In wartime, the degree of patriotism is directly proportional to distance from the front.

War, the ordinary man's most convenient means of escaping from the ordinary.

You're going to learn that one of the most brutal things in the world is your average nineteen-year-old American boy.

I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war...suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the same old lessons on its own.

True believers just don't see things the way they are, because if they did, they wouldn't be true believers anymore.

I'm a Midwesterner by birth, and when I traveled there, when I was young, most of the small towns were thriving, vibrant places.

Before you leave here, Sir, you’re going to learn that one of the most brutal things in the world is your average nineteen-year-old American boy.

The essence of the Marine Corps experience, I decided, was pain.

War - the ordinary man's most convenient means of escaping from the ordinary.

It’s all or nothing with me. Make sure you know what you want.

It may be crazy, but I'm the closest thing I have to a voice of reason.

The war existing between the senses and reason.

Love is when you give someone else the power to destroy you, and you trust them not to do it.

There is nothing that strengthens the ego more than being right !

Most of us must learn a great deal every day in order to keep ahead of what we forget.

A pencil in my hand, its secret life / is charcoal, the wood already burnt, / a sacrifice.

Sometimes it is good to fall down so that we can see whether we honourably get up or disgracefully turn into a miserable reptile!

When they remain in garrison, soldiers are maintained with fear and punishment; when they are then led to war, with hope and reward.

If what the heart approves conforms to proper patterns, then even if one's desires are many, what harm would they be to good order?