Top 100 Douglas MacArthur Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 3

51. “Believe me, sir, never a night goes by, be I ever so tired, but I read the Word of God before I go to bed.”

— Douglas MacArthur

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

— Douglas MacArthur

53. “The inescapable price of liberty is an ability to preserve it from destruction.”

— Douglas MacArthur

54. “The object and practice of liberty lies in the limitation of government power.”

— Douglas MacArthur

55. “The hated system of land tenure, so contributory to general unrest in Asia, has been abolished. Every farmer is now accorded the right and dignity of ownership of the land he long has tilled.”

— Douglas MacArthur

56. “I believe that the entire effort of modern society should be concentrated on the endeavor to outlaw war as a method of the solution of problems between nations.”

— Douglas MacArthur

57. “Apart from an innate grasp of tactical concepts, a great coach must possess the essentials attributes of leadership which mold men into a cohesive, fighting team with an invincible will to victory.”

— Douglas MacArthur

58. “We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no turning back. We must go forward to preserve in peace what we won in war.”

— Douglas MacArthur

59. “I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil.”

— Douglas MacArthur

60. “The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training – sacrifice.”

— Douglas MacArthur

61. “Life is a lively process of becoming.”

— Douglas MacArthur

62. “In no other profession are the penalties for employing untrained personnel so appalling or so irrevocable as in the military.”

— Douglas MacArthur

63. “The history of the failure of war can almost be summed up in two words: too late.”

— Douglas MacArthur

64. “If I had one more division like this First Marine Division I could win this war.”

— Douglas MacArthur

65. “Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it.”

— Douglas MacArthur

66. “A better world shall emerge based on faith and understanding.”

— Douglas MacArthur

67. “Once war is forced upon us, there is no alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. War’s very object is victory-not prolonged indecision.”

— Douglas MacArthur

68. “One cannot wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion, which is tremendously molded by the press and other forms of propaganda.”

— Douglas MacArthur

69. “Age wrinkles the body; quitting wrinkles the soul.”

— Douglas MacArthur

70. “There is not one incident in the history of humanity in which defeatism led to peace which was anything other than a complete fraud.”

— Douglas MacArthur

71. “We must offer the world leadership designed to advance the goal of universal progress and enduring peace.”

— Douglas MacArthur

72. “There is no substitute for victory.”

— Douglas MacArthur

73. “I will defend Korea as I would my own country-just as I would California.”

— Douglas MacArthur

74. “Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.”

— Douglas MacArthur

75. “If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.”

— Douglas MacArthur

76. “I stand on this rostrum with a sense of deep humility and great pride – humility in the weight of those great American architects of our history who have stood here before me; pride in the reflection that this home of legislative debate represents human liberty in the purest form yet devised.”

— Douglas MacArthur

77. “Only those are fit to live who are not afraid to die.”

— Douglas MacArthur

78. “It was close; but that’s the way it is in war. You win or lose, live or die – and the difference is just an eyelash.”

— Douglas MacArthur

79. “I had learned one of the bitter lessons of life: never try to regain the past, the fire will have become ashes.”

— Douglas MacArthur

80. “The enemy is in front of us, the enemy is behind us, the enemy is to the right and to the left of us. They can’t get away this time!”

— Douglas MacArthur

81. “The chickens are coming home to roost, and you happen to have just moved into the chicken house.”

— Douglas MacArthur

82. “Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear – kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor – with the cry of grave national emergency.”

— Douglas MacArthur

83. “My staff was unanimous in believing that Japan was on the point of collapse and surrender.”

— Douglas MacArthur

84. “In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.”

— Douglas MacArthur

85. “Global war has become Frankenstein’s monster, threatening to destroy both sides.”

— Douglas MacArthur

86. “To dilute the will to win is to destroy the purpose of the game. There is no substitute for victory.”

— Douglas MacArthur

87. “I address you with neither rancor nor bitterness in the fading twilight of life, with but one purpose in mind: to serve my country.”

— Douglas MacArthur

88. “In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on Divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory.”

— Douglas MacArthur

89. “Nine times of ten an army has been destroyed because its supply lines have been severed.”

— Douglas MacArthur

90. “The great question is, can war be outlawed from the world? If so, it would mark the greatest advance in civilization since the Sermon on the Mount.”

— Douglas MacArthur

91. “We are bound no longer by the straitjacket of the past and nowhere is the change greater than in our profession of arms. What, you may well ask, will be the end of all of this? I would not know! But I would hope that our beloved country will drink deep from the chalice of courage.”

— Douglas MacArthur

92. “Wars are caused by unprotected wealth.”

— Douglas MacArthur

93. “No army has ever done so much with so little.”

— Douglas MacArthur

94. “Men will not fight and die without knowing what they are fighting and dying for.”

— Douglas MacArthur

95. “I realize that advice is worth what it costs – that is, nothing.”

— Douglas MacArthur

96. “In many situations that seemed desperate, the artillery has been a most vital factor.”

— Douglas MacArthur

97. “My first recollection is that of a bugle call.”

— Douglas MacArthur

98. “I suppose, in a way, this has become part of my soul. It is a symbol of my life. Whatever I have done that really matters, I’ve done wearing it. When the time comes, it will be in this that I journey forth. What greater honor could come to an American, and a soldier?”

— Douglas MacArthur

99. “I’ve looked that old scoundrel death in the eye many times but this time I think he has me on the ropes.”

— Douglas MacArthur

100. “The untruthful soldier trifles with the lives of his countrymen and the honor and safety of his country.”

— Douglas MacArthur