Jean Giraudoux Quotes

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.

In war the heroes always outnumber the soldiers ten to one.

I saw some war heroes... John Kerry is not a war hero. He couldn't tie the shoes of some of the people in Coastal Division 11.

Israel should not feel satisfaction at my son's death, for he died on the battlefield, facing the conquerors as he wished, with a gun in his hand.

While I do not hesitate to applaud certain aspects of the resolution honoring the sacrifices of our courageous soldiers who are risking their lives in Iraq, I cannot be supportive of capitalizing on these very sacrifices for political gain.

In future battles, these primitives, for whom life counts so little and whose young blood flows so ardently, as if eager to be shed, will certainly attain the old “French Fury” and will invigorate it if necessary.

To die in battle would be my greatest joy.

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier.

People try to glorify war, particularly those who aren't actually fighting in them. People tend to make heroes of those who are fighting in them.

My dear Excellency! I have not gone to war to collect cheese and eggs, but for another purpose.

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.

I was only a gun captain on the battleship Alabama for 34 months. People have called me a hero for that, but I'll tell you this - heroes don't come home. Survivors come home.

I think human society for tens of thousands of years has sent young men out in small groups to do things that are necessary but very dangerous. And they've always gotten killed doing it. And they've always turned it into a matter of honor and a way of gaining acceptance back into society if they survived.

Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle.

I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.

I didn't choose to write a military man as much as Vince Haven chose me.

In my grandfather's day, there was a different perspective on war and men that went into war; it was such a patriotic act to fight for your country in the Forties.

The poetry of heroism appeals irresistibly to those who don't go to a war, and even more to those whom the war is making enormously wealthy. It's always so.

For as long as this nation has known war, we have embraced the heroes it has produced. Americans have rightfully noted the honor and nobility of courage under hostile fire and thanked those who perished in their defense.

Battle is the soldier's vital breath! Peace turns him into a stooping asthmatic. War makes him a whole man again, and gives him the heart, strength, and vigor of a hero.

War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood.

I have gone through so many examinations of what a hero is, between the World War II stuff and the astronaut stuff.

Surviving is the only glory in war.

I want my word to be up to the scale of the feat of arms performed by the Russian soldier.

Dad entered the Second World War like any other man, trying to do the right thing.