Quotations on / about soldier

A soldier's a man,
O, man's life's but a span,
Why then, let a soldier drink.

(William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Iago, in Othello, act 2, sc. 3, l. 71-3. A "span" is literally a hand's breadth from thumb to little finger; here a short time, as in 38:5 (Book of Common Prayer); the phrase "life's but a span" became proverbial.)
More quotations from: William Shakespeare

Chief among our gains must be reckoned this possibility of choice, the recognition of many possible ways of life, where other civilizations have recognized only one. Where other civilizations give a satisfactory outlet to only one temperamental type, be he mystic or soldier, business man or artist, a civilization in which there are many standards offers a possibility of satisfactory adjustment to individuals of many different temperamental types, of diverse gifts and varying interests.

(Margaret Mead (1901-1978), U.S. anthropologist. Coming of Age in Samoa, ch. 14 (1928).)
More quotations from: Margaret Mead

Among the interesting thing in camp are the boys. You recollect the boy in Captain McIlrath's company; we have another like unto him in Captain Woodward's. He ran away from Norwalk to Camp Dennison; went into the Fifth, then into the Guthries, and as we passed their camp, he was pleased with us, and now is "a boy of the Twenty-third." He drills, plays officer, soldier, or errand boy, and is a curiosity in camp.

(Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-1893), U.S. president. Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes: Nineteenth President of the United States, vol. II, pp. 86-87, ed. Charles Richard Williams, The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 5 vols. (1922-1926), Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes (September 5, 1861).)
More quotations from: Rutherford Birchard Hayes

The momentary charge at Balaklava, in obedience to a blundering command, proving what a perfect machine the soldier is, has, properly enough, been celebrated by a poet laureate; but the steady, and for the most part successful, charge of this man, for some years, against the legions of Slavery, in obedience to an infinitely higher command, is as much more memorable than that as an intelligent and conscientious man is superior to a machine. Do you think that that will go unsung?

(Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. "A Plea for Captain John Brown" (1859), in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 4, p. 418, Houghton Mifflin (1906).)
More quotations from: Henry David Thoreau

Soldier: Hey colonel, I got me a prisoner. What should I do with him?
Col. John Marlowe: Spank him.

(John Lee Mahin (1902-1984), U.S. screenwriter, Martin Rackin, co-scenarist, and John Ford. Soldier (unnamed and uncredited), Col. John Marlowe (John Wayne), The Horse Soldiers, after capturing a young military school cadet whose regiment marched against the Union army (1959). Based on the novel by Harold Sinclair.)
More quotations from: John Lee Mahin

The soldier's is the trade:
In any wind or weather
He steals the heart of maid
And man together.

The lover and his lass
Beneath the hawthorn lying,

(A.E. (Alfred Edward) Housman (1859-1936), British poet. In valleys green and still (l. 9-14). . . The Collected Poems of A. E. Housman. (1965) Henry Holt.)
More quotations from: A.E. (Alfred Edward) Housman

One can be a soldier without dying, and a lover without sighing.

(Edwin, Sir Arnold (1832-1904), British dramatist, poet. Sakamune, in Adzuma, act 2, sc. 5.)
More quotations from: Sir Arnold, Edwin