Top 35 Omar N. Bradley Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”

— Omar N. Bradley

Featured in: Journey Quotes, Goal Setting Quotes

2. “Amateurs study tactics; professionals study logistics.”

— Omar N. Bradley

Featured in: Military Quotes

3. “Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.”

— Omar N. Bradley

4. “In war there is no second prize for the runner-up.”

— Omar N. Bradley

5. “The second best decision in time is infinitely better than the perfect decision too late.”

— Omar N. Bradley

6. “I learned that good judgment comes from experience and that experience grows out of mistakes.”

— Omar N. Bradley

7. “This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live.”

— Omar N. Bradley

8. “Leadership means firmness, not harshness or bullying; understanding, not weakness; justice, not irresponsible freedom; humaneness, not intolerance; generosity, not selfishness; pride, not egotism.”

— Omar N. Bradley

Featured in: Bullying Quotes

9. “The greatness of a leader is measured by the achievements of the led. This is the ultimate test of his effectiveness.”

— Omar N. Bradley

10. “The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”

— Omar N. Bradley

11. “Our humanity is trapped by moral adolescents. We have too many men of science, too few men of God. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom and power without conscience.”

— Omar N. Bradley

12. “Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.”

— Omar N. Bradley

13. “Our technology has already outstripped our ability to control it.”

— Omar N. Bradley

14. “A piece of paper makes you an officer, a radio makes you a commander.”

— Omar N. Bradley

15. “Dependability, integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong, that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair deal. Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him.”

— Omar N. Bradley

16. “The nation needs men who think in terms of service to their country and not in terms of their country’s debt to them.”

— Omar N. Bradley

Featured in: Country Quotes

17. “Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them, must share the guilt for the dead.”

— Omar N. Bradley

18. “We’ve learned how to destroy, but not to create; how to waste, but not to build; how to kill men, but not how to save them; how to die, but seldom how to live.”

— Omar N. Bradley

19. “Only one military organization can hold and gain ground in war-a ground army supported by tactical aviation with supply lines guarded by the navy.”

— Omar N. Bradley

20. “The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.”

— Omar N. Bradley

21. “Leadership is intangible, and therefore no weapon ever designed can replace it.”

— Omar N. Bradley

22. “We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the sermon on the mount.”

— Omar N. Bradley

23. “The greatest leader in the world could never win a campaign unless he understood the men he had to lead.”

— Omar N. Bradley

24. “War: A wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization.”

— Omar N. Bradley

25. “If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.”

— Omar N. Bradley

26. “We are dealing with veterans, not procedures; with their problems, not ours.”

— Omar N. Bradley

27. “With the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescents.”

— Omar N. Bradley

28. “Airpower has become predominant, both as a deterrent to war, and-in the eventuality of war-as the devastating force to destroy an enemy’s potential and fatally undermine his will to wage war.”

— Omar N. Bradley

29. “America today is running on the momentum of a godly ancestry, and when that momentum runs down, God help America.”

— Omar N. Bradley

30. “As far as I am concerned, war itself is immoral.”

— Omar N. Bradley

31. “Peace is our goal but preparedness is the price we must pay.”

— Omar N. Bradley

32. “Every member of our baseball team at West Point became a general: this proves the value of team sports.”

— Omar N. Bradley

33. “I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit and to mothball his opinions.”

— Omar N. Bradley

34. “Each player on this team whether he shines in the spotlight or eats dirt on the line, must be an All-American.”

— Omar N. Bradley

35. “If you will help run our government in the American way, then there will never be any danger of our government running America in the wrong way.”

— Omar N. Bradley

36. “It seems very unfortunate that in order to secure political preference, people are made Vice President who are never intended, neither by party nor by the Lord, to be Presidents.”

— Omar N. Bradley