Quotes - Duty (page 6)

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Duty.--As comradeship links man to man, so should duty link the man to his regiment; and however irksome a duty may be, it must be carried out for the honour of the regiment. - Captain J.F.C. Fuller, Training Soldiers for War, 1914

"For the ambitious, initiative consists in seizing every opportunity to increase notoriety."
"For disciplinarians, initiative on the part of subordinates is a misconception of their duties."
"For imaginative people, initiative is the right to do anything which suddenly strikes them."
"For lazy people initiative is the right to pass all irksome duty on to their subordinates."
"For the easy-going, initiative consists in modifying to their liking any order thay may receive."
"For the timid, initiative is the right to shirk responsibility." - Colonel F. Gory, "L'Initiative des Militaires," 1909

. . . it was by courage, sense of duty, and a keen feeling of honour in action that men were enabled to win all this, and that no personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to deprive their country of their valour, but they laid it at her feet as the most glorious contribution that they could offer. - The Funeral Oration of Pericles (Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War)

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke

. . . judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of valour, never decline the dangers of war. For it is not the miserable that would most justly be unsparing of their lives; these have nothing to hope for: it is rather they to whom continued life may bring reverses as yet unknown, and to whom a fall, if it came, would be most tremendous in its consequences. - The Funeral Oration of Pericles (Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War)

Every subject's duty is the king's, but every subject's soul is his own. - Wm. Shakespeare, Henry V

A pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer. - Theodore Roosevelt, July 27 1917

Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? - Numbers 32:6

Sons of Empire, forget it not! There are such things as love, honour and the soul of man, which cannot be bought with a price, nor die with death. - A General Instructional Background for the Young Soldier, Canadian Army, 1942

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it. - Thucydides

My path is clear here: I am to love my neighbor as myself, in the manner needed, in a practical way, in the midst of the fallen world, at my particular point of history. This is why I am not a pacifist. Pacifism in this poor world in which we live -- this lost world -- means that we desert the people who need our greatest help. - Francis Schaeffer, 1984

The universe is so vast and so ageless that the life of one man can only be justified by the measure of his sacrifice. - Pilot Officer V.A. Rosewarne, 1940

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived. - General George Patton

"Duty is ours: consequences are God's." - Lt. General T.J. (Stonewall) Jackson

Duty was duty: as a Warrant Officer, he was charged by the Secretary of State for War, in the name of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, to do his duty and to uphold and obey his orders. A woe betide any N.C.O. or man who didn't do the same! - Duncan MacNeil, Subaltern's Choice, 1974

Sentiment and friendship must never intrude upon proper military decision. - Duncan MacNeil, Subaltern's Choice, 1974

I will not disgrace the soldier's arms, nor abandon the comrade who stands at my side; but whether alone or with many, I will defend those things sacred and profane. I will hand down my country not lessened, but larger and better than I have recieved it. - Athenian Oath

"On becoming soldiers we have not ceased to be citizens."
Address , "Humble Representation," 1647, to the English Parliament by Oliver Cromwell's soldiers

United States Army Values

LOYALTY - Bear true faith and allegiance to the United States Constitution. the Army and other soldiers.

DUTY - Fulfill your obligations..

RESPECT - Treat people as they should be treated.

SELFLESS SERVICE - Put the welfare of The Nation, The Army and your subordinates before your own.

HONOR - Live up to all Army values.

INTEGRITY - Do what's right legally and morally.

PERSONAL COURAGE - Face fear, danger or adversity (physical and moral).

"And what is more important than that the work of the soldier should be well done?" - Plato

All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established - Aristotle

With bitter humour, a military padre in France during the First World War stated the most obvious fact of all: 'The soldier's business is to kill the enemy ...' he preached, 'and he only tries to avoid being killed for the sake of being efficient.' - Joanna Bourke, An Intimate History of Killing, 1999

What is the soldier? ... Here we have the true answer to our question. It is not drill or uniform, badges or weapons, which make the soldier, but that spirit of self sacrifice for a cause which he instinctively feels is a just one, which urges him on to a goal which he may never reach, or reaching it, may receive no further reward than the knowledge that through his efforts he has added to the greatness of the country and happiness and stability of his race. - Brevet Colonel J.F.C. Fuller, D.S.O., "Moral, Instruction and Leadership," Journal of the Royal United Services Institution, Vol. LXV, February to November, 1920

In a soldier initiative is the quality in virtue of which he decides to act on his own as soon as his immediate action becomes useful and necessary, and when he can neither ask nor await the orders which his commander, on whom he depends, would give him were that commander present.
Irish as it may seem, initiative is to obey and order before it is given; to obey an order which cannot be given; to amend an order which cannot be amended.
It is duty, not interest, which should be the inspirer of acts of initiative.
Initiative, like obedience, must be cultivated. The best way to cultivate it is to distribute responsibilities. The best way to foster it is to acknowledge an reward it openly and liberally. - Brevet Colonel J.F.C. Fuller, D.S.O., "Moral, Instruction and Leadership," Journal of the Royal United Services Institution, Vol. LXV, February to November, 1920

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