One of my sergeants back in the infantry school of Fort Benning almost 50 years ago, which is where I learned everything about leadership, said to me one day: “Lieutenant! You’ll know you’re a good leader when people will follow you… if only out of curiosity.” – Gen. Colin Powell (source)

By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder — infinitely prouder — to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven.

Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death. – Gen. Omar Bradley (source)

It follows that any commander in chief who undertakes to carry out a plan which he considers defective is at fault; he must put forth his reasons, insist of the plan being changed, and finally tender his resignation rather than be the instrument of his army’s downfall. – Napoleon (“Military Maxims and Thought”)

The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission. – John F. Kennedy

May the dogs of Fallujah feast hearty on the remains of our fallen enemies. – USMC

Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. – Gen. George S. Patton

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through the argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand. – Gen. Colin Powell (source)

Judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgements. – General of the Army Omar N. Bradley

I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom. – Gen. George S. Patton Jr. (source)

According to Science Fiction writer Robert Heinlein, “all military bureaucracies consist of a Surprise Party Department, a Practical Joke Department, and a Fairy Godmother Department. The first two process most matters, as the third is very small…[consisting] of one elderly G5 female clerk, usually out on sick leave.” So of course your orders were processed by the Practical Joke and/or Surprise Party Depts. – Robert Heinlein

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. – Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower (source)

It’d be a mistake to push a man to violence if violence is what he has dedicated his life to perfecting. “The Terminal List” (Season 1, Episode 6)

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. – Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. (source)

A student said to his master: “You teach me fighting, but you talk of peace. How do you reconcile the two?” The master replied: “It is better to be a warrior in a garden than to be a gardener in a war.” – Unknown (source)