The Long Gray Line Quotes

“Learning to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong”
― Rick Atkinson, The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966

“Any great leader in any society probably gives better than he gets”
― Rick Atkinson, The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966

“Like any army moving from war to peace, this Army was entering a period in which it would search high and low for its soul. Only the vanquished truly learn anything from the last war, according to an ancient maxim, and the issue now confronting America was whether the defeated nation and the nation’s vanquished Army would learn anything from Vietnam.”
― Rick Atkinson, The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966

“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 points: 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.”
― Rick Atkinson, The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966

“In the fall of 1969, a hundred Vassar students arrived from Poughkeepsie to preach peace and distribute daisies. They left a few hours later, frustrated by their inability to debate successfully against the cadets, who were well provisioned with statistics and syllogisms. One cadet graciously accepted a proffered flower, then ate it. Another excused himself from the picket line discussion by claiming that he was late for “poison gas class.”
― Rick Atkinson, The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966

“If you didn’t play the plebe system as if it were a game, he thought, it could be a debilitating ordeal.”
― Rick Atkinson, The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966

“Occasionally the ideals seemed more honored in the breach than in the observance, but in times of moral quandary a conscientious officer could anchor himself with a few simple questions: Is it good for the troops? Is it good for the country? Is it honorable?”
― Rick Atkinson, The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966

“The West Point Story,”
― Rick Atkinson, The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966