Jim Mattis

“It's not an easy course. It's not designed to be. We're not here to get you in touch with your inner child.”

“If you read enough biography and history, you learn how people have dealt successfully or unsuccessfully with similar situations or patterns in the past. It doesn't give you a template of answers, but it does help you refine the questions you have to ask yourself.”

“Iran is not a nation-state; it's a revolutionary cause devoted to mayhem.”

“I don't lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.”

“Read about history, and you become aware that nothing starts with us.”

“So long as our Corps fields such Marines, America has nothing to fear from tyrants, be they Fascists, Communists or Tyrants with Medieval Ideology. For we serve in a Corps with no institutional confusion about our purpose: To fight! To fight well!”

“Most people know nobody in the military.”

“There is nothing better than getting shot at and missed. It's really great.”

“Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.”

“I've lived a very colorful life, and I've said some things, But not once have I taken them back, and I've never apologized for them - and I won't.”

“The Iranian regime, in my mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.”

“Now from a distance, I look back on what the Corps taught me: to think like men of action, and to act like men of thought!”

“To Marines, love of liberty is not an empty phrase... Rather, it's displayed by blood, sweat, and tears for the fallen.”

“I consider ISIS nothing more than an excuse for Iran to continue its mischief.”

“It is not scientifically possible to accurately predict the outcome of an action. To suggest otherwise runs contrary to historical experience and the nature of war.”

“While victimhood in America is exalted, I don't think our veterans should join those ranks.”

“There are going to be good days and bad days. Bottom line.”

“In this age, I don't care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are: if you cannot create harmony - even vicious harmony - on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete.”

“I don't worry about stress. I create it.”

“In a country with millions of people and cars going everywhere, the enemy is going to get a car bomb out there once in awhile.”