"All of them, British, Indian and Gurkha, were gaunt and ragged as scarecrows. Yet, as they trudged behind their surviving officers in groups pitifully small, they carried their arms and kept their ranks, they were recognizable as fighting units. They might look like scarecrows, but they looked like soldiers too."
— Field Marshal William Slim, on the retreat from Burma
"The men were black and greasy with oil since two nights before from the flaming tanks at Kranji, and this had been overlaid with sweat and smoke when they worked on the burning huts in the tropic heat. I have rarely seen men more tired in body, but they were not tired in spirit, for these were the hard-core men of the Argyll morale. The dross had already been purged from the Regiment by the fierce fire of war.
A great commander has said that success in battle is the major factor in creating morale. These men had never known anything but the bleak atmosphere of defeat, yet they would go on unflinching to the end. Of that there was no doubt whatever. This was the perfect instrument in the hands of a commander. It would always respond, and it would always ring true.
I spoke to them. I had made them two promises in the confident days before the war — that I would never take them into battle with an insufficient fire plan; and that in adversity I would never say to them, 'Go on,' only, 'Come on.' Now, I told them, I was going to break my promise, the first, but the second remained; I did not order them, I asked, would they come into this last hopeless battle with me?
There was no response, no audible one, only they quietly and determinedly got to their feet and stood waiting, all of them, and the march back to the fighting line began. There is more to morale in a great regiment than just victory."
— Brigadier Ian Stewart, 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, at Singapore
"He left the States 31 months ago. He was wounded in his first campaign. He has had tropical diseases. He half-sleeps at night and gouges Japs out of holes all day. Two-thirds of his company has been killed or wounded. He will return to attack this morning. How much can a human being endure?"
— Tom Lea, on a young Marine at Peleliu
"The War. The humans, I think, knew they were doomed. Where another race would surrender to despair, the humans fought back with greater strength. They made the Minbari fight for every inch of space. In my life, I have never seen anything like it; They would weep, they would pray, they would say goodbye to their loved ones, and then throw themselves without fear or hesitation at the very face of death itself, never surrendering. No one who saw them fighting against the inevitable could help but be moved to tears by their courage. Their stubborn nobility. When they ran out of ships, they used guns; when they ran out of guns they used knives and sticks and bare hands. They were magnificent. I only hope that when it is my time, I may die with half as much dignity as I saw in their eyes in the end. They did this for two years. They never ran out of courage but in the end, they ran out of time."
— Londo Mollari, Babylon 5
"You think that it is possible to pull down the President. I know that it is impossible, and I am going to try it."
— Professor de Worms, The Man Who Was Thursday
"These spears are my soul! They will not break! DO. NOT. BREAK!"
— Sanada Yukimura, Sengoku Basara
The Thing: This fight ain’t over yet—not by a long shot! Ya only won on a technicality! Ya didn’t really beat me! Ya’ll never beat me! I’m just too stupid… and ugly… ta know when to quit!
Champion: No, my friend...I could never beat you! I know that now! I could crush your bones, and break your body—but I would never conquer your spirit! Any world that could spawn one such as you—is truly the worthiest of all! I sense that one day my people will battle yours for the total supremacy of the cosmos—but that will be in the eons to come! And what a glorious competition it shall be! Farewell, my friend! I have endless universes yet to visit! Infinite worlds to offer my gift! We shall never meet again! A pity! For to you—and you alone—I would offer the supreme glory of...a rematch!
— Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7
"It's not in the circuitry, is it? It's not the machine that resists you; it's me, my spirit! That's the part you can't break!"
— Cyborg to Brother Blood, Teen Titans
"Incredible. I could crush your body, I could smash your bones, but I could NEVER break your spirit. You are a marvel, little Monkey! Any world that could spawn one as noble as you, is truly blessed! I SPARE YOUR EARTH!"
— Rasslor, Dexter's Laboratory
"Link... You may not yet be at a point where you have fully recovered your power or all of your memories... But courage need not be remembered... For it is never forgotten."
— Princess Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
