39 quotes
They have chosen to risk death rather than slavery.
Farewell address to Congress (1951)
I see that the flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy ever haul them down.
Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always
Victory broadcast (1945)
I came out of Bataan and I shall return!
Upon the fields of friendly strife
Are sown the seeds
That, upon other fields, on other days
Will bear the fruits of victory.
Reminiscences (1964)
If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.
Victory broadcast (1945)
We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no turning back. We must go forward to preserve in peace what we won in war.
Victory broadcast (1945)
High honors have come my way, but I shall always believe that my greatest honor was being a West Point graduate. The Military Academy has taught me many things, some of them not within the covers of books or written by any man.
It was close; but that's the way it is in war. You win or lose, live or die — and the difference is just an eyelash.
There is no substitute for victory.
The Puerto Ricans forming the ranks of the gallant 65th Infantry on the battlefields of Korea … are writing a brilliant record of achievement in battle and I am proud indeed to have them in this command. I wish that we might have many more like them.
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.
It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear.
The soldier, above all other men, is required to perform the highest act of religious teaching—sacrifice. In battle and in the face of danger and death he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when He created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instincts can take the place of the divine annunciation and spiritual uplift which will alone sustain him.
As I was leaving the hotel this morning, a doorman asked me, "Where are you headed, General?" and when I replied, "West Point," he remarked, "Beautiful place. Have you ever been there before?"
Reminiscences (1964)
The soldier, be he friend or foe, is charged with the protection of the weak and unarmed. It is the very essence and reason for his being. When he violates this sacred trust, he not only profanes his entire cult but threatens the very fabric of international society. The traditions of fighting men are long and honorable. They are based upon the noblest of human traits—sacrifice.
The Pacific no longer represents menacing avenues of approach for a prospective invader. It assumes, instead, the friendly aspect of a peaceful lake. Our line of defense is a natural one and can be maintained with a minimum of military effort and expense.
Farewell address to Congress (1951)
I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any potential threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within which, opposed to all of our great traditions, have gravely weakened the structure and tone of our American way of life.
There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.
Attributed