Military leadership Quotes

24 quotes from 22 authors

Command decisions shape outcomes, and the lessons from history’s most effective commanders still resonate today. This selection gathers 24 sharp observations on military leadership, spoken by 22 different strategists, tacticians, and veterans. Readers will find perspectives on discipline, morale, and the art of leading under pressure.

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A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances.

George S. Patton

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

George S. Patton

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Fight the enemy with the weapons he lacks.

Alexander Suvorov

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You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.

Theodore Hesburgh

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A leader is the man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do, and…

Harry S. Truman

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A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible.

Polybius

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Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience.

Colin Powell

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Leadership is the sum of those qualities of intellect, human understanding, and moral character that enables a person to inspire and control…

John A. Lejeune

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You want to be commander-in-chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the…

Barack Obama

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A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the…

Douglas MacArthur

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The failings in Afghanistan don't fall on the shoulders of the American service personnel trying to complete their mission. The failure falls…

Erik Prince

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I've got to tell you what, the soldier doesn't fight very hard for a leader who is going to shoot him, okay,…

Norman Schwarzkopf

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If officers desire to have control over their commands, they must remain habitually with them, industriously attend to their instruction and comfort,…

Stonewall Jackson

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The Kurds' achievement was outstanding, both militarily and diplomatically. European governments recognized this and abandoned their resistance to weapons deliveries. Germany, too,…

Ahmed Chalabi

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“Some (but not Nasser) actually ‘swore on the Koran and the sword’ (pleaded allegiance to the group). But neither the Brotherhood's political…

Tarek Osman

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We need a president who will lead with a stronger, more consistent foreign policy. We also need our commander in chief to…

Lee Zeldin

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“Leadership has mostly been studied in the context of armies (military leadership), nations (political leadership) and business (corporate leadership), with good reason.…

Van Vugt, Mark

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“A number of the coup's leaders, including Nasser, had relationships with the Brotherhood. Some (but not Nasser) actually ‘swore on the Koran…

Tarek Osman

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“Such invocations of fin-de-siècle manliness are so ubiquitous in the correspondence and memoranda of these years that it is difficult to localize…

Christopher Munro Clark

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“Military leadership is a journey, not a destination. It is continually challenged, and must continually prove it self anew against fresh obstacles.…

Timothy Zahn, Star Wars: Thrawn

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The First Lady and I both spotted the President standing under the mistletoe and she moved in to grab a kiss from…

Pete Souza

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Success in past U.S. conflicts has not been strictly the result of military leadership but rather the judgment of the president in…

Robert Dallek

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My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and…

Bernard Law Montgomery

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World War II had been such a tremendous success story for this country that the political and military leadership began to assume…

Neil Sheehan

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