Steven Pressfield Quotes

Soldiers willingly, sometimes foolishly, risk their own lives to keep their comrades out of enemy hands.

The real heroes were my good buddies who died during the battles.

I think human society for tens of thousands of years has sent young men out in small groups to do things that are necessary but very dangerous. And they've always gotten killed doing it. And they've always turned it into a matter of honor and a way of gaining acceptance back into society if they survived.

There is something about building up a comradeship - that I still believe is the greatest of all feats - and sharing in the dangers with your company of peers. It's the intense effort, the giving of everything you've got. It's really a very pleasant sensation.

What I've noticed is not only in the military, but in the first responders community, that when you reach out your hand to help one of them, they almost always grab your hand with only one of theirs, because they're using their other hand to reach behind them and pull up somebody else with them.

Men do things for other men in war that they would never do in peace.

If you speak to any soldier, even now, they say they are fighting for their friends. It always ends up that they're fighting for the man next to them.

I've always felt that if I am deserving of the Medal of Honor, there are many, many others who are. I felt a little bad receiving it, so I received it on behalf of the fellows, because there's no such thing as a single-handed war. There's always a support group, and if you didn't have people who supported you, you couldn't fight a war.

From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered- We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now-a-bed Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

When you play for the guy next to you, that's when you win championships.

Superheroes are the best of us. Never mind all those powers or the crazy costumes. The heart of a superhero is meant to inspire.

I don't play for nobody else but my teammates and my family. That's it.

I was first and foremost a fellow Gamecock and friend before a Medal of Honor recipient.

In so many ways, World War II was one of the lowest lows imaginable, yet some of my most treasured memories come from that time. Communities came together, people displayed a wonderful generosity of spirit and I saw the bravery of our boys on the front line as they fought for our freedom.

I am a guy who gives everything for his team - I defend my team, my whole club.

Serving in the Israeli Army taught me what it means to be part of something greater than yourself.

I sought them far and found them, The sure, the straight, the brave, The hearts I lost my own to, The souls I could not save They braced their belts about them, They crossed in ships the sea, They sought and found six feet of ground, And there they died for me.

They fought together as brothers in arms; they died together and now they sleep side by side. To them we have a solemn obligation.

We few. We happy few. We band of brothers, for he today That sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother.

The only way your powers can become great is by exerting them outside the circle of your own narrow, special, selfish interests. And that is the reason of Christianity. Christ came into the world to save others, not to save himself; and no man is a true Christian who does not think constantly of how he can lift his brother, how he can assist his friend, how he can enlighten mankind, how he can make virtue the rule of conduct in the circle in which he lives.

For the army is a school in which the miser becomes generous, and the generous prodigal; miserly soldiers are like monsters, but very rarely seen.

I was there. I saw your sons and your husbands, your brothers and your sweethearts. I saw how they worked, played, fought, and lived. I saw some of them die. I saw more courage, more good humor in the face of discomfort, more love in an era of hate and more devotion to duty than could exist under tyranny.

Within Easy Company they had made the best friends they had ever had, or would ever have. They were prepared to die for each other; more important, they were prepared to kill for each other.