“We go forward with our heads held high, but look back and remember where we come from.” ~ Col. Michael Hudson | 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit

"Marines I see as two breeds, Rottweilers or Dobermans, because Marines come in two varieties, big and mean, or skinny and mean. They're aggressive on the attack and tenacious on defense. They've got really short hair and they always go for the throat." ~ RAdm. "Jay" R. Stark, USN; 10 November 1995

“They say ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.’ In the Marine Corps, you make that horse wish to hell he had.” ~ USMC Drill Instructor

“The boys we took from the farm, the factory, the school, and the office became the best amphibious troops in the world.”  — Gen. Holland M. Smith

"Being ready is not what matters. What matters is winning after you get there." - Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak, USMC, April 1965

"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." ~ 1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC - in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918

"They told (us) to open up the Embassy, or "we'll blow you away." And then they looked up and saw the Marines on the roof with these really big guns, and they said in Somali, "Igaralli ahow" which means "Excuse me, I didn't mean it, my mistake"." ~ Karen Aquilar, in the U.S. Embassy; Mogadishu, Somalia, 1991

"A Marine is a Marine. I set that policy two weeks ago - there's no such thing as a former Marine. You're a Marine, just in a different uniform and you're in a different phase of your life. But you'll always be a Marine because you went to Parris Island, San Diego or the hills of Quantico. There's no such thing as a former Marine. ~ General James F. Amos, 35th Commandant of the Marine Corps

"There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and those who have met them in battle. Everyone else has a second-hand opinion." - Unknown

“Where they are going isn’t the Marines’ concern. Their business is to be always ready to go.”  ~  Harper’s Weekly, 1912