36 Quotes by John F. Kelly

If the Marines today are doing exactly the same thing their dads did in Vietnam and their granddads did in Korea and World War II, then how in the hell can we say that they're not as good?

I guess, over time, I had convinced myself that I could imagine what it would be like to lose a son or daughter. You try to imagine it so that you can write the right kind of letters or form the right words to try to comfort. But you can't even come close. It is unimaginable.

The young people I work with every day and serve the nation in the armed forces in general, and the Marine Corps in particular, have broken the mold and stepped out as men and women of character who are making their own way in life while protecting ours.

I've learned that, in many cases, people say, 'I want ground truth,' and they don't really mean it. There are warts all over this organization, as there are in many organizations, but you just have to tell truth to power and let the chips fall where they may.

Years ago, people didn't wear seatbelts. Now, most people wouldn't get in a car without putting a seatbelt on.

The one thing I was always told is you absolutely have to tell truth to power. Whether you're a second lieutenant working with a captain and a lieutenant colonel, or a four-star general working with the Office Secretary of Defense and the White House, the decision makers have got to have ground truth.

Given the opportunity to do another 9/11, our vicious enemy would do it today, tomorrow, and every day thereafter. I don't know why they hate us, and I frankly don't care, but they do hate us and are driven irrationally to our destruction.

If there's a country, and it's dangerous, and we deploy a U.S.military man or woman, if there's only one there, and they never leave the capital, that is 'boots on the ground.'

If you want to get into the United States, the best way, I believe, is to ride the network. There is no convergence between, say, the criminal networks and the Islamic extremist networks.