A

• Semper Fidelis
  • Anonymous, official motto of the USMC
  • Always Faithful ~ English translation of Latin motto
  • Semper Fi! ~ Abbreviated version

• From the halls of Montezuma
  To the shores of Tripoli
  We fight our country's battles,
  in the air, on land, and sea.
  • Anonymous, "The Marines' Hymn" (1920)

D

• Come on, you sons-o'-bitches! Do you want to live forever?
  • First Sergeant Daniel Daly, 73rd Machine Gun Company, to the men in his company prior to charging the Germans during the Battle of Belleau Wood in World War I. This is the version popularly attributed to Daly and recorded by Floyd Gibbons in And They Thought We Wouldn't Fight (1918), p. 304, ISBN 9781417903719
  • Variant: For Christ's sake men—come on! Do you want to live forever?
    • First Sergeant Daniel Daly, 73rd Machine Gun Company. Alternative version claimed by Daly himself.

F

• A ship without Marines is like a garment without buttons.
  • David Glasgow Farragut, as quoted in The Boston Marine Barracks: A History, 1799–1974 (2015), by John R. Yates, Jr. and Thomas Yates, p. 14

G

• [I]nstitutions and communities need to be able to exploit their comparative advantages. It’s not just that the Marine Corps demands more from its members than the Peace Corps; it’s that the Marines demand different things. For some people, being a Marine would be a kind of living Hell; for others it is a reason to live. That’s what the individual pursuit of happiness means... You can’t choose to be a Marine if you do not meet the requirements, but you are free to try.
  • Jonah Goldberg, "A Free People Must Be Virtuous" (14 October 2018), G-File, National Review Online

K

• Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Today, you people are no longer pukes. Today, you are Marines. You're part of a brotherhood. From now, until the day you die, wherever you go, every Marine is your brother. And always remember this: Marines die, that's what we're here for. But the Marine Corps lives forever, and that means you live forever.
  • Full Metal Jacket (1987), by Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford, Warner Bros

M

• I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world.
  • Douglas MacArthur, as quoted in The Marines, Counterinsurgency, and Strategic Culture: Lessons Learned, by Jeannie L. Johnson, p. 66

• You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force.
  • James Mattis, Letter To 1st Marine Division), March 2003

• Marines are the best because the Marines is a service that focuses on values. If you look at Marine Corps commercials and compare them to every other service, you know, the Army talks about all the different jobs you can do and what it will help set you up afterwards. You know, you can be an Army of one with all the different skills you learn. The Navy talks about all the cool technology that you get to use. And they always have pictures of people with big, big computer screens, things like this, right? The Navy ships, you can picture in your head, right? And the Air Force always has guys, like, working on aircraft. And it's like: "You can get a great job working in the civilian sector when you're done." The Marine Corps never does that. The Marine Corps says: "honor, courage and commitment. If you believe in leadership, if you believe in — if you want a really tough time, then come and serve with us."
  • Seth Moulton, as quoted in "Rep. Moulton on Trump voters, what Biden did wrong in the debate" (11 July 2019), Politico

P

• The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle!
  • John J. Pershing, as quoted in War: A Classic Collection of 56 Great War Stories of Our Time (1995), by Jon E. Lewis, p. 505

R

• Some people work an entire lifetime and wonder if they ever made a difference to the world. But the Marines don't have that problem.
  • Ronald Reagan, letter to Lance Cpl. Joe Hickey (23 September 1983), R.W. "Dick" Gaines refers in detail.

S

• It was the fate of our Marines to be at the front at a moment when the destiny of the modern world hung in the balance, and to have played a part that will be gratefully remembered here in America, as well as in western Europe, through generations to come.
  • Albert Shaw, as quoted in Marines Bulletin (November 1918), p. 10

• In the Marine Corps, there's a simple rule every enlisted man learns. And that is, officers eat last and that any officer worries first about feeding his or her privates and lieutenants before he even picks up a knife or a fork.
  • Mark Shields, as quoted in "Shields and Brooks on impeachment testimony, newest 2020 Democrats" (15 November 2019), PBS NewsHour

• Lady, there was a killing war. The Marine Corps taught me how to kill Japs and try to survive. Now, if that don't fit into any academic course, I'm sorry. But some of us had to do the killing — and most of my buddies got killed or wounded.
  • Eugene Sledge, China Marine: An Infantryman's Life after World War II, p. 135

T

• They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's.
  • Harry Truman, as quoted in Fallujah: Iraq 2004 (2012), by Ambush Alley, Ambush Alley Games, p. 4

• The Navy's police force.
  • Harry Truman, as quoted in Fallujah: Iraq 2004 (2012), by Ambush Alley, Ambush Alley Games, p. 4