There is only one 'retirement plan' for terrorists.
Jim MattisRead
It's a lot easier to stay idealistic if you don't sign two to five next-of-kin letters every day.
Interpretation
Being idealistic is easier when you're not faced with the harsh realities of life and death.
Jim Mattis's quote reflects on the challenges of maintaining an idealistic perspective in the face of grim responsibilities, such as writing letters to families of fallen soldiers. It suggests that constant exposure to the sacrifices and tragedies associated with war can weigh heavily on one's ideals, reminding us that practical realities often collide with lofty aspirations.
In practice
During a speech on military service, one might refer to this quote to emphasize the burdens soldiers carry.
There is only one 'retirement plan' for terrorists.
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.
Now from a distance, I look back on what the Corps taught me: to think like men of action, and to act like men of thought!
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.
For whatever trauma came with service in tough circumstances, we should take what we learned - take our post-traumatic growth - and, like past generations coming home, bring our sharpened strengths to bear, bring our attitude of gratitude to bear.
Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.
Healthy scepticism is the basis of all accurate observation.
I covered the Vietnam War. I remember the lies that were told, the lives that were lost - and the shock when, twenty years after the war ended, former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara admitted he knew it was a mistake all along.
A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.
Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.
You can't spend your whole life criticizing something and then, when you have the chance to do it better, refuse to go near it.
... as a slow-witted human being I have a very small head and I had better learn to live with it and to respect my limitations and give them full credit, rather than to try to ignore them, for the latter vain effort will be punished by failure.
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