Command Presence Quotes

I believe that one can't command sitting on one's ass in the rear. One has to up among the forward brigade commanders, even as far as battalion commanders, especially if one is fighting a defensive action. One simply has to know what is going on.

The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow.

A leader should not get too far in front of his troops or he will be shot in the ass.

General Petraeus is a man that has the backbone that somebody like President-elect Trump would love.

Men have no confidence in an officer who doesn't know his own mind.

Great captains do never use long orations when it comes to the point of execution.

Command is often not what you do but the way you do it.

Notoriously outspoken, his sentences always punctuated with profanities, General George S. Patton was the epitome of what a leader should be like - or so he thought. Patton believed a leader should look and act tough, so he cultivated his image and his personality to match his philosophy.

Leadership of lapses is the thing that wins battles. I have it – I’ll be damned if I can define it.

Military leaders aren't made. They are born. To be a good leader, you have to have something in your character to cause people to follow you.

Thus the skilful general conducts his army just as though he were leading a single man, willy-nilly, by the hand.

Lead from the front - but don t leave your base behind.

I've always found when I was captain when other people were doing the talking for me, I didn't need to say as much, and when I did say one or two things, people tended to listen all the more.

It is the business of a general to be serene and inscrutable, impartial and self-controlled.

No matter how many or how few people you have reporting to you, you must remember that as you climb higher in the ranks, your words will be taken as commands even if you're just thinking out loud.

The enemy would not have been in danger if Mr. Stanton had been in the field.

If you go back into military history, the person who's leading the troops ought to be in with the troops and not just standing on the backline sending them into battle.

If officers desire to have control over their commands, they must remain habitually with them, industriously attend to their instruction and comfort, and in battle lead them well.

When placed in command, take charge.

Aig [F.-M. Sir Douglas Haig] 'e don't say much; 'e don't, so to say, say nothin'; but what 'e don't say don't mean nothin', not 'arf. But when 'e do say something--my Gawd!

Mr. Trump has said that he wants a vice president who knows Washington, is able to deal with the Congress, and could be viewed as somebody who could be president.

Whereas ordinary officers must be content with behaving correctly in front of their men, the great leaders have always carefully stage-managed their effects.

There's a certain way you stand to give yourself authority, which gives you the texture for the part. I chose that my character hadn't been married, he'd worked his way up the chain of command. For a small cameo role, I gave it a lot of thought.

Show me a poorly uniformed troop and I'll show you a poorly uniformed leader.

The funny thing about any cop uniform is that people will do what you say when you're wearing a cop uniform.