

"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

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

- General George S. Patton

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem."

- President Ronald Reagan

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

- General George S. Patton Jr.

"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

"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

"...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

"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

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

- General Ulysses S. Grant

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to face it."

- Lt. John B. Putnam Jr.

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

- Joseph Campbell

"There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer."

- General Jimmy Doolittle

"Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver five minutes longer."

- Ronald Reagan

"One more dance along the razor's edge finished. Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today."

- Robert Jordan

"A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent."

- Douglas MacArthur

"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

"Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way."

- Gen. George S. Patton

"Veterans are a symbol of what makes our nation great, and we must never forget all they have done to ensure our freedom."

- Rodney Frelinghuysen

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

- Alexander the Great

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

- Winston S. Churchill

"A leader leads by example, not by force."

- Sun Tzu

"The willingness of America's veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude."

- Jeff Miller

"It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle."

- General Norman Schwarzkopf

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

- General George S. Patton

"To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan."

- Abraham Lincoln

"Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul."

- Michel de Montaigne

"Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It's about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others' success, and then standing back and letting them shine."

- Chris Hadfield

"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

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

- President John Quincy Adams

"Discipline is the soul of an army."

- George Washington

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God such men lived."

- General George S. Patton Jr.

"Leaders must be motivators, educators, role models, sounding boards, confessors, and cheerleaders—they must be accessible, and they must aggressively pursue contact with colleagues and subordinates."

- Lieutenant General, William Pagonis

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

- British Special Air Service (SAS)

"You don't win battles by training harder than your opponent. You win them by never giving up."

- General Colin Powell

"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

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

- General Robert E. Lee

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

- Franklin P. Jones

"Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand."

- General Colin Powell

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

- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

"Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter."

- Winston S. Churchill

"Leadership is of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision: its practice is an art. Management is of the mind, more a matter of accurate calculation, of statistics, of methods, timetables and routine; its practice is a science. Managers are necessary; leaders are essential."

- Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim

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

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"A man has integrity if his interest in the good of the service is at all times greater than his personal pride, and when he holds himself to the same line of duty when unobserved as he would follow if his superiors were present"

- General S.L.A. Marshall

"Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity."

- Carl von Clausewitz

"Victory belongs to the most persevering."

- Napoleon Bonaparte

"The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example."

- Benjamin Disraeli

"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

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

- General Bruce D. Clark

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

- General Norman Schwarzkopf

"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 Jr.

"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

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

- Marcus Sieff

"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

"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

"Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with."

- Tony Stark

"All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavor to find out what you don't know by what you do do; that's what I call 'guessing what was on the other side of the hill"

- Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington

"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

"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude."

- Cynthia Ozick

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

- Colin Powell

"Soldiers can sometimes make decisions that are smarter than the orders they've been given."

- Orson Scott Card

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

- Gerald Brooks

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

- Abraham Lincoln

"Courage is the power to let go of the familiar."

- Raymond Lindquist

"The consensus seemed to be that if really large numbers of men were sent to storm the mountain, then enough might survive the rocks to take the citadel. This is essentially the basis of all military thinking."

- Terry Pratchett

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

- Aristotle

"Who you are speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

- Omar Bradley

"Nothing is so good for the morale of the troops as occasionally to see a dead general."

- Field Marshal William Slim

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

- Thomas Edison