Before he was President Trump’s surprise pick for defense secretary, Jim Mattis was a retired Marine general, leisurely writing a book about the leadership lessons he learned in the course of a legendary 43-year career.
The result, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, written with Bing West, was a disappointment to readers hoping for dirt on Trump but a treasure trove of the type of truisms for which Mattis is famous.
You’ve no doubt heard some classic Mattisisms, such as “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet,” or his unofficial Marine motto, “No better friend, no worse enemy.”
Here are the 50 best Mattis maxims plucked from the pages of Call Sign Chaos. Page numbers are included for those who would like to see the context.
1. Everyone needs a friend, a purpose, and a chance to belong to something greater than themselves. (pg. 9)
2. You don’t win firefights by being kind. (pg. 9)
3. You don’t send a grunt with a rifle when a five-hundred-pound bomb will do the job. … [C]onfidence that their leader knows his job and won’t waste their lives is key to getting full commitment from our troops. (pg. 10)
4. Of course you’ll screw up sometimes; don’t dwell on that. The last perfect man on earth died on a cross long ago. (pg.11)
5. Read history, but study a few battles in depth. Learning from others’ mistakes is far smarter than putting your own lads in body bags. (pg. 12)
6. As an officer, you need to win only one battle — for the hearts of your troops. Win their hearts and they will win the fights. (pg. 13)
7. Speaking crisply or having a tight haircut [does] not make a leader. (pg. 19)
8. I want everything dead, including the earthworms. (pg.27)
9. Everyone has a plan, Mike Tyson said, until they get punched in the mouth. (pg. 28)
10. In war, even the greatest victory is salted with tragedy. (pg. 30)
11. To risk death willingly, to venture forth knowing that in so doing you may cease to exist, in an unnatural act. (pg.31)
12. The ultimate auditor of military competence is war. (pg. 37)
13. Any commander who claims he is “too busy to read” is going to fill body bags with his troops as he learns the hard way. (pg. 42)
14. If the risk takers are punished, then you will retain in your ranks only the risk averse. (pg. 45)
15. An organization gets the behavior it rewards. (pg.48)
16. If it [is] an easy decision with good options, that decision [has] already been made. (pg. 49)
17. Doctrine is the last refuge of the unimaginative. (pg. 54)
18. I’m taking a few thousand of my best friends to Afghanistan to kill some people. (pg. 57)
19. I can appear brilliant if I fight enemy leaders dumber than a bucket of rocks. (pg. 60)
20. Wars, like hurricanes, recur without advance warning. (pg. 65)
21. I am an opportunistic learner. I may not have come up with many new ideas, but I’ve adopted or integrated a lot from others. (pg. 84)
22. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. (pg. 93)
23. In an age where cynicism too often passes for critical thinking, it’s worthwhile to remember that young men and women who sign up for the military still fight for ideals. (pgs. 93-94)
24. To expect success every time is wishful thinking. … Initiative and audacity must be supported whether successful or not. (pg. 96)
25. [I’ve] always found first reports to be half wrong and half incorrect. (pg. 101)
26. [D]igital technologies can falsely encourage remote staffs to believe they have a God’s-eye view of combat. (pg. 101)
27. Praise in public, criticize in private. (pg. 103)
28. I’ve always tried to be hard on issues but not on spirits. (pg. 104)
29. Death doesn’t care about your age or rank. (pg. 109)
30. It’s hard on a blistering hot day to attack someone giving you water. (pg. 112)
31. My purpose was to find common cause, work to keep the peace, and avoid antagonisms for one more month, one more week, one more day. (pg. 112)
32. When it’s time to move a piano, Marines don’t pick up the piano bench — we move the piano. (pg. 119)
33. Civilization progresses, Homer taught us, only when the strongest nations and armies respect the dignity of the weakest. (pg. 123)
34. Great nations don’t get angry; military action should be undertaken only to achieve specific strategic effects. (pg. 124)
35. Loyalty to your troops, to your superiors, and to your oath to obey orders from civilian authority matters most, even when there are a hundred reasons to disagree. (pg. 124)
36. I had lance corporals who could better express the nobility of our methods than U.S. government spokespeople in Washington. (pg. 128)
37. I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all. (pg. 132)
38. [A] thirty-second decision rested upon thirty years of experience and study. … Two minutes to turn the tide of war. … That’s how battles are won or lost.” (pg. 141)
39. An enemy always moves against your perceived weakness. (pg. 149)
40. If you don’t like problems, stay out of leadership. Smooth sailing teaches nothing. (pg. 158)
41. The most important six inches on the battlefield are between your ears. (pg. 166)
42. Sovereign nations do not take kindly to being ordered around. (pg. 173)
43. Conviction does not mean you should not change your mind when circumstance or new information warrant it. (pg. 175)
44. We must remember we are engaged in an experiment called democracy, and experiments can fail in a world still largely hostile to freedom. (pg. 177)
45. PowerPoint is the scourge of critical thinking. … PowerPoint is excellent when displaying data; but it makes us stupid when applied to critical thinking. (pg. 182)
46. It is better to have a friend with deep flaws than an adversary with enduring hostility. (pg. 227)
47. If you allow yourself to be goaded and trifled with, one of two things will happen: eventually a harder, larger fight will explode, or you will get moved out of the neighborhood. (pg. 232.)
48. We’ve fought wars that we should have avoided, and half-heartedly engaged in wars that needed to be won. (pg. 234)
49. If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate — you can’t coach and you can’t lead. (pg. 237)
50. Nations with allies thrive, and those without wither. (pg. 244)
