George Washington Quotes

Morale is the greatest single factor in successful wars.

You can't have force structure without proper training, without proper equipment, without proper leadership, without proper funding to conduct exercises and perform maintenance.

Morale is good; troops are confident; leaders are capable.

He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.

As soldiers the militia are not worth their rations

It takes more than a trained army … it takes an institutionalized army.

… you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.

I would also recommend that the Marine Corps be merged in the artillery or infantry, as the best mode of curing the many defects in its organization.

Instead of measuring military readiness in terms of overall size and numbers, we must focus on metrics of capability, particularly in technology, and positioning.

The People's Liberation Army should play the role of shock troops, overcoming fatigue and sharpening vigilance to make new contributions.

Not for the first time, he wished he commanded a highly trained bunch of soldiers instead of a ragtag mob of rejects in varying stages of alcoholism.

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

My men don't surrender. I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back.

The People's Liberation Army is always a fighting force. Even after countrywide victory, our army will remain a fighting force during the historical period in which classes have not been abolished in our country and the imperialist system still exists in the world. On this point, there should be no misunderstanding or wavering.

A nation fights well in proportion to the amount of men and materials it has. And the other equation is that the individual soldier in that army is a more effective soldier the poorer his standard of living has been in the past.

In no other profession are the penalties for employing untrained personnel so appalling or so irrevocable as in the military.

The best form of welfare for the troops is first-rate training.

War: First day in the U.S. Army, the government placed a Bible in my left hand, a bayonet in the other.

Your Marines having been under my command for nearly six months, I feel that I can give you a discriminating report as to their excellent standing with their brothers of the army and their general good conduct.

An army should always be so distributed that its parts can aid each other and combine to produce the maximum possible concentration of force at one place, while the minimum force necessary is used elsewhere to prepare the success of the concentration.

To ensure victory the troops must have confidence in themselves as well as in their commanders.

I enjoyed the army reserve, and I learned a lot from it, but I also... it helped me work out that I didn't want to live in that kind of closed environment.

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.

I am a Soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.