James Norman Mattis is an American veteran and former government official who served as the 26th United States Secretary of Defense from January 2017 through January 2019. Profoundly inspirational James Mattis quotes will encourage growth in life, make you wiser and broaden your perspective.
Famous James Mattis Quotes
If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate you can’t coach and you can’t lead. James Mattis
Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet. James Mattis
If you can’t be additive as a leader, you’re just like a potted plant in the corner of a hotel lobby: you look pretty, but you’re not adding substance to the organization’s mission. James Mattis
We’ve backed off in good faith to try and give you a chance to straighten this problem out. But I am going to beg with you for a minute. I’m going to plead with you, do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years. James Mattis
Be the hunter, not the hunted: Never allow your unit to be caught with its guard down. James Mattis
The most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears. James Mattis
An untrained or uneducated Marine deployed to the combat zone is a bigger threat to mission accomplishment than the enemy. James Mattis
Keep faith in your comrades on your left and right and Marine Air overhead. James Mattis
Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment in American democracy and kill every one of them until they’re so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact. James Mattis
The military is all about teamwork. James Mattis
You can overcome wrong technology. Your people have the initiative, they see the problem, no big deal you can’t overcome bad culture. You’ve gotta change whoever is in charge. James Mattis
Everyone enters the military at junior rank and rises according to merit. Our legacy of teamwork is rich in precedents. James Mattis
You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually, it’s a lot of fun to fight. You know, it’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up front with you I like brawling. James Mattis
You cannot allow any of your people to avoid the brutal facts. If they start living in a dream world, it’s going to be bad. James Mattis
I just hope we can find our way back to engaging with one another, arguing strongly with one another, and then going down and having a root beer together or something and and having a good laugh about it as we work together for the best interests of the next generation of Americans who are going to inherit this country. James Mattis
You can overcome wrong technology. Your people have the initiative, they see the problem, no big deal you can’t overcome bad culture. You’ve gotta change whoever is in charge. James Mattis
You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. James Mattis
If you cannot create harmony even vicious harmony on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete. James Mattis
In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are, if you cannot create harmony even vicious harmony on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete. We have got to have officers who can create harmony across all those lines. James Mattis
I set out to ingrain in every grunt an aggressive spirit and confidence in winning. James Mattis
You cannot allow any of your people to avoid the brutal facts. If they start living in a dream world, it’s going to be bad. James Mattis.
If in order to kill the enemy, you have to kill an innocent, don’t take the shot. Don’t create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act. James Mattis
I don’t lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word. James Mattis
The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot. James Mattis
You’ve been told that you’re broken. That you’re damaged goods there is also Post-Traumatic Growth. You come back from war stronger and more sure of who you are. James Mattis
I come in peace; I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all. James Mattis
If in order to kill the enemy you have to kill an innocent, don’t take the shot. Don’t create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act. James Mattis
Actually, it’s quite fun to fight them, you know. It’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up there with you. I like brawling. James Mattis
If in order to kill the enemy you have to kill an innocent, don’t take the shot. Don’t create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act. James Mattis
In a country with millions of people and cars going everywhere, the enemy is going to get a car bomb out there once in a while. James Mattis
For the mission’s sake, our country’s sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division’s colors in the past battles who fought for life and never lost their nerve carry out your mission and keep your honor clean. Demonstrate to the world there is No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy than a U.S. Marine. James Mattis
While we will move swiftly and aggressively against those who resist, we will treat all others with decency, demonstrating chivalry and soldierly compassion for people who have endured a lifetime under Saddam’s oppression. James Mattis
No war is over until the enemy says it’s over. We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote. James Mattis
There is nothing better than getting shot at and missed. It’s really great. James Mattis
You’ve been told that you’re broken, that you’re damaged goods and should be labeled victims. I don’t buy it. The truth, instead, is that you are the only folks with the skills, determination, and values to ensure American dominance in this chaotic world. James Mattis
I have the forces to squash the Iran military if I need to, but I’ve seen a lot of war and really don’t want to kill young Iranian boys. James Mattis
An untrained or uneducated Marine deployed to the combat zone is a bigger threat to mission accomplishment than the enemy. Jim Mattis Quotes
Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump. His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice. James Mattis
It is mostly a matter of wills. Whose will is going to break first? Ours or the enemy’s? James Mattis
Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet. James Mattis
I would happily storm hell in the company of these troops how strongly they have demonstrated to the world that free men and women can fight like the dickens. James Mattis
I don’t lose any sleep at night over potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word. James Mattis
There is no corporation in the world that would, in a competitive environment, try and concentrate all decisions at the corporate level. James Mattis
Marines don’t know how to spell the word defeat. James Mattis
A country that armed Stalin to defeat Hitler can certainly work alongside enemies of al Qaida to defeat al Qaida. James Mattis
The most important 6 inches on the battlefield is between your ears. James Mattis
I would consider the principal threats to start with Russia, and it would certainly include any nations that are looking to intimidate nations around their periphery, regional nations nearby them, whether it be with weapons of mass destruction or, I would call it, unusual, unorthodox means of intimidating them, that sort of thing. James Mattis
PowerPoint makes us stupid. James Mattis
The destruction that we have wreaked in the various theaters in which we’ve been engaged is really quite astonishing. But again, lethality, destruction, killing doesn’t seem to achieve our objectives. So, my own sense is that a lack of lethality does not define the core problem. James Mattis
I keep other people awake at night. James Mattis
I think the core problem is much closer to recognizing where force is of value, where it is useful, and to distinguish that from situations in which war is not useful or is indeed counterproductive. James Mattis
There is only one ‘retirement plan’ for terrorists. James Mattis
I was struck by the fact that none of the senators, basically, asked General James] Mattis, Well, General, how is it that we haven’t won? We haven’t won anywhere, ‘winning’ in the sense of conclusively achieving our political objectives, however, you might want to define those objectives. James Mattis
There are going to be good days and bad days. Bottom line. James Mattis
We face now an era where we’re going to be fighting the terrorist threat. I mean, that’s simply a reality we are going to have to address that one. James Mattis
I get a lot of credit these days for things I never did. James Mattis
I’m from the American West. We have forest fires out there. And some of the worst forest fires in our history, the most damage were caused when we pulled the fire crews off the line too early. And so we’re going to have to continue to keep the pressure on the enemy ISIS. There’s no room for complacency on this. Jim Mattis Quotes
Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. James Mattis
Our world is becoming darker. The dangers are increasing from North Korea, whose recent provocation underscored the need to impose a higher price on this rogue regime, a problem that is not just the United States alone, but a problem for us all. James Mattis
You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted force. James Mattis
The American people and the American military will never get used to civilian casualties. And we will fight against that every way we can possibly bring our intelligence and our tactics to bear. We’re not the perfect guys, but we are the good guys. James Mattis
I don’t have to worry and stress. I cause worry and stress. James Mattis
What would you do differently as defense secretary to compensate for this record in which the greatest military in the world, as we are constantly told, doesn’t get the job done? James Mattis
There are hunters, and there are victims. By your discipline, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim. James Mattis
The United States has been essentially engaged in an ongoing war that most people date from 2001. That war has taken us to Afghanistan, to Iraq, in a lesser way to other countries Libya, Somalia, Yemen. James Mattis
There are some people who think you have to hate them in order to shoot them. I don’t think you do. It’s just business. James Mattis
We are going to have to continue to keep the pressure on the enemy. There is no room for complacency on this. James Mattis
A country that armed Stalin to defeat Hitler can certainly work alongside enemies of Al Qaeda to defeat Al Qaeda. James Mattis
Anyone who kills women and children is not devout. ISIS cannot dress themselves up in false religious garb and say that somehow this message has dignity. We’re going to strip them of any kind of legitimacy. James Mattis
Treachery has long existed as long as there’s been warfare, and there’s always been a few people that you couldn’t trust. James Mattis
Yousef Aid Ahmed has memorized the places where his four brothers’ bodies laid after they were killed by US marines, he said. The family recounts that November day in 2005 and says it was a massacre of the brothers, along with 20 other people, following a roadside bomb in Haditha. James Mattis
You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. James Mattis
Once ISIS is defeated, there is a larger effort underway to make certain that we don’t just sprout a new enemy. We know ISIS is going to go down. We have had success on the battlefield. We have freed millions of people from being under their control. James Mattis
I think the rewards for moral courage are promotion Any institution gets the behavior it rewards. James Mattis
2017 is going to be another tough year for the valiant Afghan Security Forces and the international troops who have stood and will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Afghanistan against terrorism. James Mattis
