Be the hunter, not the hunted: Never allow your unit to be caught with its guard down.
James MattisRead
Demonstrate to the world there is "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" than a U.S. Marine.
Interpretation
The quote underscores the loyalty and fierce determination of a U.S. Marine, emphasizing their dual role as a protector and a formidable opponent.
James Mattis's quote highlights the deep commitment and fierce loyalty that marines embody, suggesting that their friendship is unparalleled and their enmity is to be taken seriously. It reflects the idea that marines are not only fierce protectors of their comrades and country but also formidable adversaries when provoked, embodying the complex nature of military loyalty and strength.
In practice
Using this quote during a military graduation speech to emphasize the commitment of service members.
Be the hunter, not the hunted: Never allow your unit to be caught with its guard down.
I would happily storm hell in the company of these troops ... how strongly they have demonstrated to the world that free men and women can fight like the dickens.
For the mission's sake, our country's sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division's colors in the past battles - who fought for life and never lost their nerve - carry out your mission and keep your honor clean. Demonstrate to the world there is "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" than a U.S. Marine.
You cannot allow any of your people to avoid the brutal facts. If they start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad.
We've backed off in good faith to try and give you a chance to straighten this problem out. But I am going to beg with you for a minute. I'm going to plead with you, do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years.
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across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete. We have got to have officers who can create harmony across all those lines.
People with a mental illness aren't mentally weak. In fact, many of them are incredibly strong. And just like everyone else, they possess the ability to create positive change in their lives.
Most people carry that pain around inside them their whole lives, until they kill the pain by other means, or until it kills them. But you, my friends, you found another way: a way to use the pain. To burn it as fuel, for light and warmth. You have learned to break the world that has tried to break you.
The noble title of "dissident" must be earned rather than claimed; it connotes sacrifice and risk rather than mere disagreement.
Non-violence is backed by the theory of soul-force in which suffering is courted in the hope of ultimately winning over the opponent. But what happens when such an attempt fail to achieve the object? It is here that soul-force has to be combined with physical force so as not to remain at the mercy of tyrannical and ruthless enemy.
I have learned that a woman can be a fighter, a freedom fighter, a political activist, and that she can fall in love, and be loved, she can be married, have children, be a mother... Revolution must mean life also; every aspect of life.
Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.
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