Citizen Soldier Quotes

That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free State; that standing armies in time of peace should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

No free government was ever founded, or ever preserved its liberty, without uniting the characters of the citizen and soldier in those destined for the defense of the state...such area well-regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen...

The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The Soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country

President Jimmy Carter was a citizen soldier. Ironically, he was considered weak because he didn't kill anybody and he didn't get anyone killed.

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

The function of a citizen and a soldier are inseparable.

To me, serving wasn't uncommon, and my service paled in comparison to so many of my friends who had done so much more. In my world - as a citizen soldier - I was surrounded by other soldiers just doing their jobs.

Since we replaced the compulsory military draft with an all-volunteer force in 1973, our nation has been making decisions about wars without worry over who fights them. I sincerely believe that reinstating the draft would compel the American public to have a stake in the wars we fight as a nation.

We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular part of collegiate education.

Since far fewer people are recruited to serve in a voluntary military, the connection between America and its military is increasingly tenuous and less personal.

I have proudly spent several periods in government, but I'm not a career politician. I come from a family of 'citizen soldiers.'

Conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription.

With the all-volunteer military, we, as a society, have become disconnected from our armed forces. And our military, like almost everything else in our country, has been outsourced.

The citizen must be also a soldier and armed. The system of civil society is never safe from revolution and the shocks of sudden conspiracies, unless associated with and fortified by an equally vigorous discipline of its physical power.

Universal military training is the only truly democratic solution to the problem of [military] preparedness.