Jim Mattis Quotes

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

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

The military can buy our diplomats some time.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Be the hunter, not the hunted.

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

Marines don’t know how to spell the word ‚defeat‘.

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

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.

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

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

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

Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.

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.

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

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

Fight with a happy heart.

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

PowerPoint makes us stupid.

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

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