There is only one 'retirement plan' for terrorists.
Jim MattisRead
Sometimes there are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It seems like everybody is in the middle.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that moral categories of 'good' and 'bad' are often overly simplistic, with most people existing in a gray area.
Jim Mattis highlights the complexity of human nature and morality in his quote. Instead of viewing the world in black-and-white terms, he suggests that individuals often act in the gray areas of morality, where intentions and actions are not easily categorized as purely good or bad. This perspective encourages a more nuanced understanding of human behavior and the situations that influence it.
Themes
MoralityGoodBadComplexityHuman Nature
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on ethics in a classroom setting.
More from Jim Mattis
All quotes βThere are hunters, and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience, and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.
Jim MattisRead
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!
Jim MattisRead
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.
Jim MattisRead
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.
Jim MattisRead
Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.
Jim MattisRead
Similar quotes
It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. To be at last in such secure innocence that one can juggle with the universe and the stars, to be so good that one can treat everything as a joke - that may be, perhaps, the real end and final holiday of human souls.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.
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The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy.
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It is often argued that religion is valuable because it makes men good, but even if this were true it would not be a proof that religion is true. That would be an extension of pragmatism beyond endurance. Santa Claus makes children good in precisely the same way, and yet no one would argue seriously that the fact proves his existence. The defense of religion is full of such logical imbecilities.
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There is no vice so simple but assumes some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
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i usedta live in the world really be in the world free & sweet talkin good mornin & thank-you & nice day uh huh i cant now i cant be nice to nobody nice is such a rip-off regular beauty & a smile in the street is just a set-up
Ntozake ShangeRead