Quotable Quotes

Inspiration:

“Let’s Roll!”
-Todd M. Beamer, 9/11/01, United Nine Three Heavy-

“Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking.”
-Ferdinand Foch at the Battle of the Marne-

“When all else fails – you can’t!”
-unknown-

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Character & Attitude:

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
-Mark Twain-

“The test of character is not ‘hanging in’ when you expect light at the end of the tunnel, but performance of duty and persistence of example when you know that no light is coming.”
– Admiral James B. Stockdale-

“The arrogance of man is thinking that he is in control.”
-From the Motion Picture, Godzilla (2014)-

Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.
-Proverbs 20:22-

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit.”
-Aristotle-

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
-Aristotle-

“Courage is grace under pressure.”
-Ernest Hemingway-

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win great triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
-Theodore Roosevelt-

“If you can keep your head while all those around you are losing theirs, you may have misjudged the situation.”
-unknown-

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Leadership:

“Leadership is the ability to tell someone to go to hell, and they leave to eagerly pack for the trip.”

“I do not fear an army of lions, if they are led by a lamb. I do fear an army of sheep, if they are led by a lion.”
-Alexander the Great-

“We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.”

“The art of using troops is this:

When ten to the enemy’s one, surround him;
When five times his strength, attack him;
If double his strength, divide him;
If equally matched you may engage him;
If weaker numerically, be capable of withdrawing;
And if in all respects unequal, be capable of eluding him, for a small force is but booty for one more powerful.”

-Sun Tzu: The Art of War-

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Self Defense:

Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
-Proverbs 24:11-

Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;
-Psalm 144:1-

“Your attacker is in more danger from you, than you are from him.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“I carry three mags. The first one is to get me to cover. The second one is to put up a spirited defense. The third one is to get me back to where I left my rifle.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“A good plan executed violently today is better than a perfect plan executed at some indefinite point in the future.”
-George Patton-

“Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.”
-General James N. Mattis-

“By way of deception, thou shall do war.”
-Israel’s Mossad-

“In war there is no prize for runner-up.”
-General Omar N. Bradley-

“The police do not provide security in your home, your business or the street. They show up after the crime to take reports and do detective work. The poorer the neighborhood, the riskier it is for peaceful residents. Only an armed citizenry can be present in sufficient numbers to prevent or deter violent crime before it starts, or to reduce its spread.”
-Libertarian Party Platform-

“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.-

“Sometimes it is entirely appropriate to kill a fly with a sledge hammer.”
-Major Holdridge, 1944-

Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears.” But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle,
-1 Samuel 13:19-20-

“Wars are caused by undefended wealth.”
-Douglas MacArthur-

“Speed is fine, but accuracy is final.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“Seek and destroy… for they will be doing the same.”

“People sleep peaceable in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
-George Orwell-

“There are only three principles of war, audacity, audacity and AUDACITY.”
-General George Patton-

“The great questions of the day will be decided not by speeches and majority votes, but by blood and iron.”
-Otto von Bismarck-

“I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all.”
-General James N. Mattis-

“The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they’re going to be when you kill them.”
-William Clayton-

“Not by strength, but by guile.”
-British Special Boat Service (SBS)-

“Beware the man who only has one gun. He probably knows how to use it!”
-Clint Smith-

“An armed man will kill an unarmed man with monotonous regularity.”
-Clint Smith-

“A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers. The reporter recognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and asked him ‘Why do you carry a 45?’ The Ranger responded, ‘Because they don’t make a 46.'”
-Clint Smith-

“When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.”
-Clint Smith-

“I carry a gun cause a cop is too heavy.”
-Clint Smith-

“The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.”
-Clint Smith-

“You cannot save the planet. You may be able to save yourself and your family.”
-Clint Smith-

“You have the rest of your life to solve your problems. How long you live depends on how well you do it.”
-Clint Smith-

“You can say ‘stop’ or ‘alto’ or use any other word you think will work but I’ve found that a large bore muzzle pointed at someone’s head is pretty much the universal language.”
-Clint Smith-

“Don’t shoot fast, shoot good.”
-Clint Smith-

“If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That’s ridiculous. If I have a gun, what in the hell do I have to be paranoid for.”
-Clint Smith-

“If you’re not shootin’, you should be loadin’. If you’re not loadin, you should be movin’, if you’re not movin’, someone’s gonna cut your head off and put it on a stick.”
-Clint Smith-

“Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets. I may get killed with my own gun, but he’s gonna have to beat me to death with it, cause it’s gonna be empty.”
-Clint Smith-

“Don’t forget, incoming fire has the right of way.”
-Clint Smith-

“Every time I teach a class, I discover I don’t know something.”
-Clint Smith-

“The two most important rules in a gunfight are: always cheat and always win.”
-Clint Smith-

“The handgun would not be my choice of weapon if I knew I was going to a fight. …I’d choose a rifle, a shotgun, an RPG or an atomic bomb instead.”
-Clint Smith-

“One cannot legislate the maniacs off the street … these maniacs can only be shut down by an armed citizenry. Indeed bad things can happen in nations where the citizenry is armed, but not as bad as those which seem to be threatening our disarmed citizenry in this country at this time.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“Remember the first rule of gunfighting … have a gun.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“The police cannot protect the citizen at this stage of our development, and they cannot even protect themselves in many cases. It is up to the private citizen to protect himself and his family, and this is not only acceptable, but mandatory.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“The will to survive is not as important as the will to prevail … the answer to criminal aggression is retaliation.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“Safety is something that happens between your ears, not something you hold in your hands.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“All the people constitute the militia – according to the Founding Fathers. Therefore every able-bodied man has a duty under the Constitution to become part of the ‘well-regulated’ militia, specifically to understand and perform well with the individual weapon currently issued to the regular establishment …. Thus one who has not qualified himself with the M-16 may not be considered to be a responsible citizen.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“Already a couple of the faithful have sent in checks for a foundation memorial to the innocents who perished at the hands of the ninja at Waco … I have been criticized by referring to our federal masked men as ‘ninja’ … Let us reflect upon the fact that a man who covers his face shows reason to be ashamed of what he is doing. A man who takes it upon himself to shed blood while concealing his identity is a revolting perversion of the warrior ethic. It has long been my conviction that a masked man with a gun is a target. I see no reason to change that view.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that ‘violence begets violence.’ I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure — and in some cases I have — that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“The purpose of the pistol is to stop a fight that somebody else has started, almost always at very short range.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“Bushido is all very well in its way, but it is no match for a 30-06.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“A free man must not be told how to think, either by the government or by social activists. He may certainly be shown the right way, but he must not accept being forced into it.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“The conclusions seem inescapable that in certain circles a tendency has arisen to fear people who fear government. Government, as the Father of Our Country put it so well, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. People who understand history, especially the history of government, do well to fear it. For a people to express openly their fear of those of us who are afraid of tyranny is alarming. Fear of the state is in no sense subversive. It is, to the contrary, the healthiest political philosophy for a free people.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“Hoplophobia is a mental disturbance characterized by irrational aversion to weapons, as opposed to justified apprehension about those who may wield them.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“The media insist that crime is the major concern of the American public today. In this connection they generally push the point that a disarmed society would be a crime-free society. They will not accept the truth that if you take all the guns off the street you still will have a crime problem, whereas if you take the criminals off the street you cannot have a gun problem.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“In the larger sense, however, the personal ownership of firearms is only secondarily a matter of defense against the criminal. Note the following from Thomas Jefferson: The strongest reason for the people to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against the tyranny of government. That is why our masters in Washington are so anxious to disarm us. They are not afraid of criminals. They are afraid of a populace which cannot be subdued by tyrants.”
-Jeff Cooper-

“The 1911 pistol remains the service pistol of choice in the eyes of those who understand the problem. Back when we audited the FBI academy in 1947, I was told that I ought not to use my pistol in their training program because it was not fair. Maybe the first thing one should demand of his sidearm is that it be unfair.”
-Jeff Cooper-

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Training:

“The great body of our citizens shoot less as time goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world. The first step in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come is to teach men to shoot!”
-President Theodore Roosevelt’s last message to Congress-

“The best form of troop welfare is first class training.”
-Field Marshal Erwin Rommel-

“One is no more armed because he has possession of a firearm than he is a musician because he owns a piano. There is no point in having a gun if you are not capable of using it skillfully.”
-Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper, U.S.M.C.-

“Slow is smooth…smooth is fast…speed is the effeciency of motion.”
-Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper, U.S.M.C.-

“I said ‘Tap, Rack, and Bang,’ not ‘fiddle-fuck and die.”
-Greg Hamilton, Director of Insight’s Training – to student with a pistol malfunction-

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Preparedness:

“To every man, there comes in his lifetime that special moment when he is tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique and fitted to his talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared and qualified for the work that would be his finest hour.”
-Sir Winston Churchill-

“Somewhere out there right now someone is preparing for the day you both shall meet. How prepared will you be?”
–Unknown-

“To be prepared for war is one of the most effective ways of preserving peace.”
-President George Washington-

“It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.”
-John F. Kennedy-

He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.”
-Luke 22:36-

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Politics & The 2nd Amendment:

“Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt.”
“When catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will have catapults.”

“One man with a gun can control one-hundred without one.”
– V.I. Lenin-

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bare arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves from tyranny in government.”
-Thomas Jefferson-

“The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.”
-Samuel Adams-

“The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation.”
-James Madison, The Federalist, No. 46-

“The only real power comes out of a long rifle.”
-Joseph Stalin-

“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”
-Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers-

“It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.”
-Thomas Paine-

“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
-Thomas Jefferson-

“Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who didn’t.”
-Ben Franklin-

“A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”
-George Washington-

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force.”
-Patrick Henry-

“Are we at last brought to such an humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense?”
-Patrick Henry-

“If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government…”
-Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist, No.28-

“To disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them.”
-George Mason-

“The balance of power is the scale of peace.”
-Thomas Paine-

“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
-Mao Zedong-

“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”
-Richard Henry Lee-

“The right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.”
-Hubert Humphrey-

“The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms.”
-Adolf Hitler-

“If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of legislation should have no difficulty drawing upon long lists of examples of crime rates reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a half of trying.”
-Orrin Hatch-

“After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.”
-William S. Burroughs-

“The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.”
-George Washington-

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

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Military:

“I was instructed by my commander to go on a mission with only a little food and munitions. The commander told me, ‘You need more ammo or food? You know where to get it!’ ” (Capture it from the enemy.)
-Combatant in the 1992-1995 Bosnian War-

“The Americans fight for a free world, the English mostly for honor and glory and medals, the French and Canadians decide too late that they have to participate. The Italians are too scared to fight; the Russians have no choice. The Germans for the Fatherland. The Boers? Those sons of bitches fight for the hell of it!”
-American General, George “Guts and Glory” Patton-

“Rules of the Regiment (British Special Air Service):
If it makes sense…don’t do it.
If it tastes good…spit it out.
If you think you’re going the right way…turn around.
This place sucks…let’s live here.”

“The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.”
-General T.J. Jackson, March 1861-

“If you are able,
save for them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind “

-Major Michael Davis O’Donell, 1 January 1970, Dak To, Vietnam

Murphy’s Laws of Combat:

You are not a superman.
If it’s stupid but works, it’s not stupid.
Don’t look conspicuous, it draws fire.
When in doubt, empty your magazine.
Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than you are.
Remember: Your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.
If your attack is going really well, it’s an ambush.
No plan survives the first contact intact.
All 5-second grenade fuses will burn out in 3.
Try to look unimportant. The enemy may be low on ammo.
If you are forward of your position the artillery will always fall short.
The important things are always simple.
The simple things are always hard.
The easy way is always mined.
If you are short of everything except enemy, you’re in combat.
When you have secured an objective, don’t forget to let the enemy know about it.
Incoming fire has the right of way.
The enemy diversion you are ignoring is actually the main attack.
If the enemy is in range, SO ARE YOU.
No combat ready unit ever passed inspection.
Beer math: two beers times 37 men equal 49 cases.
Body count math: two guerillas plus one portable plus two pigs equal 37 enemy KIA.
Things that must be together to work usually can’t be shipped together.
Radios will fail as soon as you need fire support desperately.
Anything you do can get you shot, including doing nothing.
Tracers work both ways.
The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.
Make it tough for the enemy to get in and you can’t get out.
If you take more than your fair share of objectives, you will have more than your fair share of objectives to be taken.
When both sides are convinced that they are about to lose, they are both right.
Professional soldiers are predictable, but the world is full of amateurs.
Murphy was a grunt.

Rogers’ Rangers Standing Orders:

Don’t forget nothing.
Have your musket clean as a whistle, hatchet scoured, sixty rounds powder and ball, and be ready to march at a minute’s warning.
When you’re on the march, act the way you would if you was sneaking up on a deer. See the enemy first.
Tell the truth about what you see and do. There is an army depending on us for correct information. You can lie all you please when you tell other folks about the Rangers, but don’t never lie to a Ranger or officer.
Don’t never take a chance you don’t have to.
When we’re on the march we march single file, far enough apart so one shot can’t go through two men.
If we strike swamps, or soft ground, we spread out abreast, so it’s hard to track us.
When we march, we keep moving til dark, so as to give the enemy the least possible chance at us.
When we camp, half the party stays awake while the other half sleeps.
If we take prisoners, we keep ’em separate til we have had time to examine them, so they can’t cook up a story between ’em.
Don’t ever march home the same way. Take a different route so you won’t be ambushed.
No matter whether we travel in big parties or little ones, each party has to keep a scout 20 yards ahead, twenty yards on each flank and twenty yards in the rear, so the main body can’t be surprised and wiped out.
Every night you’ll be told where to meet if surrounded by a superior force.
Don’t sit down to eat without posting sentries.
Don’t sleep beyond dawn. Dawn’s when the French and Indians attack.
Don’t cross a river by a regular ford.
If somebody’s trailing you, make a circle, come back onto your own tracks, and ambush the folks that aim to ambush you.
Don’t stand up when the enemy’s coming against you. Kneel down. Hide behind a tree.
Let the enemy come till he’s almost close enough to touch. Then let him have it and jump out and finish him up with your hatchet.