Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller Quotes

“Sir, do you know they’ve cut us off? We’re entirely surrounded.” “Those poor bastards,” Puller said. “They’ve got us right where we want ’em. We can shoot in every direction now.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“We’ve been looking for the enemy for several days now. We’ve finally found them. We’re surrounded. That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“The difference between success and failure in this life of ours is mostly hard work, so you must constantly work to try to improve yourself.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“We must not be too proud or too stupid to profit by our mistakes—”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“between our enlisted men and young officers and those of the Army. There appears to be no example of leadership in the latter organization. No pride and nothing to look up to. The truth is unknown. …”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“The definition of military training is success in battle. In my opinion that is the only objective of military training. It wouldn’t make any sense to have a military organization on the backs of the American taxpayers with any other definition. I’ve believed that ever since I’ve been a Marine.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“When I entered the service, the regulations stated that the object of all military training is “success in battle.” This short sentence has been rewritten on three pages and I defy anyone to read it over three or more times and then explain what the object of military training is.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“You just simply cannot learn warfare in a schoolroom, or anywhere else except in combat. And you’ll never know whether you’re a fighting man until you’re under fire.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“Our trouble is that common sense has gone out the window, and we make generals today on the basis of their ability to write a damned letter. Those kinds of men can’t get us ready for war.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“Mrs. Puller gave him a last-minute gift, a bathrobe. He thanked her tenderly, but growled to his staff: “I’ve got the world’s greatest wife, but my God, what do you do when she sends you off to war with a new red flannel bathrobe?” He had it secretly stowed away before boarding his transport, the U.S.S. Fuller.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“Commodore Stephen Decatur. And he said, ‘My country, may she always be right—but my country, right or wrong.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“We’ll have to get over the idea that we’re the greatest people on earth in every respect, that we’re infallible and that no one else has ideas worth considering. One of the reasons we had to fight against odds on Guadalcanal was this insufferable American notion of superiority, and our carelessness in face of danger. It goes back to Pearl Harbor and far beyond.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“Never underestimate the enemy, boys. If you don’t figure him to have as much sense as you’ve got you’ll have trouble.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“We must not be too proud or too stupid to profit by our mistakes—and God knows we make ’em.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller

“I’ll quote Napoleon. He stated that the most important thing in military training is discipline. Without discipline an army becomes a mob.”
― Burke Davis, Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller