Quotes from Jim Mattis

No war is over until the enemy says it's over.

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.

In my line of work, the enemy gets a vote.

If you can't eat it, shoot it, or wear it, don't bring it.

You must reward the kind of behavior that you want.

I have never thought it necessary to patronize the American people.

What we achieved was a nuclear pause, not a nuclear halt.

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.

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.

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

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.

We should not fight wars without a clearly defined end state... when you go to war, it can't be a half-step.

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.

There are many people who do not know if the U.S. Army has 60,000 men or 6 million. They do not have a clue about that.

Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.

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.

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?

Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.

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.

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

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.

The Corps is in good hands, and it's been a privilege to serve with the Leathernecks. Now it's time to go.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

The military can buy our diplomats some time.