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All Quotes by author - James Mattis

" Be the hunter, not the hunted. "

" For a sitting U.S. president to see our allies as freeloaders is nuts. "

" For the mission's sake, for our country's sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division's colors in past battles - carry out your mission and keep your honor clean. "

" For whatever trauma came with service in tough circumstances, we should take what we learned - take our post-traumatic growth - and, like past generations coming home, bring our sharpened strengths to bear, bring our attitude of gratitude to bear. "

" If you read enough biography and history, you learn how people have dealt successfully or unsuccessfully with similar situations or patterns in the past. It doesn't give you a template of answers, but it does help you refine the questions you have to ask yourself. "

" In an interconnected age when opportunistic adversaries can work in tandem to destroy stability and prosperity, our country needs to regain its strategic footing. We need to bring the clarity to our efforts before we lose the confidence of the American people and the support of potential allies. "

" In this age, I don't care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are: if you cannot create harmony - even vicious harmony - on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete. "

" It's not an easy course. It's not designed to be. We're not here to get you in touch with your inner child. "

" I've had some 'riotous excursions of the human spirit' alongside the young Sailors and Marines, and it's time to leave the stage to the young leaders who got their rank the old-fashioned way - they earned their stripes in combat. "

" I've lived a very colorful life, and I've said some things, But not once have I taken them back, and I've never apologized for them - and I won't. "

" Marines don't know how to spell the word 'defeat'. "

" No one gives a damn what Iran thinks on any significant issue. The only reason Iran is at the big boys' table is because of their nuclear weapons program. "

" Since coming back from overseas, this is more of a foreign country than the places overseas. I don't understand it. It's like America has lost faith in rational thought. "

" Sometimes there are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It seems like everybody is in the middle. "

" The Army was always big on Clausewitz, the Prussian; the Navy on Alfred Thayer Mahan, the American; and the Air Force on Giulio Douhet, the Italian. But the Marine Corps has always been more Eastern-oriented. I am much more comfortable with Sun-tzu and his approach to warfare. "

" The economy's always been the engine for our national security. "

" The most important 6 inches on the battlefield is between your ears. "

The Most Important

" There are going to be good days and bad days. Bottom line. "

" There are hunters, and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience, and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim. "

" There is no room for military people, including our veterans, to see themselves as victims, even if so many of our countrymen are prone to relish that role. "

" There is one way to have a short but exciting conversation with me, and that is to move too slow. "

" There's an urgent need to stop reacting to each immediate vexing issue in isolation. Such response often creates unanticipated second-order effects and even more problems for us. "

" Treachery has existed as long as there's been warfare, and there's always been a few people that you couldn't trust. "

" We know that in tough times, cynicism is just another way to give up, and in the military, we consider cynicism or giving up simply as forms of cowardice. "

" Wherever the enemy wants to fight, we will follow him to the ends of the Earth. We'll adapt, we'll train, we'll advise, we'll mentor, and we'll fight, and we'll fight well. "

" You stay teachable most by reading books. By reading what other people went through. "

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