Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.
— George S. Patton
Jittery Military Leader quotations
Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience.

A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances.

Why does soldiers leave the protection of his trench hole in the ground and go forward in the face of shot and shell? It is because of the leader who is in front of him and his comrades who are around him. Comradeship makes a man feel warm and courageous when all his instincts tend to make him cold and afraid.
You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.
I am a military police officer and I have served on two deployments my first was to Iraq, in a medical unit, and my second deployment was to Kuwait, as a military police platoon leader.

The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.
Tell the Truth, and speak from your pay-grade.
Don't try to answer questions that would better be directed to the battalion commander or Gen. William Westmoreland or President Lyndon Johnson. If you are a squad leader, answer questions about what you know and do.
Everywhere that the struggle for national freedom has triumphed, once the authorities agreed, there were military coups d'etat that overthrew their leaders. That is the result time and time again.

A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible.
No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen;
no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.
Cities can be rebuilt, industries can be rebuilt, what really matters are strategy forces, military forces and the cadres leaders, political, military and economic.

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.
Of course, there is no question that Libya - and the world - will be better off with Gaddafi out of power. I, along with many other world leaders, have embraced that goal, and will actively pursue it through non-military means. But broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake.
A leader is the man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do, and like it.

The majority of people are timid by nature, and that is why they constantly exaggerate danger. all influences on the military leader, therefore, combine to give him a false impression of his opponent's strength, and from this arises a new source of indecision.
Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.
They taught me that no man could be their leader except he ate the ranks' food, wore their clothes, lived level with them, and yet appeared better in himself.

A military leader often faces a situation he has to deal with, but because it is his duty, no court can try him.
A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution applied ten minutes later.
Live for something rather than die for nothing.

Get the hell out of my way!
Why don't church leaders forbid Catholics from joining the military with the same fervor they tell Catholics to stay away from abortion clinics?
A kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being;
nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.

There is a reason why George Washington is always one of the top three presidents, and it's not because of his prowess as a military leader; it's not because of the incredible innovations in policy that he introduced. It's because he knew when it was time to go.
The wisdom and spirit of Churchill not only saved Britain from the Third Reich but saved Western civilization from a Nazi Dark Ages when no other nation was willing to take up that defense. Churchill was the greatest military, political and spiritual leader of the 20th century.
Our profession is built on the bedrock of trust - the trust that must inherently exist among Soldiers, and between Soldiers and their leaders to accomplish their mission in the chaos of war. Recent incidents of sexual assault and sexual harassment demonstrate that we have violated that trust.

The repeal of don't ask, don't tell didn't change things for transgender people in the military. What it has done, though, I think, is it has taught our military leaders that they don't need to be afraid of these issues.
Often times the best military leaders were soldiers.
Normally, what happens when we have a national leader who wants to do something in terms of military intervention, he tells the Pentagon, put together some options to accomplish goal.

The great military leaders of the past have gone, their empires have crumbled and burned to ashes. But the empire of Jesus, built solidly and majestically on the foundation of love, is still growing.
Traditional Albanian society was based on a clan system and was further divided into brotherhoods and bajraks. The bajrak system identified a local leader, called a bajrakar, who could be counted on to provide a certain number of men for military duty.
For years, European leaders have pointed out that Europe is an economic giant, but a military pygmy.
The American people rightly look to their military leaders to be not only skilled in the technical aspects of the profession of arms, but to be men of integrity
Military cemeteries in every corner of the world are silent testimony to the failure of national leaders to sanctify human life.