“Everywhere in the world the sight of a twelve-man squad of GIs brought joy to people’s hearts. Because the sight of those American kids meant…they had come not to conquer or terrorize but to liberate.”
— Stephen Ambrose (1936-2002), American historian
“War is deceit.”
— Mohammed (571-632), Prophet of Islam
“It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you’ve got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not yet a winner.”
— Vince Lombardi (1913-1970), 5-time NFL champion coach including Super Bowls I & II
“It’s not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.”
— Paul “Bear” Bryant (1913-1983), football coaching legend of Alabama’s Crimson Tide
*“Who has greater combat than he that labors to overcome himself?”
— Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), Catholic theologian
*“One good spy is worth 10,000 soldiers.”
— Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, circa 5th Century BC
*“The best players don’t win championships. The best team players win championships.”
— John Wooden, former UCLA coach
“Vine, Vidi, Vici.” (Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered.”)
— Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), Roman military and political leader
“It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men.”
— Vince Lombardi (1913-1970), 5-time NFL champion coach including Super Bowls I & II
*“The most exhilarating thing in life is to be shot at with no effect.”
— Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British Prime Minister
*“Defense wins championships.”
— Numerous coaches
*“In war, you win or lose, live or die – and the difference is just an eyelash.”
— Douglas McArthur, (1880-1964), American general in WW 2
*“In war, those who believe in tolerance have lost before the first battle begins.”
— International student missionary and pastor Bill Perry
*“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
— John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), British utilitarian philosopher
“When it comes to the culture, there’s no such thing as peaceful coexistence. If we’re not defending truth, fighting for Christian values in all of life, the truth will be sacrificed on the altar of mainstream secularism.
— Chuck Colson & Anne Morse, Christianity Today, Vol. 48, No. 4, Page 112 (2004)
“Does this sound like a militant call to arms? I hope so. I can think of nothing more important? God will judge us harshly if we stand around enjoying the warm glow of our culture’s approval – while the culture crumbles.”
— Chuck Colson & Anne Morse, Christianity Today, Vol. 48, No. 4, Page 112 (2004)
“An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery… Forbid it Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.”
— Patrick Henry (1736-1799), American patriot
“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”
— Wayne Gretsky, hockey great
*“Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief . . . (But) we tried to rig it up as an intercom in our houses and cabins and boats and cars – not to call in fire power for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask for more comforts in the den.”
— John Piper, pastor, author and theologian
“Winning is not a sometime thing: it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do the right thing once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
— Vince Lombardi (1913-1970), 5-time NFL champion coach including Super Bowls I & II
*“Aggressive fighting for the right is the greatest sport in the world.”
— President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)
“Prayer is not a preparation for work, it IS work. Prayer is not a preparation for the battle, it IS the battle. Prayer is two-fold: definite asking and definite waiting to receive.”
— Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), Scottish pastor and Bible teacher
*“If life has taught me anything, it is that one must fight.”
— Ella Winter (1898-1980), American journalist
“If self-preservation is that important, then there is no point in going in the first place. God looks for children who are willing to die for him if necessary.”
— Unnamed Chinese house church leader, when asked about the cost of evangelizing in Muslim lands.
“That general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.”
— Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, circa 5th Century BC
*“Jesus said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His church. It dawned on me one day that a gate is not an offensive weapon? Gates are not a threat, they are defensive, and the gates Jesus was talking about aren’t pearly ones-they’re the gates of hell! The church is to be on the offense, not the defense? It is time we stopped being intimidated by a gate!? We are so defensive that it’s offensive!”
— Neil Cole, church planter
*“It is as if Jesus had parachuted into enemy territory, gathered followers, trained them, and then set them loose behind enemy lines with the intent of taking more and more territory from the other king [Satan]. Taking that territory is done through freeing those who are captive to and oppressed by the enemy.”
— Charles Kraft, missionary/author
“…The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809), British scholar and deist
*“We win our games in practice. We learn and follow the fundamentals of our game better than anyone in the league. All of our games are won in practice.”
— Vince Lombardi (1913-1970), 5-time NFL champion coach including Super Bowls I & II
“You know a constellation of imperishable values. Live by the mighty truth and power of God. Live above the sludge of a sick society. Live among dispirited humans as the vanguard of peace and good news. Remember, our Commander in Chief has no use for tin soldiers.”
— Carl F. H. Henry (1913-2003), Christian theologian
“Life has meaning only in the struggle. Victory and defeat are in the hands of God, so let us celebrate the struggle.”
— Old Swahili warrior proverb
“Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate.”
— Dr. Thomas F. Jones Jr. (1916-1981), President of University of South Carolina
“Only those who one day fight for freedom are worthy of it.”
— Lyrics of a song in Cuba
“There are no victories at discount prices.”
— President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969), American general during WW 2
*“Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up.”
— George S. Patton (1885-1945), American general
*“Total victory is the only acceptable goal in a mind-control war because humanity is diminished so long as a single mind remains trapped in superstition [supernatural religion] by programming or choice.”
— Howard Thompson, President, American Atheists
“Our business, like any other, is to be learned by constant practice and experience; and our experience is to be had in war, not at reviews.”
— Sir John Moore (1761-1809), British General
“It is not I that smite, stab, and slay, but God and my prince, for my hand and my body are now their servants.”
— Martin Luther (1483-1536), Reformation leader
“An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809), British philosopher and deist
“What is the office of the duly ordained soldiery? To defend the church, to assail infidelity, to venerate the priesthood, to protect the poor from injuries…to pour out their blood for their brothers…and, if need be, to lay down their lives. The high praises of God are in their throats, and two-edged swords are in their hands.”
— John of Salisbury (1110-1180), English scholastic philosopher
*“Pain is temporary; quitting lasts forever.”
— Lance Armstrong, American world champion cyclist
“In thus sending out his trainees, [Jesus] set afoot a perpetual world revolution: one that is still in process and will continue until God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven…. He has chosen to accomplish this with and, in part, through his students.”
— USC Professor Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, pp. 14-15.
“The human measure of a human life is its income; the divine measure of a life is its outgo, its overflow its contribution to the welfare of all…. If every word spoken in behalf of truth has its influence and every deed done for the right weighs in the final account, it is immaterial to the Christian whether his eyes behold victory or whether he dies in the midst of conflict.”
— William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), lawyer and politician
“On the battlefield the real enemy is fear and not the bayonet and the bullet.”
— Robert Jackson (1892-1954), Supreme Court Justice
“In war, never be neutral. The victor will consider you part of his spoils, and the vanquished will have no room for you in his hiding place.”
— Anonymous
“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest expression every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace, if he flinches at that point.”
— Martin Luther (1483-1536), Reformation leader
“Ideas are the great warriors of the world, and a war that has no idea behind it, is simply a brutality.”
— President James A. Garfield (1831-1881), lay preacher
“To win without risk is to triumph without glory.”
— Pierre Corneille (1606-1684), French dramatist
“The winning of war — the effectiveness in such things — is in the heart, in the determination, in the faith. It is in our beliefs in our country, in our God, everything that goes to make up America.”
— President Dwight Eisenhower, Dec. 14, 1953
“Get used to the fact that your life is lived in the context of warfare. Every breath you take is an act of war. To survive and thrive in the midst of the spiritual battle in which you live, seek a faith context and experience that will enhance your capacity to be Christlike. This mission demands singleminded commitment and a disregard for the criticism of those who lack the same dedication to the cause of Christ. You answer to only one Commander in Chief, and only you will give an explanation for your choices. Do whatever you have to do to prove that you fear God, you love Him, and you serve Him-yes, that you live only for Him.
— George Barna, church researcher, in Revolution (2005), pp. 26-27.
“The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training – sacrifice.”
— General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), Thayer Award Acceptance Address, West Point, NY, 5/12/62.
“Turning the other cheek isn’t submissive. It’s defiant.”
— Roy H. William, advertising guru
“Safety isn’t the ultimate goal. True exemplary conduct is. What is important is that whatever does happen to me I will do absolutely nothing that will shame my character or my God.”
— Private First Class William Kiessel, 1943 letter to parents from France, cited in Breakpoint, “Faith Under Fire”, 5/28/07
“I never wanted our players to think the Super Bowl was the ultimate. I always talk about ‘Yes, we’re going to win, but what are we going to do as we’re winning? What are we going to do after we win?’ Winning the Super Bowl is not the destination. It’s not an end point. It’s what you do from here.”
— Tony Dungy, Indianapolis Colts head coach, Newsweek 7/16/07
“The promises of God are to the believer…armory, containing all manner of offensive and defensive weapons.”
— Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), British Reformed Baptist pastor, the “Prince of Preachers”
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”
— John Adams (1735-1826), US President and Founding Father
“All of us denounce war—all of us consider it man’s greatest stupidity. And yet wars happen and they involve the most passionate lovers of peace because there are still barbarians in the world who set the price for peace at death or enslavement and the price is too high.”
— President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)
“Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.”
— US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again… who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
– President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1910)
“…[O]f the world’s nearly 1,763 wars in recorded history, only 123 can properly be labeled “religious wars.” (See Phillips and Axelrod, “Encyclopedia of Wars”) That’s a mere 6.8 percent of the total number of wars recorded in all of human history. And the secular wars of the secular governments upon their own people just within the past century count the dead in the tens of millions! Unfortunately, [Richard] Dawkins and [Christopher] Hitchens want their atheist church to believe that the Stalins and Hitlers of the world were Christians. Atheism, not Christianity, is the culprit as recorded by R. J. Rummel in “Death by Government”. The human propensity for myth making is indeed a deeply fixed human condition.”
— David Noebel, “Ted Turner does a 180 on religion?”, Worldview Matters, posted 4/4/08, http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/3316/David_Noebel