"That's the difference between you and me, George. I do this job because I've been trained to do it. You do it because [Beat] you love it."
— General Bradley, Patton
"I don't like warriors. Too narrow-minded, no subtlety. And worse, they fight for hopeless causes. Honor? Ha! Honor's killed millions of people, it hasn't saved a single one. I'll tell you what I do like though: a killer, a dyed-in-the-wool killer. Cold blooded, clean, methodical and thorough. Now a real killer, when he picked up the ZF-1, would've immediately asked about the little red button on the bottom of the gun."
— Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, The Fifth Element
"As sailors and warriors, the Ironborn are unparalleled. But they're not soldiers. They have no discipline, no strategy, no unity. In a battle, each man fights only for his own glory."
— Stannis Baratheon, History and Lore of Westeros, Greyjoy Rebellion
"Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there. Eighty are just targets. Nine are real fighters and we are lucky to have them for they make the battle. Ah, but the one. One is a warrior, and he will bring the others back."
— Heraclitus
"They [Neo-Confederates] will continue to revere Robert E. Lee as the greatest general of the Civil War—perhaps the greatest general in American history. But they probably will not appreciate Lee’s role in the greatest irony of the Civil War—one that goes a long way toward explaining the evolution of Union military policy into Mark Grimsley’s "hard war". When Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 1, 1862, the Confederacy was on the verge of defeat. Union conquests in the West had brought more than 50,000 square miles of Confederate territory under Northern control and had caused profound discouragement in the South. General George B. McClellan’s large Army of the Potomac had approached to within six miles of Richmond. The Confederate government had packed its archives and treasury on trains to evacuate the capital. If the war had brought an end to the Confederacy in the summer of 1862, slavery and the antebellum Southern social order would have remained largely intact and the Southern infrastructure relatively undamaged. But Lee’s counteroffensive in the Seven Days battles and other major victories during the next year ensured a prolongation of the war, opening the way to the emergence of Grant and Sherman to top Union commands, the abolition of slavery, the “directed severity” of Union policy in 1864–65, and the Götterdämmerung of the Old South. Here was the irony of Robert E. Lee: His success produced the destruction of everything he fought for."
— James McPherson, The Mighty Scourge
"Warriors, pfah! We're soldiers. Warriors are meat on the table for soldiers."
— Gnaeus Clodius Afer, Ranks of Bronze
"If this was a game, I'd have sat here for days, enjoying this mace duel. But this is not a game, Arjun! This is war. Remind Bheem of his oath." note
—Krishna, Mahabharata
(holds up staff weapon) "This is a weapon of terror! It's meant to intimidate your enemy!" (holds up P90) "This is a weapon of war! It's meant to kill your enemy!"
) "This is a weapon of war! It's meant to kill your enemy!"— Colonel Jack O'Neill comparing Goa'uld and Earth weapons, "The Warrior", Stargate SG-1
Arminius: I have fought with [the Romans] long enough, I know their weaknesses. Without their formations, they cannot fight. And I know our strengths.
Emsger: How do we hide an army?
Iguiomerus: We build ramparts along the tree-line. We've done it before. It'll be too late before they see us. We can slaughter them all.
Narrator: Arminius has designed a complex battle plan that depends on luring Varus and his legions into the Teutoburg Forest. There, the tribes have hand-built a primitive rampart, two miles long, concealed by the dense woodland. He cuts through terrain that's perfect for an ambush, a thin track with a steep bank on one side and marshland on the other. He aims to funnel the Roman legions into the kill zone, where 15,000 Germanic warriors will stream from behind their fortifications, and slaughter the Romans where they stand.
Emsger: How do we hide an army?
Iguiomerus: We build ramparts along the tree-line. We've done it before. It'll be too late before they see us. We can slaughter them all.
Narrator: Arminius has designed a complex battle plan that depends on luring Varus and his legions into the Teutoburg Forest. There, the tribes have hand-built a primitive rampart, two miles long, concealed by the dense woodland. He cuts through terrain that's perfect for an ambush, a thin track with a steep bank on one side and marshland on the other. He aims to funnel the Roman legions into the kill zone, where 15,000 Germanic warriors will stream from behind their fortifications, and slaughter the Romans where they stand.
— Barbarians Rising, "Rebellion"
"The warrior is the perfected ideal of the fighting individual. The warrior wields every weapon with unthinking mastery. The warrior survives every injury, showing no indication of weakness. The warrior defeats every opponent, evincing no emotion but fearless determination. The warrior is strong, proud, adaptable. The warrior is a storied hero whose name and whose legend resounds throughout history, never diminishing but only magnified with every retelling. To become a warrior is the pursuit of every able-bodied man and woman seeking what immortality fame provides.
This is the philosophy of the Anathema. They were defeated.
The warrior ideal is unrighteous, ignoble, selfish. To emulate it is self-indulgent folly. To attain it is to ensure one’s own ignominious destruction.
Seek instead to embody the ideal of the upright soldier. The upright soldier has no motivation but service. The upright soldier has no face, no sex, no name. The upright soldier is not a hero. No legends are told of an upright soldier’s deeds. The upright soldier is but a reflection across every corner of Creation and in every Age of history. It was not the singular might of the Anathema that subjugated this world, but the overwhelming masses of their armies. It was not the prowess of legendary Exalted heroes who cut the Anathema down in the Great Uprising following the hideous Era of Nightmares, but the coordination of the armies of the Thousand Gentes who set Creation free from those tyrants’ yoke. No upright soldier can hoard the glory of an army’s victory, but every upright soldier shares in it.
The upright soldier is the breath. The upright soldier is the drop of rain. The upright soldier is the ember. The upright soldier is the arrow. The upright soldier is the stone. Alone, each soldier is expendable and unremarkable. Yet the upright soldier does not, must not, exist alone. The upright soldier exists to magnify the efforts of those to the left and right, to the front and rear.
So shall you exist. So shall you serve. Not for yourself or your own glory, but for the dragons whose scales you are. You will be the upright soldier.
Victory will be your legacy."
— The Thousand Correct Actions of the Upright Soldier, Exalted
"One of these centuries the brutes, private or public, who believe that they can rule their betters by force, will learn the lesson of what happens when brute force encounters mind and force."
— Ragnar Danneskjold, Atlas Shrugged
Piccolo: This is bad, the last time I saw Goku this winded he was having a heart-attack. He can't keep this up.
Future Trunks: Wait! What about the Senzu Beans? ...you know the magical beans that... heal all wounds and, restore stamina? (Looks around and sees the other Z-Fighters just standing around intently watching the fight between Goku and Perfect Cell) ...Okay guys, if you're bothered by cheating; either loosen your moral code, or STOP HINGING THE FATE OF THE WORLD ON DEATH MATCHES!!
Vegeta: I can't believe you're my son.
Future Trunks: Hey you said it, not me.
Future Trunks: Wait! What about the Senzu Beans? ...you know the magical beans that... heal all wounds and, restore stamina? (Looks around and sees the other Z-Fighters just standing around intently watching the fight between Goku and Perfect Cell) ...Okay guys, if you're bothered by cheating; either loosen your moral code, or STOP HINGING THE FATE OF THE WORLD ON DEATH MATCHES!!
Vegeta: I can't believe you're my son.
Future Trunks: Hey you said it, not me.
"Warriors fight, soldiers fight together."
— Antillar Maximus, Cursor's Fury
Carta Issue: I wanted to fight. I wanted to fight fair and square. Otherwise it wouldn't suit me! I am Carta Issue.
Mikazuki Augus: I don't care who you are. It doesn't change the fact that you're my enemy.
Mikazuki Augus: I don't care who you are. It doesn't change the fact that you're my enemy.
Saber: You train not only with dual katana, but with a single blade as well... ...Iori. Why do you practice so many different styles and techniques? If there is a purpose to all of these tricks, I fail to see it. You cut with the sword and take your opponent's life. It's as simple as that, is it not?
Miyamoto Iori: ...You're not wrong. That may be all the sword means to you. But it's different for me. You see... I study these styles and hone these techniques in order to win. I do it so that I can defeat anyone at any time. That's what the sword means to me. That's what drives me to study.
Miyamoto Iori: ...You're not wrong. That may be all the sword means to you. But it's different for me. You see... I study these styles and hone these techniques in order to win. I do it so that I can defeat anyone at any time. That's what the sword means to me. That's what drives me to study.
Michael is a warrior, but Baal is a soldier. He doesn't fight for the love of combat, or to show off his prowess. He fights to win. Baal sees the War in terms of territory gained and lost, casualty ratios, and resources to be exploited; no one battle is important except as it affects the progress of the War, and individual warriors mean nothing. He has a personal code of honor, but that doesn't mean he fights fair. The War is a chess game that rewards cheating.
— In Nomine: Revelations 5: The Final Trumpet
