I entered the navy with the great ambition of becoming a naval soldier and going to war. Either I die from this festering wound – because I refuse to have my arm amputated – or I recover from it and continue being a soldier. I have a one-in-two chance, and I shall bet my life on it!
Money is the sovereign queen of all delights – for her, the lawyer pleads, the soldier fights.
A lot of people don’t believe I was a soldier. They look at my luscious hair and wacky bow-tie collection and immediately put me down as some kind of supernatural geek.
The landmine is eternally prepared to take victims. In common parlance, it is the perfect soldier, the ‘eternal sentry.’ The war ends, the landmine goes on killing.
If you speak to any soldier, even now, they say they are fighting for their friends. It always ends up that they’re fighting for the man next to them.
I have almost never written about my experience as a soldier on the battlefield, because I tried, and I found that it is beyond my capacity to describe the battlefield. The battlefield consists mostly of smells, and it is very difficult to describe smells in words – very difficult indeed.
The same contingencies of time and space that force a statesman or soldier to make decisions, impel the historian, though with less urgency, to make up his mind.
In World War II in Germany, we had a ration for one U.S. soldier, or one allied soldier for every twenty inhabitants. The ratio in Iraq is about one for a hundred and sixty.
What shall I say further? Shall I not stop short and leave to your imaginations to portray the tragic deeds of war? Is it not enough that I here leave it even to unexperience to fancy the hardships, the anxieties, the dangers, even of the best life of a soldier?
I suppose, in a way, this has become part of my soul. It is a symbol of my life. Whatever I have done that really matters, I’ve done wearing it. When the time comes, it will be in this that I journey forth. What greater honor could come to an American, and a soldier?
I don’t think I could be a foot soldier. I don’t know if I could take orders too good. I’m a little lazy.
My first show, in England, was called ‘Soldier, Soldier.’
Just because I was almost 62, I did not feel decrepit and felt I wasn’t finished being a soldier yet.
From 8,000 miles away… I would not judge a fellow soldier from a friendly nation and how they are employing their resources.
If you look at Victorian England, being a soldier was considered a noble profession.
The courage of a soldier is heightened by his knowledge of his profession.
Every soldier I’ve ever met knows that you’ve got to do more than just run out onto the battlefield screaming, ‘We’re going to win!’
A Canadian on the ground in different parts of the world, whether they’re a diplomat, an aid worker, or a soldier, has an extraordinary, powerful impact.
Money is my military, each dollar a soldier. I never send my money into battle unprepared and undefended. I send it to conquer and take currency prisoner and bring it back to me.
A lot of movie stars don’t want to go to TV because of how hard you have to work. You have to be a soldier.
My experience in uniform has shaped my life and informed who I am like no other, and it’s difficult for me to wrap my mind around the idea that I will no longer be a soldier.
All you have to do is hold your first soldier who is dying in your arms, and have that terribly futile feeling that I can’t do anything about it… Then you understand the horror of war.
On ‘The Messenger,’ just imagining playing the part of a soldier in that movie was kind of hard for me. And in ‘Rampart,’ the idea of playing a cop was even harder. It was hard to imagine myself as a cop.
‘The Dictator’ lands somewhere between wan Mel Brooks and good Adam Sandler, whose ‘You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,’ about an Israeli Special Forces soldier at a hair salon, manages to strike better contrasts with vaguely similar culture differences – it’s a nuttier movie, too.
The difference in being a good soldier and actor is that in the Air Force, you see results, and our worth is defined by numbers. As an actor, your results are based on other people’s opinions.
Every lover is a soldier.
There exist only three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create.
Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power. When these cries of patriotism drown out any logically based dissension, it is usually the American soldier that is given the order to carry out some ill-conceived mission.
It takes time and effort to soldier on and make your arguments.
I started growing up in a hurry and taking a lot of the philosophy I’d heard from church as a kid a lot more seriously – especially the Ten Commandments – and wondering how ‘Thou shalt not kill’ could be so absolutely ignored. It took me until I was in my 40s to write what I was thinking as a young soldier.
I know that I’m already in the history books and that people are going to remember me as the prisoner of war and the fabricated stories, but you know, to me I was just another soldier over there doing my job.
My long struggles as a soldier of the Chinese Revolution have forced me to realize the necessity of facing hard facts. There will be neither peace, nor hope, nor future for any of us unless we honestly aim at political, social and economic justice for all peoples of the world, great and small.
As a soldier, I stand ready to serve and protect and defend this country. And as a soldier, I know the cost of war. And as president and commander-in-chief, I will end these regime-change wars.
No American soldier should be allowed to set foot on Iranian soil, regardless of the criticism we have of the Iranian government.
I don’t imagine Heads of Government would ever be able to say I’m not an economist therefore I can’t take decisions on matters of the economy; I’m not a soldier I can’t take decisions on matters of defence; I’m not an educationist so I can’t take decisions about education.
When we train a horse to do a certain job, we’re training the horse to be like a soldier, and yes, he still has a spirit, and he still has his ideas, but he is a disciplined soldier, and in the end, he will follow the rider’s instruction to do what needs to be done.
What battle has ever been won by staying in camp and talking to your fellow soldier?
I would make a terrible soldier, because I don’t follow orders.
During 65 years, I have walked the path of duty and discipline… And today, looking back at that long path of service, my soldier’s heart stirs and murmurs from deep within: Thank you. Thank you, my homeland.
Much of the music I remember from camp was unofficial: the songs a counselor would play for us on acoustic guitar or that an older camper would sing after telling us a tale of his hard-knock life. We couldn’t get enough of ‘One Tin Soldier’ or ‘Cat’s in the Cradle.’
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.
One of the things that makes our military the best in the world is the certain knowledge of each soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine that they can always count on their comrades should they need help – that they will never be abandoned.
My wife was as much of a soldier as I was.
When the first armies were formed, combat took courage, which women share equally with men, and strength, which we do not. But though I am only 4 feet 7 inches tall, with a gun in my hand I am the equal of a soldier who’s 6 feet 7 – perhaps even at a slight advantage, as I make a smaller target.
The first documentary I saw that tried to show the actual experience of being a soldier in combat was ‘The Anderson Platoon,’ by French director Pierre Schoendoerffer, which won the Oscar for best documentary in 1967.
If you put on the military uniform, you’re a prima facie hero. Generals are the epitome of that. They’re the ones who have been most successful at the soldier’s trade.
In the final choice a soldier’s pack is not so heavy as a prisoner’s chains.
It is made the duty of every Commanding Officer in the Department, to arrest and send to these Headquarters, under guard, every officer or soldier who may be found absent from his command, without the regular leave in writing, prescribed by Regulations and General Orders.
When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen.
A warrior is free to be a hero and pull off daring do and the soldier is irresponsible if he does it.
The soldier who gropes for glory must submit himself to discipline. Subordination gives strength and security to an army. He that will not submit to it when corrected and improved by the experience of ages does not deserve the proud appellation of a soldier.
I wonder if a soldier ever does mend a bullet hole in his coat?
Every soldier should learn survival on land, sea, and in the air.
The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.
I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.
