I can't tell you the number of times I looked down at what was going on on the ground, or I was engaged in a fight somewhere, and I knew within a couple of minutes how I was going to screw up the enemy. And I knew it because I'd done so much reading.

There's an urgent need to stop reacting to each immediate vexing issue in isolation. Such response often creates unanticipated second-order effects and even more problems for us.

What we achieved was a nuclear pause, not a nuclear halt.

As commanders and staff officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don't know a hell of a lot more than just the TTPs?

The economy's always been the engine for our national security.

In a country with millions of people and cars going everywhere, the enemy is going to get a car bomb out there once in awhile.

It's a lot easier to stay idealistic if you don't sign two to five next-of-kin letters every day.

Some people feel affronted when something they thought to be true doesn't happen. If that's the case, then your sense of risk is much higher, and that leads to risk aversion. You need to be able to be comfortable in uncertainty.

Sometimes there are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It seems like everybody is in the middle.

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway.

By reading, you learn through others' experiences, generally, a better way to do business, especially in our line of work where the consequences of incompetence are so final for young men.

There's no way that that our military power will not erode if a robust American economic revival is not part of the cards.

There is no room for military people, including our veterans, to see themselves as victims, even if so many of our countrymen are prone to relish that role.

Since coming back from overseas, this is more of a foreign country than the places overseas. I don't understand it. It's like America has lost faith in rational thought.

I was a Marine for 41 years, and it wasn't long enough. We enjoy putting on that uniform.

There are many people who do not know if the U.S. Army has 60,000 men or 6 million. They do not have a clue about that.

Fight with a happy heart.

It's very hard to live with yourself if you don't stick with your moral code.

I would just say there is one misperception of our veterans, and that is they are somehow damaged goods. I don't buy it.

Perhaps if you are in support functions waiting on the warfighters to spell out the specifics of what you are to do, you can avoid the consequences of not reading. Those who must adapt to overcoming an independent enemy's will are not allowed that luxury.

I have never been bewildered for long in any fight with our enemies - I was Armed with Insight.

Now from a distance, I look back on what the Corps taught me: to think like men of action, and to act like men of thought!

Prime Minister Maliki, released from American restraint, acted on his worst instincts, creating enormous distrust in Iraq's Kurdish population and deeply embittering Sunnis in western Iraq's Al Anbar, who lost any confidence in a Baghdad government they saw as adversarial.

We should not fight wars without a clearly defined end state... when you go to war, it can't be a half-step.

If you can't eat it, shoot it, or wear it, don't bring it.

There are a lot of self-imposed restrictions by people who somehow believe they have to fall in with a certain military cant. There was always a sense that we had to put things into words that would touch our troops' hearts, not just their heads.

Iran is not a nation-state; it's a revolutionary cause devoted to mayhem.

Iran is not an enemy of ISIS; they have a lot to gain from the turmoil that ISIS creates.

While victimhood in America is exalted, I don't think our veterans should join those ranks.

Most people know nobody in the military.

I don't think the U.S. military is conservative. It's pragmatic.

It's a lot of fun to fight.

The Iranian regime, in my mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.

The fundamental question I believe is, 'Is political Islam in our best interest?' If not, what is our policy to authoritatively support the countervailing forces?

In an interconnected age when opportunistic adversaries can work in tandem to destroy stability and prosperity, our country needs to regain its strategic footing. We need to bring the clarity to our efforts before we lose the confidence of the American people and the support of potential allies.

It is not scientifically possible to accurately predict the outcome of an action. To suggest otherwise runs contrary to historical experience and the nature of war.

Read about history, and you become aware that nothing starts with us.

I don't write policy for my government.

I've lived a very colorful life, and I've said some things, But not once have I taken them back, and I've never apologized for them - and I won't.

I like the enemy knowing there are a few guys like me around.

I consider ISIS nothing more than an excuse for Iran to continue its mischief.

What is the one country in the Middle East that has not been attacked by ISIS? One. That is Iran. That is more than happenstance, I'm sure.

The example that America knows how to govern itself is one of the compelling aspects of our national security.

Basically, Islamic State is a combined al Qaeda and Lebanese Hezbollah on steroids, destabilizing the region, dissolving borders/changing the political geography in the Mid-east, and hardening political positions that make Mid-east peace-building more remote by the day.

For whatever trauma came with service in tough circumstances, we should take what we learned - take our post-traumatic growth - and, like past generations coming home, bring our sharpened strengths to bear, bring our attitude of gratitude to bear.

I have never thought it necessary to patronize the American people.