Top 29 Quotes & Sayings by Chester W. Nimitz

It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so that it is not fought on U.S. soil.

A ship is always referred to as 'she' because it costs so much to keep one in paint and powder.

Some of the best advice I've had comes from junior officers and enlisted men.

Is the proposed operation likely to succeed? What might the consequences of failure? Is it in the realm of practicability in terms of material and supplies?

Uncommon valor was a common virtue.

Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.

That is not to say that we can relax our readiness to defend ourselves. Our armament must be adequate to the needs, but our faith is not primarily in these machines of defense but in ourselves.

God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless.

It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so that it will not be fought on U.S. soil.

We must not again underestimate the Japanese.

The battle of Iwo Island has been won. The United States Marines by their individual and collective courage have conquered a base which is as necessary to us in our continuing forward movement toward final victory as it was vital to the enemy in staving off ultimate defeat.

The best that science can devise and that naval organization can provide must be regarded only as an aid, and never as a substitute for good seamanship.

Our present control of the sea is so absolute that it is sometimes taken for granted.

I felt that it was an unnecessary loss of civilian life... We had them beaten. They hadn't enough food, they couldn't do anything.

By their victory, the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions and other units of the Fifth Amphibious Corps have made an accounting to their country which only history will be able to value fully. Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.

The U.S.'s major strength factor and weapon is its economy. If you cripple it, you cripple the military.

If you're not making waves, you're not under weigh.

When you're in command, command.

We shall never forget that it was our submarines that held the lines against the enemy while our fleets replaced losses and repaired wounds.

I have just taken on a great responsibility. I will do my utmost to meet it.

The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military point of view, in the defeat of Japan.

Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.

They fought together as brothers in arms; they died together and now they sleep side by side. To them we have a solemn obligation.

No other island received as much preliminary pounding as did Iwo Jima.

When I assumed command of the Pacific Fleet in 31 December, 1941; our submarines were already operating against the enemy, the only units of the Fleet that could come to grips with the Japanese for months to come. It was to the Submarine Force that I looked to carry the load until our great industrial activity could produce the weapons we so sorely needed to carry the war to the enemy. It is to the everlasting honor and glory of our submarine personnel that they never failed us in our days of peril.

Luck can be attributed to a well-conceived plan carried out by a well-trained and indoctrinated task group.

The enemy of our games was always Japan, and the courses were so thorough that after the start of World War II, nothing that happened in the Pacific was strange or unexpected.

Hindsight is notably cleverer than foresight.

Through the skill and devotion to duty of their armed forces of all branches in the Midway area our citizens can now rejoice that a momentous victory is in the making.