The S2 Company Quotations

Depressed after a tough After Action Review? Need a lift? Looking for something to hang on the wall? Here are some of our favorite writings to help fill the void.

Inspirational

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. - Deuteronomy 31:6

And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. - Deuteronomy 31:8

A Psalm of David. Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight: My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me. LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away. Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them. Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children; Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee. It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. - Psalms 144:1-10

Bad Chow - 1 Cor 10:27 If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.

No Mail - Prov 25:25 As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

No Leave - Luke 22:68 And if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go.

No Pay - Psa 9:18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.

Tempted - 1 Cor 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Marital Trouble - Col 3:18-19 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

Going Overseas - Psa 121 A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while Daring Greatly so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. - Abraham Lincoln

I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon. To seek opportunity to develop whatever talents God gave me - not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any earthly master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say: `This, with God's help, I have done.' All this is what it means to be an American. - "My Creed", by Dean Alfange.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

After the cheers have died down and the stadium is empty, after the headlines have been written and after you are back in the quiet of your room and the championship ring has been placed on the dresser and all the pomp and fanfare has faded, the enduring things that are left are: The dedication to excellence, The dedication to victory, And the dedication to doing with our lives the very best we can to make the world a better place in which to live. - Vince Lombardi

Americans fully understand the requirement of the football field or the baseball diamond. They discipline themselves and suffer by the thousands to prepare for these rigors. A coach or manager who is too permissive soon seeks a new job; his team will fail against those who are tougher and harder. Yet undoubtedly any American officer, in peacetime, who worked his men as hard, or ruled them as severely as a college football coach does, would be removed. But the shocks of the battlefield are a hundred times those of the playing field, and the outcome infinitely more important to the nation. The problem is to understand the battlefield as well as the game of football. The problem is to see not what is desirable, or nice, or politically feasible, but what is necessary. - T.R. Fehrenbach

"To be under pressure is inescapable. Pressure takes place through all the world: war, seige, the worries of state. We all know men who grumble under these pressures and complain. They are cowards. They lack splendor. But there is another sort of man who is under the same pressure but does not complain, for it is the friction which polishes him. It is pressure which refines and makes him noble." - St Augustine

It is the Soldier, not the reporter who has given us freedom of press
It is the Soldier, not the poet who has given us freedom of speech
It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer who gives us freedom to demonstrate
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.

Father Dennis Edward O'Brien

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. - Calvin Coolidge

Thought Provoking

One day you will come to a fork in the road. And you're going to have to
make a decision about what direction you want to go. If you go that way you
can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn
your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will
get promoted and you will get good assignments. Or you can go that way and
you can do something - something for your country and for your Air Force and
for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and
you may not get the good assignments and you certainly will not be a
favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. You
will be true to your friends and to yourself. And your work might make a
difference. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a
roll call. That's when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do?
Which way will you go?

If a man empties his purse into his head no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

The Cycle of Civilization

Man begins his existence in bondage, and rises:

from bondage through spiritual faith,

from spiritual faith to courage,

from courage to liberty,

from liberty to abundance,

from abundance to selfishness,

from selfishness to complacency,

from complacency to apathy,

from apathy to dependency,

from dependency back into bondage.

Clarence Manion, dean of Nortre Dame law school (1941-1952) as quoted in "In whom do you trust?", R.B. Thieme, Jr.

God has ordained the military in order that the human race can survive war; He has ordained the police system and the objective administration of law so that the human race can survive crime. Basic stability of a national entity depends upon having a well-trained, strong military organization, plus an objective set of laws and excellent enforcement of these laws. Both systems for stability have one thing in common: In the operation of the military in combat, the enemy has to be killed in order to protect freedom. The same thing is true with crime: the criminal must be killed - therefore, the necessity for capital punishment. The military executes the enemies from without, while the judicial system executes them from within. Only in this way can the peace and survival of a nation be assured.
R.B. Thieme, Jr

Confronted with a task, and having less Information available than is needed to perform that Task, an Organization may react in either of two Ways. One is to increase its Information-Processing capacity, the Other to design the Organization, and indeed the Task itself, in such a way as to Enable it to operate on the basis of Less Information. These approaches are exhaustive; no others are conceivable. A failure to adopt one or the other will Automatically result in a Drop in the level of Performance. Lacking the wherewithal to effect all-automated operations, Commanders must construct their Organizations and Operations so the need for Extensive Information is not necessary - - only Minimum, Vital Information being Necessary. - Martin L. Van Creveld, Command in War (1985, pg 269)

The soldier is a man, he expects to be treated as an adult, not a schoolboy. He has rights; they must be made known to him and thereafter respected. He has ambition; it must be stirred. He has belief in fair play; it must be honored. He has a need for comradeship; it must be supplied. He has imagination; it must be stimulated. He has a sense of personal dignity; it must be sustained. He has pride; it can be satisfied and made the bedrock of character once he has been assured that he is playing a useful and respected role. To give a man this is the acme of inspired leadership. He has become loyal because loyalty has been give to him.

War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision.
Gen Douglas MacArthur, Address to Congress, 19 Apr '51
Contributed by Mike Schenaker

The god of war hates those who hesitate.
Euripides, Heraclidae, circa 425 B.C.
Contributed by Mike Schenaker

An educated guess is just as accurate and far faster than compiled errors.
Gen George S. Patton, Jr, 1942
Contributed by Mike Schenaker

Look, when you go through a script, just go as fast as you can. Just get it done. Don�t ever read what you�ve written. Try to get it done in a week or two, then go back and fix it, and then go back through as fast as you can, and then go back and fix it - you just keep fixing it. But if you try to make each page perfect, you�ll never get beyond page 10. - Francis Coppola to George Lucas.

Do not repeat the tactics that have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.
Sun T'zu
Contributed by Mike Schenaker

Don't ignore the yesterdays of war in your study of today and tomorrow.
Douglas Southall Freeman, Historian
Contributed by Mike Schenaker

Bureaucracies are inherently less creative than individuals
Toni Mack, 2 Oct 97 issue of Forbes.

Creative people do not belong in the university because the process is antithetical to the analytical process so necessary for proper scholarship.
Rita Mae Brown
Author of the excellent book Dolley - Dolley Madison in Love and War and other books.

``I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90% of his labor."
Nikola Tesla on Thomas A. Edison

We trained hard. But, it seemed every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and, what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronius Arbiter; Centurion, Legions of Rome; 210 B.C.
Contributed by Mike Schenaker

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana, The Life of reason, 1906
Contributed by Mike Schenaker

Anybody can predict anything. A rational prediction has an explanation based on theory.

How ironic that it was, I thought, that among the few gifts which I might possess, those few things which might distinguish me among other men, were such as are commonly associated with destructiveness. Of what value is it, I asked myself, to have certain talents? Of what dreadful value are such skills? Then I reminded myself that such skills are often of great use and that culture, with its glories of art, and music and literature, can flourish only within the perimeters of their employments. Perhaps there is then a role for the lonely fellows on the wall, for the border guards, for the garrisons of far-flung outposts, for the guardsmen in the city treading their lonely rounds. All these, too, in their humble, unnoticed way, serve. Without them the glory is not possible. Without them even their critics could not exist. - John Norman

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks nothing is worth a war, is worse. a man who has nothing which he cares more about than his safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. - John Stuart Mill

The mere absence of war is not peace.
President John F. Kennedy
Contributed by Mike Schenaker

Nobody dislikes war more than warriors, but we value the causes of peace so highly that we will not duck a war in an effort to get a lasting peace.
Gen Daniel "Chappie" James (USAF), 1977
Contributed by Mike Schenaker

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
Thomas Paine
Contributed by Mike Schenaker

One of the results of reversionism is neglect of the military. As always, when war comes, it is the Regular Army and its officers who hold the line and are sacrificed until new men can be trained. - R.B. Thieme, Jr

... and when you finally come, you will find our bleached bones still clutching the guidon... snatch it from our hands and carry on! - 2LT R.B. Thieme III (Infantry), 1972

Ian looked down at him. And it seemed to Tyburn that the Dorsai face had gone away from him, somehow become as remote and stony as a face carved high up on some icy mountain's top.

"But I'm not just a man of the military," Ian said. "That was the mistake Kenebuck made, too. That was why he thought that stripped of military elements, I'd be easy to kill."

Tyburn looked up at him, felt a chill run down his spine as icy as wind off a glacier.
"Then, in heaven's name," cried Tyburn. "What are you?"

Ian looked from his far distance down into Tyburn's eyes and the sadness rang as clear in his voice finally, as iron-shod heels on barren rock.

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly until you have time to do it well.

Pursue failure. Failure is success' only launching pad. The bigger the goof the better.

Get fired. If you're not pushing hard enough to get fired you're not pushing hard enough. More than once is OK.

Nurture peripheral vision. The interesting "stuff" usually is going on beyond the margins of the professional's ever-narrowing line-of-sight.

Top

Military Intelligence

The U.S Army Military Intelligence Corps finds as many of the Godless anti-American bastards & their subhuman cohorts as possible and determines what these slimy creeps are up to, in order to facilitate their absolute defeat in the quickest manner possible with the least expenditure of sacred American lives.
Seen somewhere at Ft Huachuca

Misc

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. it is by the juice of sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. it is by will alone I set my mind in motion." - Mentat saying (Dune series) -- Frank Herbert.

"It is by coffee alone I set my mind in motion, it is by the beans of java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire trembling, the trembling becomes a warning. it is by coffee alone I set my mind in motion" - Seen in military UseGroup, author unknown.

There is one unalterable difference between a soldier and a civilian: the civilian never does more than he is paid to do. - Rommel

The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemy: to chase him before you; to see his cities reduced to ashes; to rob him of his wealth; to see those dear to him bathed in tears; to clasp to your bosom his wives and daughters. - Ghengis Khan, 1226.

Mission of the U.S Army (pre-1989)
To kill as many of the Godless communist bastards and their subhuman cohorts as possible, with the least expenditure of munitions, and to restore cave dwelling as a way of life in the former communist region. - Unknown

One of these days we will have a "Silly Clausewitz Quote" contest. The Army would probably be better off looking to Tom Peters or W. Edwards Deming for insight. G.