Claude Adrien Helvetius Quotes

When orders are consistently trustworthy and observed, the relationship of a commander with his troops is satisfactory.

A lot of my family is in army and it has always been inspirational for me to see them wearing the prestigious uniforms and their disciplined lifestyle. If I wasn't so passionate about cricket, I would have definitely been a soldier for my country.

A prince must not have any other object nor any other thought… but war, its institutions, and its discipline; because that is the only art befitting one who commands.

Maneuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.

In this country we find it pays to shoot an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.

A prince must not have any objective nor any thought, nor take up any art, other than the art of war and its ordering and discipline; because it is the only art that pertains to him who commands. And it is of such virtue that not only does it maintain those who were born princes, but many times makes men rise to that rank from private station.

Discipline can only be obtained when all the officers are imbued with the sense of their awful obligation to their men and to their country that they cannot tolerate negligence. Officers who fail to correct errors or to praise excellence are valueless in peace and dangerous misfits in war.

If you can't get them to salute when they should salute and wear the clothes you tell them to wear, how are you going to get them to die for their country?

If I haven't fought for my country at least I'll paint for her.

To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed toward a love to our country and to mankind. The interest of that portion of social arrangement is a trust in the hands of all those who compose it; and as none but bad men would justify it in abuse, none but traitors would barter it away for their own personal advantage.

It is the business of a general to be serene and inscrutable, impartial and self-controlled.

Love of one's country recognizes no frontiers... of other countries.

If officers desire to have control over their commands, they must remain habitually with them, industriously attend to their instruction and comfort, and in battle lead them well.

I have often wondered why the sounds of the beating drums do not make the marching soldiers shoot their officers and go home.

Stand by your bed and salute me.

...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.

To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.

In your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise: which of the two generals has the most ability? on which side is Discipline most rigorously enforced? which army is stronger? on which side are the officers and men more highly trained? in which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment?

Many opportunities have been lost and hundreds of valuable lives uselessly sacrificed for want of a strict observance of discipline. Its object is to enable an army to bring promptly into action the largest possible number of its men, in good order and under the control of their officers. Its effects are visible in all military history, which records the triumphs of discipline and courage far more frequently than those of numbers and resources.

Michael Hastings has never served his country the way McChrystal has.

In war, discipline can do more than fury.

There was always talk of espirit de corps, of being gung ho, and that must have been a part of it. Better, tougher training, more marksmanship on the firing range, the instant obedience to orders seared into men in boot camp.

Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what’s needed to be done. Today we are called once more — and it is time for our generation to answer that call. For that is our unyielding faith — that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.

The only way to form an army to be confided in, was a systematic discipline, by which means all men may be made heroes.

If those who are sent to draw water begin by drinking themselves, the army is suffering from thirst.