David Petraeus Quotes

As a veteran, I know firsthand the satisfaction there is in defending the democracy you so strongly believe in, but I can also attest to the trauma encountered from combat on the battlefield.

No one hates war like a soldier hates war.

I was in the Navy and saw, first-hand, the effects of front-line combat.

The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

Nobody hates a war more than soldiers who have been through it.

As a combat veteran, I know the cost of war.

You come back from war, and you have a certain authority to talk about war.

My war buddies, some were Americans, but some were Afghans. These were the guys that I fought alongside. We bled alongside each other; we mourned together. When I came home, these weren't people I could keep up with on Facebook.

The Vietnam War totally turned my life around. Some people's lives were eliminated or destroyed by the experience. I was one of the fortunate few who came out better off.

My experience on 'Jarhead' was life changing.

As a soldier, I survived World War I when most of my comrades did not.

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can.

Soldiers know what war is like. That's why so many of them turn out to be peacemakers.

I’m no hero. Hero’s don’t return from war. Survivors do.

If you are a real soldier, you never get over the war.

When I came back from Vietnam in 1965, I just had the greatest brainwashing anybody could get…

'The Wall' doesn't recount a specific soldier's experience in Iraq, but it captures the spirit of many experiences that were shared with me and with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and with John Cena.

If one day I have to go to war, straight away right next to me, on the front line, I would put Patrice Evra. And there aren't many that I would put there.

I've been at every American Legion and VFW post in my district.

You know, I had gone to war.

Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.

Everybody who served in John Kerry's boat under his command, save one, has stood with him.

For some individuals - some soldiers, some contractors - combat provides a kind of purpose and meaning beyond which all else potentially pales in comparison.

You know, veterans come home and they may not be bipolar, but after they've been through a war with PTSD or a head injury, their families have a handful when they come home.

Vets are close to my heart, okay, and it's not only because I served, okay. It's because of what they go through, okay. A lot of these people have gave their lives, a lot of them have gave their limbs, okay, you know, that's a, that's a, that's a heap, you know.