Chris Wooding Quotes

I am a general. My soldiers are the keys and I have to command them.

I've got to tell you what, the soldier doesn't fight very hard for a leader who is going to shoot him, okay, on his own whim. That's not what military leadership is all about.

In the Navy when you say right full rudder and everyone goes right. It's wonderful. In the private sector [and government] no one pays any attention to you.

He is a butcher, and is not fit to be at the head of an army.

Morale is the greatest single factor in successful wars.

If you ask a soldier what is the key to this confidence, they will likely answer their discipline and their training.

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

I don't think there's a lot of discipline right now.

A soldier's first duty is to obey, otherwise you might as well do away with soldiering.

He who has no taste for order, will be often wrong in his judgment, and seldom considerate or conscientious in his actions.

Now nothing can be more important than that the work of a soldier should be well done.

Given the prevailing lack of discipline, it would have been impossible to use Congolese machine-gunners to defend the base from air attack: they did not know how to handle their weapons and did not want to learn.

You want soldiers who, when they get to a river after a long march, don't start rooting for their canteen in their pack, but just dive right in.

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.

The Army (considering the irritable state it is in, its suffering and composition) is a dangerous instrument to play with.

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.

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

To expect ... the same service from raw and undisciplined recruits, as from veteran soldiers, is to expect what never did and perhaps never will happen. Men, who are familiarized to danger, meet it without shrinking; whereas troops unused to service often apprehend danger where no danger is.

My generals are a parcel of post inspectors.

I can work hard and be disciplined like a soldier, but I could never reach their level of fitness. I have a whole new appreciation of soldiers. I saw myself on screen and thought, 'That body is so not hard enough to be a soldier.'

It is unacceptable to risk the lives of American soldiers and sailors merely to accommodate the sexual lifestyles of certain individuals.

I dare say the men would fight very well if properly officered, although they are an exceedingly dirty and nasty people.

A good soldier, whether he leads a platoon or an army, is expected to look backward as well as forward; but he must think only forward.

The most vital quality a soldier can possess is self-confidence.

Good soldiers never pass up a chance to eat or sleep. They never know how much they'll be called on to do before the next chance.