A biography for Jim Mattishasn’t been written yet.
“There are hunters, and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience, and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.”
“In my line of work, the enemy gets a vote.”
“I don't think the U.S. military is conservative. It's pragmatic.”
“I can't tell you the number of times I looked down at what was going on on the ground, or I was engaged in a fight somewhere, and I knew within a couple of minutes how I was going to screw up the enemy. And I knew it because I'd done so much reading.”
“We should not fight wars without a clearly defined end state... when you go to war, it can't be a half-step.”
“Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.”
“It's very hard to live with yourself if you don't stick with your moral code.”
“I don't have the best track record with quotes.”
“The Army was always big on Clausewitz, the Prussian; the Navy on Alfred Thayer Mahan, the American; and the Air Force on Giulio Douhet, the Italian. But the Marine Corps has always been more Eastern-oriented. I am much more comfortable with Sun-tzu and his approach to warfare.”
“Iran is not an enemy of ISIS; they have a lot to gain from the turmoil that ISIS creates.”
“What we achieved was a nuclear pause, not a nuclear halt.”
“There is one way to have a short but exciting conversation with me, and that is to move too slow.”
“We know that in tough times, cynicism is just another way to give up, and in the military, we consider cynicism or giving up simply as forms of cowardice.”
“I've always found, give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers, and I do better with that than I do with torture.”
“There are many people who do not know if the U.S. Army has 60,000 men or 6 million. They do not have a clue about that.”
“I'm on record that it didn't really traumatize me to do away with some people.”
“Treachery has existed as long as there's been warfare, and there's always been a few people that you couldn't trust.”
“As commanders and staff officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don't know a hell of a lot more than just the TTPs?”
“I would storm the gates of Hell if Third Marine Air Wing was overhead.”
“Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face nothing new under the sun.”