Omar N. Bradley Quotations

Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.

Leadership is intangible, and therefore no weapon ever designed can replace it.

Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.

This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live.

If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.

Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them, must share the guilt for the dead.

We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the sermon on the mount.

I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit and to mothball his opinions.

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.

With the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescents.

In a completely integrated unit where you'd have white soldiers, particularly from southern states, serving under black noncommissioned officers or officers... I think you would have a problem definitely.

The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.

We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.

Our technology has already outstripped our ability to control it.

It seems very unfortunate that in order to secure political preference, people are made Vice President who are never intended, neither by party nor by the Lord, to be Presidents.

The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.

War: A wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization.

Only one military organization can hold and gain ground in war-a ground army supported by tactical aviation with supply lines guarded by the navy.

Airpower has become predominant, both as a deterrent to war, and-in the eventuality of war-as the devastating force to destroy an enemy's potential and fatally undermine his will to wage war.

Each player on this team whether he shines in the spotlight or eats dirt on the line, must be an All-American.

The greatest leader in the world could never win a campaign unless he understood the men he had to lead.

Every member of our baseball team at West Point became a general: this proves the value of team sports.

Peace is our goal but preparedness is the price we must pay.

As far as I am concerned, war itself is immoral.

Muddy language is not confined to policies alone. Each of you has seen replies to simple questions in which the meaning was lost through hopelessly obscure wording. When a person writes to the Veterans Administration, he is entitled to an easily understood, frank, and courteous reply. If our replies cannot be understood, they are not only not worth writing, but they simply create additional work.

If you will help run our government in the American way, then there will never be any danger of our government running America in the wrong way.

I have returned many times to honour the valiant men who died...every man who set foot on Omaha Beach was a hero.

The nation needs men who think in terms of service to their country and not in terms of their country's debt to them.

The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy. ... Red China is not the powerful nation seeking to dominate the world.

In war there is no second prize for the runner-up.

Our humanity is trapped by moral adolescents. We have too many men of science, too few men of God. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom and power without conscience.

We are dealing with veterans, not procedures; with their problems, not ours.

We've learned how to destroy, but not to create; how to waste, but not to build; how to kill men, but not how to save them; how to die, but seldom how to live.

Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.

Freedom-no word was ever spoken that has held out greater hope, demanded greater sacrifice, needed more to be nurtured, blessed more the giver. . . or came closer to being God's will on earth.

Dependability, integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong, that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair deal. Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him.

A piece of paper makes you an officer, a radio makes you a commander.

The second best decision in time is infinitely better than the perfect decision too late.

It is to the United States that all freemen look for the light and the hope of the world. Unless we dedicate ourselves completely to this struggle, unless we combat hunger with food, fear with trust, suspicion with faith, fraud with justice - and threats with power, nations will surrender to the futility, the hopelessness, the panic on which wars feed.

I learned that good judgment comes from experience and that experience grows out of mistakes.

The smell of death overwhelmed us even before we passed through the stockade. More than 3200 naked, emaciated bodies had been flung into shallow graves. Others lay in the streets where they had fallen. ... Eisenhower's face whitened into a mask. Patton walked over to a corner and sickened. I was too revolted to speak. For here death had been so fouled by degradation that it both stunned and numbed us. ...

America today is running on the momentum of a godly ancestry, and when that momentum runs down, God help America.

Leadership means firmness, not harshness or bullying; understanding, not weakness; justice, not irresponsible freedom; humaneness, not intolerance; generosity, not selfishness; pride, not egotism.

Amateurs study tactics; professionals study logistics.

We live in a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants, in a world that has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We have solved the mystery of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about dying than we know about living.

The greatness of a leader is measured by the achievements of the led. This is the ultimate test of his effectiveness.