88 Inspiring Quotes by Douglas MacArthur

The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.

We are not retreating -- we are advancing in another direction.

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.

A better world shall emerge based on faith and understanding.

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

In war, you win or lose, live or die -- and the difference is just an eyelash.

In war there is no substitute for victory.

Never give an order that can't be obeyed.

A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.

Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would yield every honor which has been accorded by war.

I suppose, in a way, this has become part of my soul. It is a symbol of my life. Whatever I have done that really matters, I've done wearing it. When the time comes, it will be in this that I journey forth. What greater honor could come to an American, and a soldier?

Part of the American dream is to live long and die young. Only those Americans who are willing to die for their country are fit to live.

Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.

They died hard, those savage men -- like wounded wolves at bay. They were filthy, and they were lousy, and they stunk. And I loved them.

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear -- kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor -- with the cry of grave national emergency.

I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.

Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it.

I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world!

Only those are fit to live who are not afraid to die.

By profession I am a soldier and take great pride in that fact, but I am prouder, infinitely prouder, to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentialities of death; the other embodies creation and life.

In short, is American life of the future to be characterized by freedom or by servitude, strength or weakness? The answer must be clear and unequivocal if we are to avoid the pitfalls toward which we are now heading with such certainty. In many respects it is not to be found in any dogma of political philosophy but in those immutable precepts which underlie the Ten Commandments.

The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

I had learned one of the bitter lessons of life: never try to regain the past, the fire will have become ashes.

From the Far East I send you one single thought, one sole idea -- written in red on every beachhead from Australia to Tokyo -- "There is no substitute for victory!

People of the Philippines: I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God our forces stand again on Philippine soil--soil consecrated in the blood of our two peoples. We have come dedicated and committed to the task of destroying every vestige of enemy control over your daily lives, and of restoring upon a foundation of indestructible strength, the liberties of your people.

The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing the American offensive against Japan, a primary objective of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return.

I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil.

I will defend Korea as I would my own country-just as I would California.

It is fatal to enter an war without the will to win it.

The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave.

In war, indeed, there can be no substitute for victory.

Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind.

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.

While no man in his right mind would advocate sending our ground forces into continental China, and such was never given a thought, the new situation did urgently demand a drastic revision of strategic planning if our political aim was to defeat this new enemy as we had defeated the old.

I can recall no parallel in history where a great nation recently at war has so distinguished its former enemy commander.

The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point?but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

Blank cartridges should never be used against a mob, nor should a volley be fired over the heads of the mob even if there is little danger of hurting persons in the rear. Such things will be regarded as an admission of weakness, or an attempt to bluff, and may do more harm than good.

On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days, on other fields will bear the fruits of victory.

I've looked that old scoundrel death in the eye many times but this time I think he has me on the ropes.

The chickens are coming home to roost, and you happen to have just moved into the chicken house.

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... But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end.

L 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.

He thus reaps the full fruits which result from his toil and labors with the incentive of free enterprise to maximize his effort to achieve increasing production. Representing over a half of Japan's total population, the agriculture workers have become an invincible barrier against the advance of socialistic ideas which would relegate all to the indignity of state servitude.

Americans never quit.

Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear.

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.

Even when opportunity knocks, a man still has to get up off his seat and open the door.

I have every confidence in the ultimate success of our joint cause; but success in modern war requires something more than courage and a willingness to die: it requires careful preparation.

I believe that the entire effort of modern society should be concentrated on the endeavor to outlaw war as a method of the solution of problems between nations.

If I had one more division like this First Marine Division I could win this war.

Talk of imminent threat to our national security through the application of external force is pure nonsense. Our threat is from the insidious forces working from within which have already so drastically altered the character of our free institutions -- those institutions we proudly called the American way of life.

I see that the flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy ever haul them down.

I came through and I shall return.

Nothing would please me better than if they would give me three months and then attack here.

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.

This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war.

To dilute the will to win is to destroy the purpose of the game. There is no substitute for victory.

While I was not consulted prior to the President's decision to intervene in support of the Republic of Korea, that decision from a military standpoint, proved a sound one, as we hurled back the invader and decimated his forces. Our victory was complete, and our objectives within reach, when Red China intervened with numerically superior ground forces.

Old soldiers never die, they just lose their grip on reality after traumatic brain injuries.

The great question is, can war be outlawed from the world? If so, it would mark the greatest advance in civilization since the Sermon on the Mount.

Men since the beginning of time have sought peace...military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn have failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war not blots out this alternative.

For those to whom much is given, much is required. It is not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up. There is no substitute for victory.

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.

Apart from an innate grasp of tactical concepts, a great coach must possess the essentials attributes of leadership which mold men into a cohesive, fighting team with an invincible will to victory.

A good soldier, whether he leads a platoon or an army, is expected to look backward as well as forward; but he must think only forward.

There are no atheists in the foxholes of Bataan.

Competitive sports keep alive in us a spirit and vitality. Sports teach the strong to know when they are weak and the brave to face themselves when they are afraid; to be proud and unbowed in defeat, and yet humble and gentle in victory; to master ourselves before we attempt to master others; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; and to give the predominance of courage over timidity.

We are bound no longer by the straitjacket of the past and nowhere is the change greater than in our profession of arms. What, you may well ask, will be the end of all of this? I would not know! But I would hope that our beloved country will drink deep from the chalice of courage.

In many situations that seemed desperate, the artillery has been a most vital factor.

The untruthful soldier trifles with the lives of his countrymen and the honor and safety of his country.

Worry, doubt, fear and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die.

I have one criticism about the Negro troops who fought under my command in the Korean War. They didn't send me enough of them.

Expect only 5% of an intelligence report to be accurate.The trick of a good commander is to isolate the 5%.

There is not one incident in the history of humanity in which defeatism led to peace which was anything other than a complete fraud.

The history of the failure of war can almost be summed up in two words: too late.

Optimism is denial, so face the facts and move on.