James Mattis Quotes

Notifying the enemy in advance of our withdrawal dates or reassuring the enemy that we will not use certain capabilities like our ground forces should be avoided.

- James Mattis

Basically, Islamic State is a combined al Qaeda and Lebanese Hezbollah on steroids, destabilizing the region, dissolving borders/changing the political geography in the Mid-east, and hardening political positions that make Mid-east peace-building more remote by the day.

- James Mattis

Treachery has existed as long as there's been warfare, and there's always been a few people that you couldn't trust.

- James Mattis

No matter how bad any situation, cynicism has no positive impact. Watching the news, you might notice that cynicism and victimhood often seem to go hand-in-hand, but not for veterans.

- James Mattis

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across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete.

- James Mattis

Marines don't know how to spell the word 'defeat'.

- James Mattis

So long as our Corps fields such Marines, America has nothing to fear from tyrants, be they Fascists, Communists or Tyrants with Medieval Ideology. For we serve in a Corps with no institutional confusion about our purpose: To fight! To fight well!

- James Mattis

To Marines, love of liberty is not an empty phrase... Rather, it's displayed by blood, sweat, and tears for the fallen.

- James Mattis

I've had some 'riotous excursions of the human spirit' alongside the young Sailors and Marines, and it's time to leave the stage to the young leaders who got their rank the old-fashioned way - they earned their stripes in combat.

- James Mattis

The Marines have landed, and we now own a piece of Afghanistan.

- James Mattis

We know that in tough times, cynicism is just another way to give up, and in the military, we consider cynicism or giving up simply as forms of cowardice.

- James Mattis

The Army was always big on Clausewitz, the Prussian; the Navy on Alfred Thayer Mahan, the American; and the Air Force on Giulio Douhet, the Italian. But the Marine Corps has always been more Eastern-oriented. I am much more comfortable with Sun-tzu and his approach to warfare.

- James Mattis

It's a lot easier to stay idealistic if you don't sign two to five next-of-kin letters every day.

- James Mattis

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.

- James Mattis

Wherever the enemy wants to fight, we will follow him to the ends of the Earth. We'll adapt, we'll train, we'll advise, we'll mentor, and we'll fight, and we'll fight well.

- James Mattis

Iran is not an enemy of ISIS; they have a lot to gain from the turmoil that ISIS creates.

- James Mattis

Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.

- James Mattis

For a sitting U.S. president to see our allies as freeloaders is nuts.

- James Mattis

In an interconnected age when opportunistic adversaries can work in tandem to destroy stability and prosperity, our country needs to regain its strategic footing. We need to bring the clarity to our efforts before we lose the confidence of the American people and the support of potential allies.

- James Mattis

There's no way that that our military power will not erode if a robust American economic revival is not part of the cards.

- James Mattis

What we achieved was a nuclear pause, not a nuclear halt.

- James Mattis

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.

- James Mattis

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway.

- James Mattis

The example that America knows how to govern itself is one of the compelling aspects of our national security.

- James Mattis

The economy's always been the engine for our national security.

- James Mattis

Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any problem has been addressed... It doesn't give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead.

- James Mattis

What is the one country in the Middle East that has not been attacked by ISIS? One. That is Iran. That is more than happenstance, I'm sure.

- James Mattis

I can't tell you the number of times I looked down at what was going on on the ground, or I was engaged in a fight somewhere, and I knew within a couple of minutes how I was going to screw up the enemy. And I knew it because I'd done so much reading.

- James Mattis

By reading, you learn through others' experiences, generally, a better way to do business, especially in our line of work where the consequences of incompetence are so final for young men.

- James Mattis

There's an urgent need to stop reacting to each immediate vexing issue in isolation. Such response often creates unanticipated second-order effects and even more problems for us.

- James Mattis

It's not an easy course. It's not designed to be. We're not here to get you in touch with your inner child.

- James Mattis

There are a lot of self-imposed restrictions by people who somehow believe they have to fall in with a certain military cant. There was always a sense that we had to put things into words that would touch our troops' hearts, not just their heads.

- James Mattis

It is not scientifically possible to accurately predict the outcome of an action. To suggest otherwise runs contrary to historical experience and the nature of war.

- James Mattis

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!

- James Mattis

The Corps is in good hands, and it's been a privilege to serve with the Leathernecks. Now it's time to go.

- James Mattis

I would storm the gates of Hell if Third Marine Air Wing was overhead.

- James Mattis

There is no God-given right to victory on the battlefield. You win that through the skill and the devotion, the valor and the ferocity of your troops.

- James Mattis

I've lived a very colorful life, and I've said some things, But not once have I taken them back, and I've never apologized for them - and I won't.

- James Mattis

We should not fight wars without a clearly defined end state... when you go to war, it can't be a half-step.

- James Mattis

Perhaps if you are in support functions waiting on the warfighters to spell out the specifics of what you are to do, you can avoid the consequences of not reading. Those who must adapt to overcoming an independent enemy's will are not allowed that luxury.

- James Mattis

I've always found, give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers, and I do better with that than I do with torture.

- James Mattis

The Iranian regime, in my mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.

- James Mattis

I have never thought it necessary to patronize the American people.

- James Mattis

There is no room for military people, including our veterans, to see themselves as victims, even if so many of our countrymen are prone to relish that role.

- James Mattis

No one gives a damn what Iran thinks on any significant issue. The only reason Iran is at the big boys' table is because of their nuclear weapons program.

- James Mattis

The U.S. military is not war weary. Our military draws strength from confronting our enemies when clear policy objectives are set and we are fully resourced for the fight.

- James Mattis

For the mission's sake, for our country's sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division's colors in past battles - carry out your mission and keep your honor clean.

- James Mattis

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.

- James Mattis

I don't think the U.S. military is conservative. It's pragmatic.

- James Mattis

There is one way to have a short but exciting conversation with me, and that is to move too slow.

- James Mattis

The most important 6 inches on the battlefield is between your ears.

- James Mattis

Prime Minister Maliki, released from American restraint, acted on his worst instincts, creating enormous distrust in Iraq's Kurdish population and deeply embittering Sunnis in western Iraq's Al Anbar, who lost any confidence in a Baghdad government they saw as adversarial.

- James Mattis

Some people feel affronted when something they thought to be true doesn't happen. If that's the case, then your sense of risk is much higher, and that leads to risk aversion. You need to be able to be comfortable in uncertainty.

- James Mattis

There are going to be good days and bad days. Bottom line.

- James Mattis

I don't have the best track record with quotes.

- James Mattis

In my line of work, the enemy gets a vote.

- James Mattis

I have never been bewildered for long in any fight with our enemies - I was Armed with Insight.

- James Mattis

Since coming back from overseas, this is more of a foreign country than the places overseas. I don't understand it. It's like America has lost faith in rational thought.

- James Mattis

Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.

- James Mattis

If you can't eat it, shoot it, or wear it, don't bring it.

- James Mattis

Demonstrate to the world, there is 'No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy' than a U.S. Marine.

- James Mattis

As commanders and staff officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don't know a hell of a lot more than just the TTPs?

- James Mattis

In a country with millions of people and cars going everywhere, the enemy is going to get a car bomb out there once in awhile.

- James Mattis

While victimhood in America is exalted, I don't think our veterans should join those ranks.

- James Mattis

If you read enough biography and history, you learn how people have dealt successfully or unsuccessfully with similar situations or patterns in the past. It doesn't give you a template of answers, but it does help you refine the questions you have to ask yourself.

- James Mattis

I was a Marine for 41 years, and it wasn't long enough. We enjoy putting on that uniform.

- James Mattis

The military can buy our diplomats some time.

- James Mattis

Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.

- James Mattis

I would just say there is one misperception of our veterans, and that is they are somehow damaged goods. I don't buy it.

- James Mattis

I don't lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.

- James Mattis

The fundamental question I believe is, 'Is political Islam in our best interest?' If not, what is our policy to authoritatively support the countervailing forces?

- James Mattis

Don't create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act.

- James Mattis

There are many people who do not know if the U.S. Army has 60,000 men or 6 million. They do not have a clue about that.

- James Mattis

Sometimes there are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It seems like everybody is in the middle.

- James Mattis

I like the enemy knowing there are a few guys like me around.

- James Mattis

I'm on record that it didn't really traumatize me to do away with some people.

- James Mattis

Iran is not a nation-state; it's a revolutionary cause devoted to mayhem.

- James Mattis

I don't write policy for my government.

- James Mattis

I consider ISIS nothing more than an excuse for Iran to continue its mischief.

- James Mattis

Be the hunter, not the hunted.

- James Mattis

Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face nothing new under the sun.

- James Mattis

We all recognize that the Mid-east is dissolving into crises, and we know terrorism did not start with 9-11.

- James Mattis

Gains achieved at great cost against our enemy in Afghanistan are reversible.

- James Mattis

You stay teachable most by reading books. By reading what other people went through.

- James Mattis

There is only one 'retirement plan' for terrorists.

- James Mattis

Most people know nobody in the military.

- James Mattis

Read about history, and you become aware that nothing starts with us.

- James Mattis

There is nothing better than getting shot at and missed. It's really great.

- James Mattis

It's very hard to live with yourself if you don't stick with your moral code.

- James Mattis

You must reward the kind of behavior that you want.

- James Mattis

I don't worry about stress. I create it.

- James Mattis

No war is over until the enemy says it's over.

- James Mattis

PowerPoint makes us stupid.

- James Mattis

Fight with a happy heart.

- James Mattis