27+ James Stockdale Quotes On Education, Stoicism And Brave

James Stockdale was an American military officer and a Medal of Honor recipient. He served as a United States Navy Vice Admiral and aviator, flying combat missions during the Vietnam War. Stockdale was the highest-ranking naval officer held captive during the war, and was subjected to years of torture and solitary confinement. Following is our collection on famous quotes by James Stockdale on leadership, education, love.

Top 10 James Stockdale Quotes

1. I was tortured fifteen times, thats total submission. They did that with shutting off your blood circulation with ropes, giving you claustrophobia and pain at the same time, bending you double.
2. The challenge of education is not to prepare a person for success, but to prepare him for failure.
3. A liberally educated person meets new ideas with curiosity and fascination. An illiberally educated person meets new ideas with fear.
4. I think character is permanent, and issues are transient.
5. The worst thing that can happen is death, and that's not the worst thing in the world either.
6. Entitlement and privelege corrupt.
7. I never had a single conversation about politics with Ross Perot in my life; still haven't.
8. He's a novice, but he's had these - he's experienced in leadership in tight circumstances. He started - he dropped the first bomb, led the first air strike into North Vietnam.
9. I mean, I didn't - I should have demanded attention of the boss maybe, or something like that that might have backfired. This I would just take as it came.
10. I'm a grown man. You know, I've been in a lot of scrapes, but I never felt like I got so - there are probably a lot of things I should have done that I didn't do.

James Stockdale Short Quotes

• They can shout down the head of the physics department at Cal Tech.
• Great leaders gain authority by giving it away.
• It is in disaster, not success, that the heros and the bums really get sorted out.
• Do the right thing even if it means dying like a dog when no one's there to see you do it.
• I was commanding officer of a supersonic fighter squadron, F-8 Crusaders.
• There was nothing there but black water and American fire power.
• In order to do something you must be something.

James Stockdale Famous Quotes And Sayings

On the eighteenth of December 1972, when we thought we were getting another of the hundreds of little tactical air raids, we heard the bombs going in out there in the railroad yards and this went on for about thirty minutes. — James Stockdale

Half the issues they - are so polished they're talking about - are dead by the time they get into the office, and into the midst of their tour where they're really productive. — James Stockdale

This idea, as you know, that I have firm convictions that the idea of issues being a big deal where our mutual friend went back and he felt so strongly that the determining factor in electoral success should be a proven character. — James Stockdale

So the first thing that went on was to decide... trying to find a time when we could get reprisal raids out. — James Stockdale

The guy that just arranges things so that the stock market holds up is nobody in my - in my estimation. — James Stockdale

Well, first of all, I was asked by Ross Perot on a telephone call in March of 1992 if, since he had committed on the Larry King Show to becoming a candidate for president, to get on all 50 ballots. — James Stockdale

They were heading out to the middle of the bay - the Gulf - that's another thing that became kind of standard practice, we didn't hurry the destroyers around the beach any more, when it got dark, we'd take 'em out thirty or forty miles out in the middle of the Tonkin Gulf. — James Stockdale

Yeah. I mean, it just seemed to me that it was - I felt so helpless to this business of not having any papers. That seems like a throwback to a schoolboy. — James Stockdale

Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers. — James Stockdale

Sybil's my wife, and on the first day of October, that's the first time I knew Ross was going to run. — James Stockdale

Life Lessons by James Stockdale

1. James Stockdale taught us the importance of resilience and optimism in the face of adversity. He was able to maintain his sense of self and purpose even in the most difficult of circumstances.
2. He demonstrated the power of having a clear moral compass, and the courage to stand up for what you believe in, no matter the cost.
3. He also showed us the importance of having a strong support network and the importance of connecting with others in order to stay strong and focused.