These, in the day when heaven was falling The hour when earth’s foundations fled, Followed their mercenary calling, And took their wages, and are dead. Their shoulders held the sky suspended; They stood, and earth’s foundations stay; What God abandoned, these defended, And saved the sum of things for pay.
Soldiers Quotes
They died hard – those savage men – not gently like a stricken dove folding its wings in peaceful passing, but like a wounded wolf at bay, with lips curled back in sneering menace, and always a nerveless hand reaching for that long sharp machete knife which long ago they had substituted for the bayonet. […]
I gave my life for freedom – this I know: For those who bade me fight had told me so.
The patriot volunteer, fighting for country and his rights, makes the most reliable soldier on earth.
However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.
When they (civilians) hear about an airstrip being taken or a piece of land taken, they are happy as they should be. But I often wonder if they stop to think there have been a lot of boys blown apart and killed and lost arms and legs and eyes and a lot more I’m not […]
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
I don’t do much, except think a lot, scold a little, pat a man on the back now and then, and try to keep a perspective.
I got there first with the most men. (or “get there firstest with the mostest” – When asked, in 1862, how he raided the garrison at Murfreesboro.)
This was, in the beginning of the present century, the state of the Highlands. Every man was a soldier, who partook of national confidence, and interested himself in national honor. To lose this spirit, is to lose what no small advantage will compensate.
