Quotes from Jim Mattis

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!

To Marines, love of liberty is not an empty phrase... Rather, it's displayed by blood, sweat, and tears for the fallen.

We all recognize that the Mid-east is dissolving into crises, and we know terrorism did not start with 9-11.

There is only one 'retirement plan' for terrorists.

I would storm the gates of Hell if Third Marine Air Wing was overhead.

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.

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

Gains achieved at great cost against our enemy in Afghanistan are reversible.

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

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.

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.

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

I don't lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.

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

The Iranian regime, in my mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.

Fight with a happy heart.

I don't worry about stress. I create it.

Demonstrate to the world, there is 'No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy' than a U.S. Marine.

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.

Be the hunter, not the hunted.

It's a lot easier to stay idealistic if you don't sign two to five next-of-kin letters every day.

Don't create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act.

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.

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.