Douglas MacArthur quotes - page 4

For those to whom much is given, much is required. It is not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up. There is no substitute for victory. (Douglas MacArthur)
Preparedness is the key to success and victory. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder -- infinitely prouder -- to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle field but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, ''Our Father Who Art in Heaven.'' View quote
Douglas MacArthur
The object and practice of liberty lies in the limitation of government power. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
Defensive strategy never has produced ultimate victory. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
Optimism is denial, so face the facts and move on. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
No plan ever survives its first encounter with the enemy. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
Training distinguishes an army from an armed mob. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war there is no substitute for victory. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
Men will not fight and die without knowing what they are fighting and dying for. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. (Douglas MacArthur)
Wars are caused by unprotected wealth. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
I have every confidence in the ultimate success of our joint cause but success in modern war requires something more than courage and a willingness to die it requires careful preparation. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
Security lies in our ability to produce. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
We are bound no longer by the straitjacket of the past and nowhere is the change greater than in our profession of arms. What, you may well ask, will be the end of all of this I would not know But I would hope that our beloved country will drink deep from the chalice of courage. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
In war, as it is waged now, with the enormous losses on both sides, both sides will lose. It is a form of mutual suicide. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
The outfit soon took on color, dash and a unique flavor which is the essence of that elusive and deathless thing called soldiering. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
I address you with neither rancor nor bitterness in the fading twilight of life, with but one purpose in mind: to serve my country. The issues are global and so interlocked that to consider the problems of one sector, oblivious to those of another, is but to court disaster for the whole. While Asia is commonly referred to as the Gateway to Europe, it is no less true that Europe is the Gateway to Asia, and the broad influence of the one cannot fail to have its impact upon the other. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
Here are centered the hopes and aspirations and faith of the entire human race. I do not stand here as advocate for any partisan cause, for the issues are fundamental and reach quite beyond the realm of partisan consideration. They must be resolved on the highest plane of national interest if our course is to prove sound and our future protected. I trust, therefore, that you will do me the justice of receiving that which I have to say as solely expressing the considered viewpoint of a fellow American. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
Global war has become Frankenstein's monster, threatening to destroy both sides. (Douglas MacArthur)
I can recall no parallel in history where a great nation recently at war has so distinguished its former enemy commander. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that "old soldiers never die; they just fade away." And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
I address you with neither rancor nor bitterness in the fading twilight of life, with but one purpose in mind: to serve my country. The issues are global and so interlocked that to consider the problems of one sector, oblivious to those of another, is but to court disaster for the whole. View quote
Douglas MacArthur
I have constantly called for the new political decisions essential to a solution. Efforts have been made to distort my position. It has been said, in effect, that I was a warmonger. Nothing could be further from the truth. I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes. ... But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. View quote
Douglas MacArthur