James Fenimore Cooper Quotes

I shall hurl the first spear at the foe. If any man can stand at rest while Attila fights, he is a dead man.

No sir, anybody who went out and got into the front line trenches to fight for liberty was a goddamn fool and the guy who got him there was a liar.

At the core, the American citizen soldiers knew the difference between right and wrong, and they didn't want to live in a world in which wrong prevailed. So they fought, and won, and we all of us, living and yet to be born, must be forever profoundly grateful.

Not in clanging fights and desperate marches only is heroism to be looked for, but on every bridge and building that is going up to-day, on freight trains, on vessels and lumber-rafts, in mines, among the firemen and the policemen, the demand for courage is incessant and the supply never fails.

Sure, there's pressure when you have one dart at double top when there's a world 'championship to be won, but real 'pressure is what our troops are doing in 'Afghanistan.

I've been to war, and I know the consequences and sacrifice it takes. If we must fight, we fight to win.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here so nobly advanced.

Whatever will happen will happen. You either face it as a coward or you face it as a hero.

However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.

I'm just a kid, Chiron," I said miserably. "What good is one lousy hero against something like Kronos?" Chiron managed a smile. '"What good is one lousy hero'? Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain said something like that to me once, just before he single-handedly changed the course of your Civil War.

From an over-arching point-of-view, in war there is heroism on both sides. Obviously, the victor gets the spoils, the victor gets to write history, but there's heroism and compassion on both sides, and to me that's very important.

Strike up the drum and march courageously.

Demons run when a good man goes to war.

Fight valiantly to-day; and yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it, for thou art framed of the firm truth of valor.

Who then will dare to say I'm weak or timid? No, they'll say I'm loyal as a friend, ruthless as a foe, so much like a hero destined for glory.

Where there is a brave man, in the thickest of the fight, there is the post of honor.

War may make a fool of man, but it by no means degrades him; on the contrary, it tends to exalt him, and its net effects are much like those of motherhood on women.

It is not unseemly for a man to die fighting in defense of his country.

I would like to speak in terms of praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the war.

It is glorious to see such courage in one so young.

The 2.4 million bright, brave, incredibly fit and remarkably talented young Americans who have served in our armed forces since we were attacked on 9-11-01 are all volunteers. As General Petraeus put it during a conversation we had in Afghanistan, 'They all came or stayed, knowing they were going to war.' For more than a decade, these patriots and their loved ones have made extraordinary sacrifices for this country. They embody the classical definition of heroes: those who put themselves at risk for the benefit of others.

I can stand out the war with any man.

History knows no greater display of courage than that shown by the people of the Soviet Union.

I got to fall in love. I got to win a war. I got to write words that inspired a nation.

Having a spine is overrated. If everybody squealed and ran away, there'd be no more wars.