Commanders Quotes

1. "The signal danger of life in a godless society is that it lacks reminders of the transcendent and therefore leaves us unprepared for disappointment and eventual annihilation. When God is dead, human beings – much to their detriment – are at risk of taking psychological centre stage. They imagine themselves to be commanders of their own destinies, they trample upon nature, forget the rhythms of the earth, deny death and shy away from valuing and honouring all that slips through their grasp, until at last they must collide catastrophically with the sharp edges of reality. Our secular world is lacking in the sorts of rituals that might put us gently in our place."
Author: Alain De Botton

2. "There may be a hundred thousand men in an army, who are all equally free; but they only are naturally most fit to be commanders or leaders, who most excel in the virtues required for the right performance of those offices."
Author: Algernon Sidney

3. "Our military commanders have said over and over again that a timetable for withdrawal sends the wrong message to our troops, but more importantly to our enemy."
Author: Bill Shuster

4. "Most commanders wanted as many good sources of information as possible. MacArthur was focused on limiting and controlling his sources of intelligence."
Author: David Halberstam

5. "Military commanders do not want to be tried for war crimes, even if those crimes are committed online."
Author: Evgeny Morozov

6. "As I have been saying for more than a year now, turning this vital mission over to the Iraqi people as soon as possible should remain a topic of debate for Congress while relying on our military commanders to set up the timetable."
Author: Howard Coble

7. "Funding for the Special Operations Network comes directly from the government. Most work is centralized, but all of the SpecOps divisions have local representatives to keep a watchful eye on any provincial problems. They are administered by local commanders, who liaise with the national offices for information exchange, guidance and policy decisions. Like any other big government department, it looks good on paper but is an utter shambles. Petty infighting and political agendas, arrogance and sheer bloody-mindedness almost guarantees that the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing."
Author: Jasper Fforde

8. "Ike was like a giant umbrella. He absorbed what was coming down from above, shielded his commanders from higher authority, and about them to fight the war without excessive second-guessing."
Author: Jean Edward Smith

9. "If the regulars are to be put together, I believe they would prefer me to the other Cavalry Commanders."
Author: John Buford

10. "During the whole campaign, from June 27 to July 31, there has been no shirking or hesitation, to tiring on the part of a single man so far as I have seen; the brigade commanders reported none."
Author: John Buford

11. "As soon as the boy left the hall, Ramsey suggested that Brodick fill Gideon in on all that had transpired."Our commanders are going to have to coordinate their efforts for the attack," he said. "Iain wants Winslow and Dylan and you to handpick the soldiers who'll ride with us into England.""We're attacking England?" Gideon asked, astonished."No," Brodick answered. "Though the thought of it warms my heart."
Author: Julie Garwood

12. "Fire supposed he needed to be there in order to give rousing speeches and lead the charge into the fray, or whatever is was commanders did in wartime. She resented his competence at something so tragic and senseless. She wished he, or somebody, would throw down his sword and say, 'Enough! This is a silly way to decide who's in charge!' And it seemed to her, as the beds in the healing room filled and emptied and filled, that these battles didn't leave much to be in charge of. The kingdom was already broken, and this war was tearing the broken pieces smaller."
Author: Kristin Cashore

13. "The Hungarian ministry begged the king earnestly to issue orders to all troops and commanders of fortresses in Hungary, enjoining fidelity to the Constitution, and obedience to the ministers of Hungary."
Author: Lajos Kossuth

14. "Our sisters and brothers were picked up in public by local commanders for the purpose of sex and luxury and we could do nothing."
Author: M.F. Moonzajer

15. "Your Guardians of Freedom is a new program that enables unit commanders and Airmen to quickly communicate with people affected by and interested in the mobilization and deployment of military people."
Author: Michael Burgess

16. "The Pentagon has been looking into the possibility of developing "smart dust," dust-sized particles that have tiny sensors inside that can be sprayed over a battlefield to give commanders real-time information. In the future it is conceivable that "smart dust" might be sent to the nearby stars."
Author: Michio Kaku

17. "Bill Clinton was lucky in many ways; but when it came to former presidents, he won the lottery. When he was elected president, he had five former commanders in chief at his disposal: Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush, the most of any president in the twentieth century. Not all of them had been helpful to one another, in or out of office. But some combination of his charm, their needs, and the new global challenges of the post–Cold War age allowed Clinton to deploy nearly all to his advantage—especially, as it turned out, the Republicans."
Author: Nancy Gibbs

18. "He couldn't go into his army's barracks -- he had long since learned that the best commanders stay away unless they have some reason to visit. The boys have to have a chance to be at peace, at rest, without someone listening, to favor or despise them depending on the way they talk, and act, and think."
Author: Orson Scott Card

19. "I thought commanders could order anything.""They can order the moon to turn blue, too, but it doesn't happen. Listen, Ender, commanders have justas much authority as you let them have. The more you obey them, the more power they have over you." - Dink Meeker"
Author: Orson Scott Card

20. "I know, you've been here a year, you think these people are normal. Well, they're not. WE'RE not. I look in the library, I call up books on my desk. Old ones, because they won't let us have anything new, but I've got a pretty good idea what children are, and we're not children. Children can lose sometimes, and nobody cares. Children aren't in armies, they aren't COMMANDERS, they don't rule over forty other kids, it's more than anybody can take and not get crazy."
Author: Orson Scott Card

21. "The spring of 1942 was given over to a very impassioned, strategic debate about where we should first attack in counterpunching against the Germans and Italians. The British argued very persuasively on the part of Winston Churchill, prime minister, that this was a very green American Army, green soldiers, green commanders."
Author: Rick Atkinson

22. "We should ask our commanders..." Elayne trailed off. "If there are any we trust not to be under Compulsion.""There's only one," Mat said grimly, meeting her eyes. "And he's telling you we are finished if we continue as we have. The earlier plan was a good enough one, but after what we lost today...Elayne, we're dead unless we choose one place to stand, gather together, and fight."One last toss of the dice."
Author: Robert Jordan

23. "Commanders and historians are the people who discuss wars; I was in the infantry, and most of the time I did not know where I was or what I was doing except that I was obeying orders and trying not to be killed in any of the variety of horrible ways open to me."
Author: Robertson Davies

24. "You are the commanders, your men will look to you and act as you do. Let no officer keep to himself or his brother officers, but circulate daylong among his men. Let them see you and see you unafraid. Where there is work to do, turn your hand to it first; the men will follow. Some of you, I see, have erected tents. Strike them at once. We will all sleep as I do, in the open. Keep your men busy. If there is no work, make it up, for when soldiers have time to talk, their talk turns to fear. Action, on the other hand, produces the appetite for more action."
Author: Steven Pressfield

25. "It was in Poland that the Einsatzgruppen were to fulfill their mission as "ideological soldiers" by eliminating the educated classes of a defeated enemy. (They were in some sense killing their peers: fifteen of the twenty-five Einsatzgruppe and Einsatzkommando commanders had doctorates.)"
Author: Timothy Snyder

26. "For over 220 years, Marines have served at the end of America's operational reach—on freedom's far frontiers. These Marines are the backbone of the ARG/MEU (SOC) team, our regional commanders' force of choice for both forward presence and crisis response."
Author: Tom Clancy

27. "Two commanders on the same field are always one too many."
Author: Ulysses S. Grant

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