Soldiers

When soldiers begin to question the rightness of the cause for which they are fighting, armies soon collapse.
— Capt Sir Basil Liddell Hart

…Has become a renowned regiment with a broadening story of achievement, whose greatness lies not in its tradition — for that will come later — but in the superb training, discipline and spirit of its soldiers.
— William Seymour. British Special Forces

By Stealth, By Guile.
— Motto of the British SBS.

…Shoot and march, and the belief that you are invincible — that’s what they call fighting spirit…
— Leon Uris. Battle Cry

To set the cause above renown,
To love the game beyond the prize,
To honour, while you strike him down,
The foe that comes with fearless eyes;
To count the life of battle good,
And dear the land that gave you birth,
And dearer yet the brotherhood
That binds the brave of all the earth.
— From Sir Henry Newbolt’s Clifton Chapel

When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
— From Rudyard Kipling’s The Young British Soldier

They were the men with whom I had shared the heat and the dust, the tense, watchful nights, the risks of patrolling some desolate jungle trail. There were more admirable men in the world, more principled men, and men with finer sensibilities, but they slept in peaceful beds.
— Philip Caputo. A Rumor of War