110+ Douglas MacArthur Quotes On Planning, Resilience And Vision

Douglas MacArthur was an American five-star general and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. After the war, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan and oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Douglas MacArthur on leadership, planning, leadership.

Top 10 Douglas MacArthur Quotes

1. 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.
2. Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.
3. Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.
4. No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.
5. Even when opportunity knocks, a man still has to get up off his seat and open the door.
6. For those to whom much is given, much is required. It is not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up. There is no substitute for victory.
7. Give me ten thousand Filipino soldiers and I will conquer the world.
8. You are remembered for the rules you break.
9. Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind.
10. Age wrinkles the body; quitting wrinkles the soul.

Douglas MacArthur Image Quotes

You are remembered for the rules you break. — Douglas MacArthur

Age wrinkles the body; quitting wrinkles the soul. — Douglas MacArthur

We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction. — Douglas MacArthur

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away. — Douglas MacArthur

Americans never quit. — Douglas MacArthur

Only those are fit to live who are not afraid to die. — Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur Short Quotes

• We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction.
• Americans never quit.
• The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.
• In many situations that seemed desperate, the artillery has been a most vital factor.
• Never give an order that can't be obeyed.
• A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.
• It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.
• Optimism is denial, so face the facts and move on
• If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.
• I will defend Korea as I would my own country-just as I would California.

Douglas MacArthur Quotes About Leadership

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. — Douglas MacArthur

Apart from an innate grasp of tactical concepts, a great coach must possess the essentials attributes of leadership which mold men into a cohesive, fighting team with an invincible will to victory. — Douglas MacArthur

We must offer the world leadership designed to advance the goal of universal progress and enduring peace. — Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur Quotes About Planning

While no man in his right mind would advocate sending our ground forces into continental China, and such was never given a thought, the new situation did urgently demand a drastic revision of strategic planning if our political aim was to defeat this new enemy as we had defeated the old. — Douglas MacArthur

No plan ever survives its first encounter with the enemy. — Douglas MacArthur

Have a good plan, execute it violently, and do it today. — Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur Quotes About Fear

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

Worry, doubt, fear and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die. — Douglas MacArthur

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency. — Douglas MacArthur

Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear. — Douglas MacArthur

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair. — Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur Quotes About Victory

Preparedness is the key to success and victory. — Douglas MacArthur

War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war there is no substitute for victory. — Douglas MacArthur

In war there is no substitute for victory. — Douglas MacArthur

On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days, on other fields will bear the fruits of victory. — Douglas MacArthur

To dilute the will to win is to destroy the purpose of the game. There is no substitute for victory. — Douglas MacArthur

In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on Divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory. — Douglas MacArthur

From the Far East I send you one single thought, one sole idea - written in red on every beachhead from Australia to Tokyo - "There is no substitute for victory!" — Douglas MacArthur

Whether in chains or in laurels, liberty knows nothing but victories. — Douglas MacArthur

Few names have left a firmer imprint upon the pages of the history of American times than has that of Ty Cobb... he seems to have understood that in the competition of baseball, just as in war, defensive strategy never has produced ultimate victory. — Douglas MacArthur

A Prayer For My SonBuild 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

Douglas MacArthur Quotes About Live

Only those are fit to live who are not afraid to die. — 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

It was close; but that's the way it is in war. You win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an eyelash. — Douglas MacArthur

The untruthful soldier trifles with the lives of his countrymen and the honor and safety of his country. — Douglas MacArthur

Life is a lively process of becoming. — Douglas MacArthur

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

I have known war as few men now living know it. It's very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes. — Douglas MacArthur

I promise to keep on living as though I expected to live forever. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. — Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur Quotes About Soldier

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away. — Douglas MacArthur

The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training - sacrifice. — Douglas MacArthur

A good soldier, whether he leads a platoon or an army, is expected to look backward as well as forward; but he must think only forward. — Douglas MacArthur

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. — Douglas MacArthur

Old soldiers never die, they just lose their grip on reality after traumatic brain injuries. — Douglas MacArthur

I suppose, in a way, this has become part of my soul. It is a symbol of my life. Whatever I have done that really matters, I've done wearing it. When the time comes, it will be in this that I journey forth. What greater honor could come to an American, and a soldier? — Douglas MacArthur

Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye. — Douglas MacArthur

A soldier plods and groans, sweats and toils, he growls and curses, and at the end he dies. — Douglas MacArthur

The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point?but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away. — Douglas MacArthur

By profession I am a soldier and take great pride in that fact, but I am prouder, infinitely prouder, to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentialities of death; the other embodies creation and life. — Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur Quotes About World

It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope of all mankind, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past... — Douglas MacArthur

I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world! — Douglas MacArthur

The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle: the roar of the crowd on the one side, and the voice of your conscience on the other. — Douglas MacArthur

The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. — Douglas MacArthur

The scale and grandeur of the Russian effort mark it as the greatest military achievement in all history. — 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

We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no turning back. We must go forward to preserve in peace what we won in war. — Douglas MacArthur

I came through and I shall return. — Douglas MacArthur

The great question is, can war be outlawed from the world? If so, it would mark the greatest advance in civilization since the Sermon on the Mount. — Douglas MacArthur

I'll come back as soon as I can with as much as I can. In the meantime, you've got to hold! — Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur Famous Quotes And Sayings

You are remembered for the rules you break. — Douglas MacArthur

"Duty, Honor, Country" - those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. — Douglas MacArthur

Talk of imminent threat to our national security through the application of external force is pure nonsense. Our threat is from the insidious forces working from within which have already so drastically altered the character of our free institutions - those institutions we proudly called the American way of life. — Douglas MacArthur

History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster. — Douglas MacArthur

Age wrinkles the body; quitting wrinkles the soul. — Douglas MacArthur

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away. — Douglas MacArthur

I had learned one of the bitter lessons of life: never try to regain the past, the fire will have become ashes. — Douglas MacArthur

We are bound no longer by the straitjacket of the past and nowhere is the change greater than in our profession of arms. What, you may well ask, will be the end of all of this? I would not know! But I would hope that our beloved country will drink deep from the chalice of courage. — Douglas MacArthur

Americans never quit. — Douglas MacArthur

Only those are fit to live who are not afraid to die. — 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

Believe me, sir, never a night goes by, be I ever so tired, but I read the Word of God before I go to bed. — Douglas MacArthur

This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war. — Douglas MacArthur

Freemasonry embraces the highest moral laws and will bear the test of any system of ethics or philosophy ever promulgated for the uplift of man. — Douglas MacArthur

One cannot wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion, which is tremendously molded by the press and other forms of propaganda. — Douglas MacArthur

I have every confidence in the ultimate success of our joint cause; but success in modern war requires something more than courage and a willingness to die: it requires careful preparation. — Douglas MacArthur

Expect only 5% of an intelligence report to be accurate.The trick of a good commander is to isolate the 5%. — Douglas MacArthur

There is not one incident in the history of humanity in which defeatism led to peace which was anything other than a complete fraud. — Douglas MacArthur

In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. — Douglas MacArthur

Blank cartridges should never be used against a mob, nor should a volley be fired over the heads of the mob even if there is little danger of hurting persons in the rear. Such things will be regarded as an admission of weakness, or an attempt to bluff, and may do more harm than good. — Douglas MacArthur

In no other profession are the penalties for employing untrained personnel so appalling or so irrevocable as in the military. — Douglas MacArthur

WE HAVE HAD OUR LAST CHANCE. THE PROBLEM NOW IS BASICALLY THEOLOGICAL, AND INVOLVES SPIRITUALITY AND IMPROVEMENT OF human CHARACTER. IT MUST BE OF THE SPIRIT IF WE ARE TO SAVE THE FLESH. — Douglas MacArthur

It is my earnest hope - indeed the hope of all mankind - that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past, a world found upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice. — Douglas MacArthur

The chickens are coming home to roost, and you happen to have just moved into the chicken house. — Douglas MacArthur

It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh. — Douglas MacArthur

No army has ever done so much with so little. — Douglas MacArthur

There's no security on this earth, only opportunity. — Douglas MacArthur

My first recollection is that of a bugle call. — 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

I've looked that old scoundrel death in the eye many times but this time I think he has me on the ropes. — Douglas MacArthur

Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world, and that God will preserve it always. — Douglas MacArthur

The hated system of land tenure, so contributory to general unrest in Asia, has been abolished. Every farmer is now accorded the right and dignity of ownership of the land he long has tilled. — Douglas MacArthur

I am of Virginia and all my professional life I have studied of Lee and Jackson — Douglas MacArthur

Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it. — Douglas MacArthur

I realize that advice is worth what it costs--that is, nothing. — Douglas MacArthur

I believe that the entire effort of modern society should be concentrated on the endeavor to outlaw war as a method of the solution of problems between nations. — Douglas MacArthur

Nothing would please me better than if they would give me three months and then attack here. — Douglas MacArthur

The Puerto Ricans forming the ranks of the gallant 65th Infantry on the battlefields of Korea … are writing a brilliant record of achievement in battle and I am proud indeed to have them in this command. I wish that we might have many more like them. — Douglas MacArthur

If I had one more division like this First Marine Division I could win this war. — Douglas MacArthur

The outfit soon took on color, dash and a unique flavor which is the essence of that elusive and deathless thing called soldiering. — 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

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

Youth is not entirely a time of life; it is a state of mind. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubts; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair. — Douglas MacArthur

The powers in charge keep us in a perpetual state of fear keep us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real. — Douglas MacArthur

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear -- kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor -- with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant fundsdemanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real. — Douglas MacArthur

Many will tell you with mockery and ridicule that the abolition of war can only be a dream . . . But we must go on or we will all go under. And the great criticism that can be made is that the world lacks a plan that will enable us to go on . . . We must have sufficient imagination and courage to translate the universal wish for peace - which is rapidly becoming a universal necessity - into actuality. — Douglas MacArthur

I stand on this rostrum with a sense of deep humility and great pride - humility in the weight of those great American architects of our history who have stood here before me; pride in the reflection that this home of legislative debate represents human liberty in the purest form yet devised. — Douglas MacArthur

I know that this operation will be sort of helter-skelter. But the First Marine Division is going to win the war by landing at Inchon. — Douglas MacArthur

People of the Philippines: I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God our forces stand again on Philippine soil—soil consecrated in the blood of our two peoples. We have come dedicated and committed to the task of destroying every vestige of enemy control over your daily lives, and of restoring upon a foundation of indestructible strength, the liberties of your people. — Douglas MacArthur

There is no substitute for victory. — Douglas MacArthur

Competitive sports keep alive in us a spirit and vitality. Sports teach the strong to know when they are weak and the brave to face themselves when they are afraid; to be proud and unbowed in defeat, and yet humble and gentle in victory; to master ourselves before we attempt to master others; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; and to give the predominance of courage over timidity. — Douglas MacArthur

Last, but by no means least, courage-moral courage, the courage of one's convictions, the courage to see things through. The world ;is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle-the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your ;conscience on the other. — Douglas MacArthur

There is no security. Only opportunity. — Douglas MacArthur

Life Lessons by Douglas MacArthur

1. Douglas MacArthur demonstrated the importance of courage and determination in the face of adversity, as he led the Allied forces in the Pacific during World War II.
2. He also showed the importance of having a clear vision and strategy for achieving success, as he developed the island-hopping strategy to defeat the Japanese forces.
3. Finally, MacArthur showed the importance of taking responsibility for one's actions, as he accepted full responsibility for the loss of the Philippines during the war.