Douglas Macarthur

Part of the American dream is to live long and die young. Only those Americans who are willing to die for their country are fit to live.

— Douglas Macarthur

The powers in charge keep us in a perpetual state of fear keep us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.

— Douglas Macarthur

Last, but by no means least, courage-moral courage, the courage of one's convictions, the courage to see things through. The world ;is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle-the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your ;conscience on the other.

— Douglas Macarthur

Only those are fit to live who are not afraid to die.

— Douglas Macarthur

We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction.

— Douglas Macarthur

By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder -- infinitely prouder -- to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle field but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, Our Father Who Art in Heaven.

— Douglas Macarthur

No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.

— Douglas Macarthur

A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.

— Douglas Macarthur

Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.

— Douglas Macarthur

The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.

— Douglas Macarthur

You are remembered for the rules you break.

— Douglas Macarthur

There's no security on this earth, only opportunity.

— Douglas Macarthur

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

— Douglas Macarthur

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.

— Douglas Macarthur

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.

— Douglas Macarthur

It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.

— Douglas Macarthur

There is no substitute for victory.

— Douglas Macarthur

I see that old flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy ever haul them down.

— Douglas Macarthur

In war there is no substitute for victory.

— Douglas Macarthur

I have known war as few men now living know it. It's very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.

— Douglas Macarthur

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

— Douglas Macarthur

The soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

— Douglas Macarthur

I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of the day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away. And, like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.

— Douglas Macarthur