Douglas MacArthur quotes

Douglas MacArthur was an American five-star general and prominent military leader during World War II. His strategic decisions significantly shaped the outcome of key battles in the Pacific theater. He became a symbol of American resolve and leadership throughout the conflict. Here are 130 of his quotes:

Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.

Douglas MacArthur

The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.

Douglas MacArthur

There is no substitute for victory.

Douglas MacArthur

We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction.

Douglas MacArthur

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

Douglas MacArthur

It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear.

Douglas MacArthur

Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would yield every honor which has been accorded by war.

Douglas MacArthur

In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an eyelash.

Douglas MacArthur

There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.

Douglas MacArthur

Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind.

Douglas MacArthur

The nations of the world will have to unite for the next war will be an interplanetary war. The nations of Earth must some day make a common front against attack by people from other planets.

Douglas MacArthur

I see that old flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy ever haul them down.

Douglas MacArthur

A better world shall emerge based on faith and understanding.

Douglas MacArthur

The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

Douglas MacArthur

While I was not consulted prior to the President's decision to intervene in support of the Republic of Korea, that decision from a military standpoint, proved a sound one, as we hurled back the invader and decimated his forces. Our victory was complete, and our objectives within reach, when Red China intervened with numerically superior ground forces.

Douglas MacArthur

I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.

Douglas MacArthur

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Douglas MacArthur

You are remembered for the rules you break.

Douglas MacArthur

A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.

Douglas MacArthur

They died hard, those savage men - like wounded wolves at bay. They were filthy, and they were lousy, and they stunk. And I loved them.

Douglas MacArthur

Part of the American dream is to live long and die young. Only those Americans who are willing to die for their country are fit to live.

Douglas MacArthur

I came out of Bataan and I shall return!

Douglas MacArthur