In times of challenge and adversity, words have the power to ignite the spirit and fuel resilience. The military, with its rich history of courage and tenacity, offers a treasure trove of inspirational quotes that echo across generations. These sayings, born from the disciplined ranks of the army, capture the essence of bravery, leadership, and unapologetic determination. In this collection, we've gathered 38 of the most stirring army quotes that not only honor those who serve but also inspire us to embody the virtues of duty and perseverance in our everyday lives. Whether you're seeking motivation, strength, or a reminder of the indomitable human spirit, these words will resonate deeply, urging you forward in your journey.
1. “A cavalryman's horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be alowed to know this.” - Steven Pressfield
2. “Yeah. Floyd is his batman."His what?"Batman, like in the British army, each officer had a batman, a personal servant."You spend too much time reading, Spenser. You know more stuff that don't make you money than anybody I know.” - Robert B. Parker
3. “The only easy day was yesterday.” - US Navy SEALs
4. “I feel an army in my fist.” - Friedrich von Schiller
5. “DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY, STILL RECRUITING.” - J.K. Rowling
6. “Dad, how do soldiers killing each other solve the world's problems?” - Bill Watterson
7. “The Army is the Indian's best friend.” - George Armstrong Custer
8. “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 Jr.
9. “...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 Jr.
10. “As they prepared themselves to go ashore no one doubted in theory that at least a certain percentage of them would remain on the island dead, once they set foot on it. But no one expected to be one of these. Still it was an awesome thought and as the first contingents came struggling up on deck in full gear to form up, all eyes instinctively sought out immediately this island where they were to be put, and left, and which might possibly turn out to be a friend's grave.” - James Jones
11. “He once told Allie and I that if he'd had to shoot anybody, he wouldn't've known which direction to shoot in. He said the Army was practically as full of bastards as the Nazis were.” - J.D. Salinger
12. “War is life multiplied by some number that no one has ever heard of.” - Sebastian Junger
13. “The army consists of the first infantry division and eight million replacements.” - Sebastian Junger
14. “What would my first sergeant do if he came across me and another girl getting it on? He'd want pictures. He'd want to join in. He'd want me and this other girl to double-team him right then and there. On the other hand, since most heterosexual men are homophobic and sexist, most straight guys figure gay men will treat them the way they themselves treat women- that is, like sex objects. And this freaks them the fuck out.” - Kayla Williams
15. “America's finest - our men and women in uniform, are a force for good throughout the world, and that is nothing to apologize for.” - Sarah Palin
16. “This is the army! Nobody can do the best they can.” - Henry Blake
17. “If I charge, follow me. If I retreat, kill me. If I die, revenge me.” - USMC
18. “Do not forget that the armed forces are the servants of the people. You do not make national policy; it is we, the civilians, who decide these issues and it is your duty to carry out these tasks with which you are entrusted.” - Muhammad Ali Jinnah
19. “His friends told him that nobody was interested in his goddam soul unless it was the priest and he managed to answer that no priest taking orders from no pope was going to tamper with his soul. They told him he didn't have any soul and left for the brothel.He took a long time to believe them because he wanted to believe them. All he wanted was to believe them and get rid of it once and for all, and he saw opportunity here to get rid of it without corruption, to be converted to nothing instead of to evil. The army sent him halfway around the world and forgot him. He was wounded and they remembered him long enough to take the shrapnel out of his chest - they said they took it out but they never showed it to him and he felt it still in there, rusted, and poisoning him - and then they sent him to another desert and forgot him again. He had all the time he could want to study his soul in and assure himself that it was not there. When he was thoroughly convinced, he saw that this was something that he had always known.” - Flannery O'Connor
20. “I will give you a few guarantees of my own, Mukthar. I guarantee that before the sun sets, even if you win, even if my cold, dead body is lying on the field, you will rue the day you ever set foot in the Plains. For every inch you advance I'll exact gallons of Mukthar blood. I guarantee that there will be not one family of the Bear Mukthars or they will mourn at least one of theirs. I guarantee that even if you are triumphant the fruits of victory will taste like dust in your mouth. I guarantee that if you fail to kill me today, you will meet me again. You will meet me at the Ximerionian border. You will meet me at every city, town, village, and hamlet. You will meet me on every Amirathan crossroad, on every hill. I will fight you with every sword at my command, with every arrow, with every dagger. I will fight you with pitchforks. I will fight you with the very rocks of the land you try to conquer. I will never, never, never give up.~Anaxantis, before the Battle of the Zinchara (May 29th, 1453 aed)” - Andrew Ashling
21. “A safe army is better than a safe border” - Bhim Rao Ambedkar
22. “In that moment, I understand the way that the noblest yearning for duty and sacrifice can be mixed up with all that is savage and shameful, like in the Bible, where a just and merciful God tells you to kill everyone, kill the children, kill the livestock, kill John Polling, leave nothing alive to sully this pure and just world. Except when it's all done you find out that wasn't really God after all, just some politician, or maybe it was God, but he taps you on the shoulder and says, 'No, dude, that isn't what I meant,' and leaves you sitting in a Dairy Queen in Bothell with blood on your hands and no further orders...” - Stuart Archer Cohen
23. “Look!" Hawkeye said. Duke looked where Hawkeye was pointing. In one corner, kneeling on the dirt floor with his elbows on his cot, a Bible in front of him, his lips moving slowly, and oblivious to all about him, was Major Jonathan Hobson."Jesus," Hawkeye said."It don't look like Him," Duke said.” - Richard Hooker
24. “I like it too," Angelo said. "I love this country. Much you and anybody, and you know it.""I know it," Prew said."But I still hate this country. You love the Army. But I dont love the Army. This country's Army is why I hate this country. What did this country ever do for me? Gimme a right to vote for men I cant elect? You can have it. Gimme a right to work at a job I hate? You can have that too. Then tell I'm a Citizen of the greatest richest country on earth, if I dont believe it look at Park Avenue. Carnival prizes. All carnival prizes. [..] They shouldnt teach their immigrants' kids all about democracy unless they mean to let them have a little bit of it, it ony makes for trouble. Me and the United States is dissociating our alliance as of right now, until the United States can find time to read its own textbooks a little."Prew thought, a little sickly, of the little book, The Man Without A Country that his mother used to read to him so often, and how the stern patriotic judge condemned the man to live on a warship where no one could ever mention home to him the rest of his whole life, and how he had always felt that pinpoint of pleased righteous anger at seeing the traitor get what he deserved.” - James Jones
25. “All right, he thought, okay; if thats the way it is; a savagery of anger in him now at the picture. They call them "pin-up girls" and think its cute how "our boys," now that they're drafted, love to hang them in their wall lockers. And then close up all the whorehouses, every place they can, so our young men will not be contaminated.” - James Jones
26. “Пулеметы со скрипом задвигались, наводясь на цель.– Бежим! – гаркнул Станислав. Уставное «отступаем!» никогда ему не нравилось: оптимизма в нем было больше, но и слогов – тоже.” - Ольга Громыко
27. “Idea is a software for the army and nation.” - Toba Beta
28. “Yes," Vorkosigan agreed, "I could take over the universe with this army if I could ever get all their weapons pointed in the same direction.” - Lois McMaster Bujold
29. “In times of war or peace the US will gladly pay a man to fail should his heart be in it, a small shimmering proof of the American dream.” - Jonathan Culver
30. “We can't make you do anything, but we can make you wish you had. - Army saying” - Stephen E. Ambrose
31. “I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army.Visiting Kathy's grave was the less dramatic of the two.” - John Scalzi
32. “An army is a miniature of the society which produces it.” - C.L.R. James
33. “About the only good thing about being sex-starved and hornier than the blue wildebeest in mating season she'd once had to write an essay on, was the vast improvement on her pen-pal repertoire. Phone sex? Pah! Any schmuck could talk dirty and get off on it. The art of airmail sex, however, presented a much greater challenge and one she'd excelled at, if Mark's responses were anything to go by. It was a wonder the planes didn't catch fire.” - Allie A Burrow
34. “There is something brittle in me that will break before it bends. Perhaps if the [the enemy] had brought a smaller army I might have had the sense to run. But he overdid it.” - Mark Lawrence
35. “In such a beast as this..." (he means the army)"...it was the collective power that went, collapsing like a long-exhausted animal, at once falling under its own weight as much as that of its enemy. It was a collective death and not a matter of bravery or even strength, and once it was down it was finished as a battle.” - Paul Hoffman
36. “…If one who slays one is a murderer then he who slays a thousand is not a hero,' said Lalu.” - Mulk Raj Anand
37. “that feeling that I could touch the sky? That’s exactly how you make me feel.” (Ray)” - Charles Sheehan-Miles
38. “Vous travaillez pour l'armee, madame?' (You are working for the army?), a Frenchwoman said to me early in the Vietnam war, on hearing I had three sons.” - Adrienne Rich
