John McCain

Demographics aren’t destiny. Our culture isn’t the work of one race or religion. To suggest otherwise is to contradict our ideals and to doubt their power.

The first role of government is to help people who are in crisis or need. That’s why we have government.

Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone.

Americans Never Quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We Make History.

Every day, people serve their neighbors and our nation in many different ways, from helping a child learn and easing the loneliness of those without a family to defending our freedom overseas. It is in this spirit of dedication to others and to our country that I believe service should be broadly and deeply encouraged.

Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to succeed.

No one ever wins a war.

The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.

A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

It is fatal to enter an war without the will to win it.

That’s what an army is – a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers.

Where force is necessary, there it must be applied boldly, decisively and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with a maneuver, a blow with an agreement.

A skilful leech is better far, than half a hundred men of war.

The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on.

You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges; the old ones, grub.

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.

In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Goodwill.

You don’t win wars by dying for your country you win wars by making the other son of a b*tch die for his.

There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances.

Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war.