Quotes by Jim Mattis - Page 2

To Marines, love of liberty is not an empty phrase... Rather, it's displayed by blood, sweat, and tears for the fallen.
Jim Mattis /
Blood
Empty
Fallen
Liberty
Sweat
Tears
Displayed
Marines
Phrase
Rather
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I would just say there is one misperception of our veterans, and that is they are somehow damaged goods. I don't buy it.
Jim Mattis /
Goods
Damaged
Veterans
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I've always found, give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers, and I do better with that than I do with torture.
Jim Mattis /
Give Me
Torture
Better Always Me
Cigarettes
Me Better Always
Pack
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Now from a distance, I look back on what the Corps taught me: to think like men of action, and to act like men of thought!
Jim Mattis /
Action
Distance
Taught
Corps
Men Look Me
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There's no way that that our military power will not erode if a robust American economic revival is not part of the cards.
Jim Mattis /
Cards
Economic
Military
Military Power
Revival
Robust
American
Part
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In a country with millions of people and cars going everywhere, the enemy is going to get a car bomb out there once in awhile.
Jim Mattis /
Enemy
Millions
Everywhere
Awhile
Bomb
Millions Of People
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What is the one country in the Middle East that has not been attacked by ISIS? One. That is Iran. That is more than happenstance, I'm sure.
Jim Mattis /
East
Happenstance
Iran
Middle
Middle East
Attacked
One Country
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Cunning
Discipline
Hunters
Obedience
Victim
Will
Hunter
Victims
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Colorful
Apologized
Some Things
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There is no God-given right to victory on the battlefield. You win that through the skill and the devotion, the valor and the ferocity of your troops.
Jim Mattis /
Devotion
Ferocity
Troops
Valor
Victory
Battlefield
Through
Win
God-Given
Right
Skill
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Damn
Iran
Nuclear
Significant
Weapons
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Another Way
Cowardice
Cynicism
Giving
Giving Up
Military
Tough
Tough Times
Forms
Consider
Simply
Times
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Countrymen
Including
Military
Relish
Prone
Veterans
Victims
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As commanders and staff officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don't know a hell of a lot more than just the TTPs?
Jim Mattis /
Officers
Staff
Units
Coach
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The fundamental question I believe is, 'Is political Islam in our best interest?' If not, what is our policy to authoritatively support the countervailing forces?
Jim Mattis /
Islam
Policy
Support
Best Believe I Believe
Forces
Fundamental
Question
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Notifying the enemy in advance of our withdrawal dates or reassuring the enemy that we will not use certain capabilities like our ground forces should be avoided.
Jim Mattis /
Avoided
Enemy
Reassuring
Withdrawal
Advance
Capabilities
Dates
Forces
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It is not scientifically possible to accurately predict the outcome of an action. To suggest otherwise runs contrary to historical experience and the nature of war.
Jim Mattis /
Contrary
Historical
Predict
Accurately
Outcome
Runs
Scientifically
Suggest
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You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway.
Jim Mattis /
Afghanistan
Manhood
Slap
Anyway
Guys
Wear
Veil
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Faith
Lost
Rational
Coming
Foreign Country
Overseas
Places
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The U.S. military is not war weary. Our military draws strength from confronting our enemies when clear policy objectives are set and we are fully resourced for the fight.
Jim Mattis /
Clear
Confronting
Draws
Military
Objectives
Policy
Weary
Enemies
Fully
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Advise
Enemy
Adapt
Wherever
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Clean
Division
Honor
Sake
Your Honor
Battles
Carried
Carry
Colors
Mission
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Effects
Isolation
Reacting
Response
Urgent
Creates
Immediate
Urgent Need
Vexing
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No matter how bad any situation, cynicism has no positive impact. Watching the news, you might notice that cynicism and victimhood often seem to go hand-in-hand, but not for veterans.
Jim Mattis /
Hand In Hand
Positive Impact
Notice
Veterans
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By reading, you learn through others' experiences, generally, a better way to do business, especially in our line of work where the consequences of incompetence are so final for young men.
Jim Mattis /
Incompetence
Consequences
Better Way
Final
Young Men
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Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any problem has been addressed... It doesn't give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead.
Jim Mattis /
Answers
Caught
Dark
Give Me
Loss
Path
Problem
Reading
Situation
Thanks
Ahead
Often
Lights
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I believe that many of my young guys lived because I didn't waste their lives because I didn't have the vision in my mind of how to destroy the enemy at least cost to our guys and to the innocents on the battlefields.
Jim Mattis /
Cost
Enemy
Vision
Waste
Young Guys
Destroy
Innocents
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Some people feel affronted when something they thought to be true doesn't happen. If that's the case, then your sense of risk is much higher, and that leads to risk aversion. You need to be able to be comfortable in uncertainty.
Jim Mattis /
Aversion
Uncertainty
Be True
People True Feel
Leads
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Combat
Human Spirit
Old Fashioned
Stage
Stripes
Alongside
Time Way Human
Earned
Leave
Excursion
Leaders
Marines
Old-Fashioned Way
Rank
Sailors
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There are a lot of self-imposed restrictions by people who somehow believe they have to fall in with a certain military cant. There was always a sense that we had to put things into words that would touch our troops' hearts, not just their heads.
Jim Mattis /
Cant
Troops
Always Believe People
Heads
Hearts
Restrictions
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So long as our Corps fields such Marines, America has nothing to fear from tyrants, be they Fascists, Communists or Tyrants with Medieval Ideology. For we serve in a Corps with no institutional confusion about our purpose: To fight! To fight well!
Jim Mattis /
Confusion
Fascists
Fields
Ideology
Medieval
Tyrants
Communists
Corps
Institutional
Marines
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Attitude
Home
Circumstances
Coming Home
Generations
Gratitude
Growth
Tough
Trauma
Bear
Bring
Came
Coming
Whatever
Learned
Service
Sharpened
Strengths
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I can't tell you the number of times I looked down at what was going on on the ground, or I was engaged in a fight somewhere, and I knew within a couple of minutes how I was going to screw up the enemy. And I knew it because I'd done so much reading.
Jim Mattis /
Engaged
Screw
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Perhaps if you are in support functions waiting on the warfighters to spell out the specifics of what you are to do, you can avoid the consequences of not reading. Those who must adapt to overcoming an independent enemy's will are not allowed that luxury.
Jim Mattis /
Luxury
Overcoming
Adapt
Functions
Spell
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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.
Jim Mattis /
History
Answers
Patterns
Ask
Questions
Biography
Read
Dealt
Help
In The Past
Refine
Similar
Situations
Successfully
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Basically, Islamic State is a combined al Qaeda and Lebanese Hezbollah on steroids, destabilizing the region, dissolving borders/changing the political geography in the Mid-east, and hardening political positions that make Mid-east peace-building more remote by the day.
Jim Mattis /
Geography
Islamic
Lebanese
Al
Basically
Combined
Hardening
Positions
Qaeda
Region
Remote
Steroids
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Prime Minister Maliki, released from American restraint, acted on his worst instincts, creating enormous distrust in Iraq's Kurdish population and deeply embittering Sunnis in western Iraq's Al Anbar, who lost any confidence in a Baghdad government they saw as adversarial.
Jim Mattis /
Baghdad
Distrust
Enormous
Population
Prime
Prime Minister
Restraint
Acted
Adversarial
Al
Instincts
Minister
Released
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Air
Air Force
Approach
Army
Comfortable
Force
Italian
Marine
Marine Corps
Navy
Warfare
American
Corps
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Adversaries
Allies
Clarity
Interconnected
Prosperity
Stability
Strategic
Tandem
American People
Destroy
Efforts
Footing
Regain
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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.
Jim Mattis /
Trust
Age
Home
Brilliant
Care
Don't Care
Harmony
Lines
Obsolete
Vicious
Because
Go
Across
Based
Battlefield
Cannot
Coalition
Create
How
Even
Go Home
National
Service
Tactically
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Jim Mattis Quotes - Page 2

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