The downfall of civilized states tends to come not from the direct assaults of foes, but from internal decay combined with the consequences of exhaustion in war.

The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out.

In war, the chief incalculable is the human will.

If you want peace, understand war.

The most dangerous error is failure to recognize our own tendency to error.

Ensure that both plan and dispositions are flexible, adaptable to circumstances. Your plan should foresee and provide for a next step in case of success or failure.

The profoundest truth of war is that the issue of battle is usually decided in the minds of the opposing commanders, not in the bodies of their men.

The most effective indirect approach is one that lures or startles the opponent into a false move - so that, as in ju-jitsu, his own effort is turned into the lever of his overthrow.

A complacent satisfaction with present knowledge is the chief bar to the pursuit of knowledge.

Air Power is, above all, a psychological weapon - and only short-sighted soldiers, too battle-minded, underrate the importance of psychological factors in war.

For whoever habitually suppresses the truth in the interests of tact will produce a deformity from the womb of his thought.

It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.

In westerns, you meet a hardy bunch of characters. There is no jealousy on such pictures.

Prayer is your personal key to heaven.

The Clinton administration hated us, and it was a terrible struggle with them. I think that they felt if they didn't play, they could strangle us in our crib.

Unlike the stage, I never found it helpful to be good in a bad movie.

As a man grows older it is harder and harder to frighten him.

We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.

We are all ill; but even a universal sickness implies an idea of health.

Life is an adventure of our own design intersected by fate and a series of lucky and unlucky accidents.

Scientology is probably one of the most misunderstood things, and it's sad that it's so misunderstood.