Man in the Arena (Theodore Roosevelt)

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or
where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;
who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and
shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the
great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor
defeat.
Walden: Or, Life in the Woods (Henry David Thoreau)
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life,
and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had
not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise
resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of
life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath
and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms , and, if it proved to
be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to
the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it
in my next excursion.

Invictus (William Ernest Henley)

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

The SEAL Code

Loyalty to Country, Team and Teammate
Serve with Honor and Integrity On and Off the Battlefield
Ready to Lead, Ready to Follow, Never Quit
Take responsibility for your actions and the actions of your teammates
Excel as Warriors through Discipline and Innovation
Train for War, Fight to Win, Defeat our Nations Enemies
Earn your Trident everyday

United States Navy SEAL

In times of war or uncertainty there is a special breed of warrior ready to answer our Nations
call. A common man with uncommon desire to succeed.
Forged by adversity, he stands alongside Americas finest special operations forces to serve his
country, the American people, and protect their way of life.
I am that man.
My Trident is a symbol of honor and heritage. Bestowed upon me by the heroes that have gone
before, it embodies the trust of those I have sworn to protect. By wearing the Trident I accept
the responsibility of my chosen profession and way of life. It is a privilege that I must earn every
day.
My loyalty to Country and Team is beyond reproach. I humbly serve as a guardian to my fellow
Americans always ready to defend those who are unable to defend themselves. I do not
advertise the nature of my work, nor seek recognition for my actions. I voluntarily accept the
inherent hazards of my profession, placing the welfare and security of others before my own.
I serve with honor on and off the battlefield. The ability to control my emotions and my actions,
regardless of circumstance, sets me apart from other men.
Uncompromising integrity is my standard. My character and honor are steadfast. My word is my
bond.
We expect to lead and be led. In the absence of orders I will take charge, lead my teammates
and accomplish the mission. I lead by example in all situations.
I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My Nation expects me to be physically
harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time. I
will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our
mission. I am never out of the fight.

We demand discipline. We expect innovation. The lives of my teammates and the success of
our mission depend on me my technical skill, tactical proficiency, and attention to detail. My
training is never complete.
We train for war and fight to win. I stand ready to bring the full spectrum of combat power to
bear in order to achieve my mission and the goals established by my country. The execution of
my duties will be swift and violent when required yet guided by the very principles that I serve to
defend.
Brave men have fought and died building the proud tradition and feared reputation that I am
bound to uphold. In the worst of conditions, the legacy of my teammates steadies my resolve
and silently guides my every deed. I will not fail.

Every battle is won or lost before it is fought.

know yourself and you will win all battles
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then
seek to win.
Sun Tzu
Pressfield, Steven (2007-01-30). Gates of Fire (Kindle Locations 1949-1955).
That half of him, the best part, a man sets aside and leaves behind. He banishes from
his heart all feelings of tenderness and mercy, all compassion and kindness, all thought or
concept of the enemy as a man, a human being like himself. He marches into battle bearing
only the second portion of himself, the baser measure, that half which knows slaughter and
butchery and turns the blind eye to quarter. He could not fight at all if he did not do this.
Then this man returns, alive, out of the slaughter. He hears his name called and comes
forward to take his ticket. He reclaims that part of himself which he had earlier set aside. This is
a holy moment. A sacramental moment. A moment in which a man feels the gods as close as
his own breath. What unknowable mercy has spared us this day? What clemency of the divine
has turned the enemys spear one handbreadth from our throat and driven it fatally into the
breast of the beloved comrade at our side? Why are we still here above the earth, we who are
no better, no braver, who reverenced heaven no more than these our brothers whom the gods
have dispatched to hell? When a man joins the two pieces of his ticket and sees them weld in
union together, he feels that part of him, the part that knows love and mercy and compassion,
come flooding back over him. This is what unstrings his knees. What else can a man feel at that
moment than the most grave and profound thanksgiving to the gods who, for reasons
unknowable, have spared his life this day? Tomorrow their whim may alter. Next week, next
year. But this day the sun still shines upon him, he feels its warmth upon his shoulders, he
beholds about him the faces of his comrades whom he loves and he rejoices in their deliverance
and his own.

See http://archive.uua.org/news/2003/iraq/pasjohnson.html
to harden the will against responding with rage and fear, the twin unmanning evils of
which that state called katalepsis, possession, is comprised.
Remember what I told you about the house with many rooms. There are rooms we must
not enter. Anger. Fear. Any passion which leads the mind toward that possession which undoes
men in war. Habit will be your champion. When you train the mind to think one way and one way
only, when you refuse to allow it to think in another, that will produce great strength in battle.
War, not peace, produces virtue. War, not peace, purges vice. War, and preparation for
war, call forth all that is noble and honorable in a man. It unites him with his brothers and binds
them in selfless love, eradicating in the crucible of necessity all which is base and ignoble.
There in the holy mill of murder the meanest of men may seek and find that part of himself,
concealed beneath the corrupt , which shines forth brilliant and virtuous, worthy of honor before
the gods. Do not despise war, my young friend, nor delude yourself that mercy and compassion
are virtues superior to andreia, to manly valor.
Andreia, 'manly' spirit, is needed to counter faint-heartedness, laziness, and overattachment to pleasure. It involves an attitude of 'taking the fight to the enemy', where the
enemy is ones own foolishness, vice and ignorance. Misused it manifests itself as anger,
aggression and military vain-glory. Properly used it involves self-directed, constructive anger.
Andreia also manifests itself as a willingness for, even a love of, toil and effort. It is one of the
four cardinal virtues, along with prudence (phronesis), temperance (sophrosyne), and justice
(dikaiosyne). http://www.john-uebersax.com/plato/words/andreia.htm See Plato's dialogue,
Laches.
nothing good in life comes but at a price. Sweetest of all is liberty. This we have chosen
and this we pay for. We have embraced the laws of Lykurgus, and they are stern laws. They
have schooled us to scorn the life of leisure, which this rich land of ours would bestow upon us if
we wished, and instead to enroll ourselves in the academy of discipline and sacrifice. Guided by
these laws, our fathers for twenty generations have breathed the blessed air of freedom and
have paid the bill in full when it was presented. We, their sons, can do no less.
Keep your men busy. If there is no work, make it up, for when soldiers have time to talk,
their talk turns to fear. Action, on the other hand, produces the appetite for more action.
Remember, in warfare practice of arms counts for little. Courage tells all, and we
Spartans have no monopoly on that.
Fear conquers fear. This is how we Spartans do it, counterpoising to fear of death a
greater fear: that of dishonor. Of exclusion from the pack.

Pressfield, Steven (2007-01-30). Gates of Fire (Kindle Locations 3873-3874). Random

House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Chief Tecumseh (from Act of Valor, 2012)

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their
religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect
your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service
of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when
in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no
reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse
turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over
again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
Ranger Creed (Ranger Handbook SH 21-76[2])
Recognizing that I volunteered as a Ranger, fully knowing the hazards of my chosen profession,
I will always endeavor to uphold the prestige, honor, and high esprit de corps of my Ranger
Regiment.
Acknowledging the fact that a Ranger is a more elite soldier who arrives at the cutting edge of
battle by land, sea, or air, I accept the fact that as a Ranger my country expects me to move
further, faster and fight harder than any other soldier.
Never shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong and
morally straight and I will shoulder more than my share of the task whatever it may be, onehundred-percent and then some.
Gallantly will I show the world that I am a specially selected and well-trained soldier. My
courtesy to superior officers, neatness of dress and care of equipment shall set the example for
others to follow.
Energetically will I meet the enemies of my country. I shall defeat them on the field of battle for I
am better trained and will fight with all my might. Surrender is not a Ranger word. I will never

leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy and under no circumstances will I
ever embarrass my country.
Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective and
complete the mission though I be the lone survivor.
Rangers Lead The Way!!!
Mans Search for Meaning (Viktor E. Frankl)
everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms to
choose ones attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose ones own way.
There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings. -Dostoevski
The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he
takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity even under the most difficult circumstances
to add a deeper meaning to his life. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his
human dignity and become more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make
use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may
afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.
Life is like being at the dentist. You always think the worst is still yet to come, and yet it is over
already. -Bismark
Sub specie aeternitatis live by looking to the future
Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise
picture of it. -Spinoza, Ethics
He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how. -Nietzsche
His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.
How much suffering there is to get through! Rilke
Rilke spoke of getting through suffering as others would talk of getting through work.
That which does not kill me, makes me stronger. Nietzsche
I said that someone looks down on each of us in difficult hours a friend, a wife, somebody
alive or dead, or a God and he would not expect us to disappoint him. He would hope to find
us suffering proudly not miserably knowing how to die.

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a
worthwhile goal, a freely chosen taskthe tension between what one has already achieved and
what one ought to still accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should
become.
One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation
or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he
cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyones task is unique as his specific
opportunity to implement it.
It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.
As each situation in life represents a challenge to man and presents a problem for him to
solve, the question of the meaning of life may actually be reversed. Ultimately, man should not
ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a
word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own
life; to life he can only respond by being responsible. Thus, logotherapy sees in responsibility
the very essence of human existence.
Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as
wrongly as you are about to act now!
It seems to me that there is nothing which would stimulate a mans sense of responsibility more
than this maxim, which invites him to imagine first that the present is past and, second, that the
past may yet be changed and amended.
We can discover the meaning of life in three different ways: (1) by creating work or doing a
deed (accomplishment), 2) by experiencing something or encountering someone (love); and 3)
by the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering (sacrifice).
David Kim on Selection:
"Only the sickest of the sickest fucks will sign up for Selection..." Direct quote from Jason
there is no team. It captures the essence of true SFAS. You gotta understand this crucial
difference. All eyes on you if you show weakness and it will be a feeding frenzy if you are weak.
Don't be last. You NEVER want to be last.
No one has ever finished selection and said I rucked too much. Jason
You cant smoke me drill instructor! Cadre Lou

My Ohh My

Under that light rain gleaming in that night came, can't stop now
Keep moving no brake pads came here to prove a point,
live my life on the field Make history in between the base path
And compete against the fear that is in me that's my only barrier
and I swear I'm going to break that
From the mud the cleats that we drug threw the feet
this is that moment and you cannot take it back
This is what you make of it yeah we play to win
Live it like we're under the lights of the stadium
fight until the day that God decided to wave us in,
Right until he waves us in
It's my city my city childhood my life that's right right under those lights

Of every hundred men, ten shouldnt even be there

Eighty are nothing but targets
Nine are real fighters, we are lucky to have them
They make the battle.
Ah, but the One, One of them is a Warrior
And He will bring the others back.
-Attributed to Heraclitus