Top 96 Quotes & Sayings by Jim Mattis

No one gives a damn what Iran thinks on any significant issue. The only reason Iran is at the big boys' table is because of their nuclear weapons program.

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.

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 don't have the best track record with quotes.

For the mission's sake, for our country's sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division's colors in past battles - carry out your mission and keep your honor clean.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

Marines don't know how to spell the word 'defeat'.

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.

I believe that many of my young guys lived because I didn't waste their lives because I didn't have the vision in my mind of how to destroy the enemy at least cost to our guys and to the innocents on the battlefields.

Some people feel affronted when something they thought to be true doesn't happen. If that's the case, then your sense of risk is much higher, and that leads to risk aversion. You need to be able to be comfortable in uncertainty.

If you can't eat it, shoot it, or wear it, don't bring it.

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

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.

It's a lot of fun to fight.

What we achieved was a nuclear pause, not a nuclear halt.

By reading, you learn through others' experiences, generally, a better way to do business, especially in our line of work where the consequences of incompetence are so final for young men.

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

There's no way that that our military power will not erode if a robust American economic revival is not part of the cards.

You must reward the kind of behavior that you want.

There is no God-given right to victory on the battlefield. You win that through the skill and the devotion, the valor and the ferocity of your troops.

It's a lot easier to stay idealistic if you don't sign two to five next-of-kin letters every day.

There is no room for military people, including our veterans, to see themselves as victims, even if so many of our countrymen are prone to relish that role.

Treachery has existed as long as there's been warfare, and there's always been a few people that you couldn't trust.

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

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

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.

PowerPoint makes us stupid.

Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any problem has been addressed... It doesn't give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead.

Fight with a happy heart.

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.

Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.

Don't create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act.

I don't think the U.S. military is conservative. It's pragmatic.

I would storm the gates of Hell if Third Marine Air Wing was overhead.

Sometimes there are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It seems like everybody is in the middle.

Notifying the enemy in advance of our withdrawal dates or reassuring the enemy that we will not use certain capabilities like our ground forces should be avoided.

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.

There's an urgent need to stop reacting to each immediate vexing issue in isolation. Such response often creates unanticipated second-order effects and even more problems for us.

The Marines have landed, and we now own a piece of Afghanistan.

It's very hard to live with yourself if you don't stick with your moral code.

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

There is only one 'retirement plan' for terrorists.

The fundamental question I believe is, 'Is political Islam in our best interest?' If not, what is our policy to authoritatively support the countervailing forces?

Be the hunter, not the hunted.

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.

No war is over until the enemy says it's over.

Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face nothing new under the sun.

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

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

In my line of work, the enemy gets a vote.

Most people know nobody in the military.

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.

Wherever the enemy wants to fight, we will follow him to the ends of the Earth. We'll adapt, we'll train, we'll advise, we'll mentor, and we'll fight, and we'll fight well.

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway.

Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.

The most important 6 inches on the battlefield is between your ears.

Demonstrate to the world, there is 'No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy' than a U.S. Marine.

There are a lot of self-imposed restrictions by people who somehow believe they have to fall in with a certain military cant. There was always a sense that we had to put things into words that would touch our troops' hearts, not just their heads.

The economy's always been the engine for our national security.

In an interconnected age when opportunistic adversaries can work in tandem to destroy stability and prosperity, our country needs to regain its strategic footing. We need to bring the clarity to our efforts before we lose the confidence of the American people and the support of potential allies.