I was a born troublemaker and might as well earn a living at it. — Bill Mauldin

"Im convinced that the infantry is the group in the army which gives more and gets less than anybody else."

"Youve got to be a misanthrope in this business, a real son of a bitch. Im touchy. Ive got raw nerve ends, and Ill jump. If I see a stuffed shirt, I want to punch it."

"Willie and Joe are my creatures. Or am I their creature? They are not social reformers. Theyre much more reactive. Theyre not social scientists and Im not a social scientist. Were moral people who do not belong to the moral majority. One of my principles is, Thou shall not bully. The only answer is to muscle the bully. Im very combative that way."

"More than anyone else, save only Ernie Pyle, he caught the trials and travails of the GI. For anyone who wants to know what it was like to be an infantryman in World War II, this book is the place to start — and finish."

"Certainly none of the advances made in civilization has been due to counterrevolutionaries and advocates of the status quo."

"My outlook on warfare is best illustrated by a cartoon I did some thirty-odd years ago of a soldier in an Italian foxhole reading about the Normandy invasion and observing to his buddy that: "The hell this aint the most important hole in the world. Im in it."