Quotes from Jim Mattis

I don't have the best track record with quotes.

I have never been bewildered for long in any fight with our enemies - I was Armed with Insight.

Iran is not a nation-state; it's a revolutionary cause devoted to mayhem.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.

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.

The Marines have landed, and we now own a piece of Afghanistan.

There's no way that that our military power will not erode if a robust American economic revival is not part of the cards.

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.

Iran is not an enemy of ISIS; they have a lot to gain from the turmoil that ISIS creates.

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!

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.

The example that America knows how to govern itself is one of the compelling aspects of our national security.

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

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.

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?

Read about history, and you become aware that nothing starts with us.

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

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.

It's very hard to live with yourself if you don't stick with your moral code.