# Action hero quotes, in real life. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 11, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306 "2007-07-11T02:01:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/41 "2007-07-16T01:05:10Z")
Not quite an action hero quote - the quote is very much after the action. But, Anne Bonney’s last words to her lover, the pirate ‘Calico’ Jack Rackham are pretty memorable: > [@](#): > > Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/42 "2007-07-16T01:18:03Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] And from World War II [there’s this story](http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=81): Now _that’s_ an action movie chaplain! [/QUOTE] Though it involves no verbal quotes, I am reminded of a story about when the Glenn Miller Orchestra was on a USO tour – in England, I think. They were entertaining the troops, outdoors, and somebody shouted, “Incoming!” All the soldiers ran for cover as a flying bomb dropped and exploded (harming no one). Up on the stand, the band played on, not missing a beat. The soldiers, astonished, leaped to their feat and cheered. I once saw a documentary that included a film clip dramatizing the event; a surviving member of the band confirmed the story, saying, in essence, the musicians knew where they were and what they were doing and saw no reason to duck for cover. That’s cool! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/43 "2007-07-16T05:05:42Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Though it involves no verbal quotes, I am reminded of a story about when the Glenn Miller Orchestra was on a USO tour – in England, I think. They were entertaining the troops, outdoors, and somebody shouted, “Incoming!” All the soldiers ran for cover as a flying bomb dropped and exploded (harming no one). Up on the stand, the band played on, not missing a beat. The soldiers, astonished, leaped to their feat and cheered. I once saw a documentary that included a film clip dramatizing the event; a surviving member of the band confirmed the story, saying, in essence, the musicians knew where they were and what they were doing and saw no reason to duck for cover. That’s cool! 🆒 [/QUOTE] That was in the movie The Glenn Miller Story with Jimmy Stewart. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/44 "2007-07-16T05:41:00Z")
When I was in Iraq in 2003, I was talking to an Army captain who complained that the only news he got on his sat. tv was the BBC. I said that I liked the BBC. He replied that they only talked about how screwed up Iraq is, that he wanted to be lied to, that he wanted CNN. I said, “you want to be lied to, you want Fox News.” He replied, “I’m not a fucking idiot, I don’t want to be lied to that much, I just want to be lied to a litttle bit.” I always thought that was a great line. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/45 "2007-07-16T15:24:30Z")
This is a great thread idea…there are a huge number of wonderful, cold-blooded, ballsy quotes that people never get to read because history is so mistaught as to be boring. Off the top of my head: **Stonewall Jackson** , sitting on a fence rail, sucking a lemon, surveying the cornfield at Antietam, on which the dead and wounded of both sides lay thick: “God…has been very kind to us this day.” General **John Corse** , shot in the side of the face at Allatoona, telegraphing General William Tecumseh Sherman: “I am short a cheek-bone and ear, but am able to whip all hell yet!” When they met in person later, Sherman noted the bandaged wound didn’t seem that severe: “They damned near missed you, John!” I can’t find an online cite for the Black Prince at Poitiers…maybe I can dig it up later. I once tried to compile a list of these…I’ll revisit this thread with more if I can think of them. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/46 "2007-07-16T15:31:34Z")
Heard this in a Civil War documentary: A Confederate cavalry troop, in the woods, was suddenly surrounded by Yankees on either side. The lieutenant asked the commanding officer (I forget his name and rank), “What should we do?” The CO replied, “Split the troop and charge both ways!” They did. They won. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/47 "2007-07-16T15:35:58Z")
[QUOTE=Sailboat] **Stonewall Jackson** , sitting on a fence rail, sucking a lemon, surveying the cornfield at Antietam, on which the dead and wounded of both sides lay thick: “God…has been very kind to us this day.” [/QUOTE] Good one. My great-great grandfather was one of the dead in that cornfield, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/48 "2007-07-16T15:41:54Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Heard this in a Civil War documentary: A Confederate cavalry troop, in the woods, was suddenly surrounded by Yankees on either side. The lieutenant asked the commanding officer (I forget his name and rank), “What should we do?” The CO replied, “Split the troop and charge both ways!” They did. They won. [/QUOTE] That was **Nathan Bedford Forrest**. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/49 "2007-07-16T15:49:16Z")
“Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” [as good a link as I could find](http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/18/messages/305.html). Actually indicates it predates Bunker Hill, which is what most of us probably think its from. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/50 "2007-07-16T21:38:56Z")
Legendary Revolutionary War figure [Daniel Morgan](http://jrshelby.com/kimocowp/morgan.htm) is about as close to a real-life action hero as you can get. He was a gregarious mountain of a man, who was frequently at the forefront of battle. (In the attack on Quebec, he twice led his men across British barricades.) Known as “the Old Wagoner” from his days as a wagon master in the French and Indian War, Morgan carried on his back a mass of scar tissue earned during that conflict: > [@](#): > > [In 1754 Morgan] got into an altercation with a British officer which ended with a solid fist landed on the redcoat’s soft body. This act of defiance led to swift military justice and a sentence of 500 lashes on the bare back. Such punishment was not unusual for the British army at the time, nor was it uncommon for a man to die under the lash. Morgan was too tough to die, but the experience left his back a mass of bone and hamburger. On the eve of the Battle of Cowpens (1781) Morgan used the scars on his back as a visual aid and motivator for his men: > [@](#): > > The night before he expected Tarleton to attack, Morgan went the rounds of the camp and made pep talks around the cooking fires, explaining carefully to the militiamen what he expected them to do and, for good measure, displaying the scars on his back. He claimed that the British drummer who laid those stripes on him had miscounted; instead of 500, he’d only received 499. So King George owed him one, but Morgan, “the Old Wagoner,” anticipating cracking his own whip in the morning. The next day, [on the battlefield](http://www.woffordcollege.org/president/content.aspx?id=18146): > [@](#): > > [A]t a critical point in the heat of battle, when confusion among the troops had put the outcome in doubt, fully exposed to enemy fire, “Morgan rode up in front, and waving his sword, cried out, ‘Form, form, my brave fellows! Give them one more fire and the day is ours. Old Morgan was never beaten.'" Morgan’s deathbed scene many years later was also worthy of an action hero. As Morgan lay ill, Morgan’s physician advised his patient to get his affairs in order. > [@](#): > > “Doctor,” Morgan is reported to have said with consternation and alarm, “do you mean that I am about to die?” > “I do.” > “Why, won’t I live some time, a month or so?” > “I think not, sir.” > “Well, a week?” > “I don’t think you can possibly last a week.” > > There was a long silence. > > “Doctor, if I could be the man I was when I was twenty-one years of age, I would be willing to be stripped stark naked on top of the Alleghany Mountains, to run for my life with the hounds of death at my heels.” ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/51 "2007-07-16T22:21:56Z")
“Take her down” - Howard Walter Gilmore Commander US Navy, Captain of the USS Growler. Stranded on the bridge, and wounded by machine gun fire, Cmdr. Gilmore ordered the hatch closed. He gave his life to save his crew. Here is his Medal of Honor [citation](http://www.valoratsea.com/gilmore.htm) > [@](#): > > Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and valor and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the USS Growler during her fourth war patrol in the southwest Pacific from 10 January to 7 February 1943. Boldly striking at the enemy in spite of continuous hostile air and anti-submarine patrols, Cmdr. Gilmore sank one Japanese freighter and damaged another by torpedo fire, successfully evading severe depth charges following each attack. in the darkness of night on 7 February, an enemy gunboat closed range and prepared to ram the Growler. Cmdr. Gilmore daringly maneuvered to avoid the crash and rammed the attacker instead, ripping into her port side and bursting wide her plates. In the terrific fire of the sinking gunboat’s heavy machineguns, Cmdr. Gilmore calmly gave the order to clear the bridge, and refusing safety for himself, remained on deck while his men preceded him below. Struck down by a fusillade of bullets and having done his utmost against the enemy, in his final living moments, Cmdr. Gilmore gave his last order to the officer of the deck, “Take her down”. The Growler dived; seriously damaged but under control, she was brought safely to port by her well trained crew inspired by the courageous fighting spirit of their dead captain. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/52 "2007-07-17T01:19:06Z")
Jin Ke of the Warring States period, before he set off to assassinate the king of Qin (the future Qin Shihuangdi): “The wind pierces, the water freezes–and the hero goes never to return!” (The attempt failed.) There was also an unusual tactic in the Warring States period in which the frontmost line killed themselves as a display of their callous disregard for life. (As the _Cartoon History of the World_ pointed out, this was not a tactic to be repated often! :D) Liu Bang, first emperor of the Han dynasty, in response to a threat from a rival who had taken his father hostage and threatened to boil the old man alive: “Send me a cup of the soup.” (Eventually, negotiations succeeded and Daddy Dearest was not cooked.) Ban Chao of the Later Han dynasty, motivating his troops to press into enemy territory: “What better way to net a tiger’s cub than to enter its den?” (It would later be used as an idiom meaning: “Taking great risks for an even greater reward”.) Sun Quan of the Three Kingdoms era, having been convinced to take a stand against Cao Cao just prior to the battle of Chi Bi: “Whosoever dares breathe another word of surrender shall be like this table!” _chops a corner off said table_ (IIRC, this is an actual quote attributed to him and not just made up for _Romance of the Three Kingdoms_) Zu Ti of the Eastern Jin period, rallying his men from his boat, struck the water with his oar and declared: “If I cannot restore these lands, then let me as these waters!” (There’s a lot more, but I remember most of the quotes in Chinese so it’s kind of hard to look this stuff up. And a lot of the badass quotes are in poetry form, making it even harder to translate, like Wen Tian Xiang’s _Song of Righteousness_.) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/53 "2007-07-17T13:13:28Z")
[QUOTE=dotchan] …Zu Ti of the Eastern Jin period, rallying his men from his boat, struck the water with his oar and declared: “If I cannot restore these lands, then let me as these waters!”… [/QUOTE] Is this quotation missing a word or two? ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/54 "2007-07-17T15:04:40Z")
[QUOTE=dotchan] There was also an unusual tactic in the Warring States period in which the frontmost line killed themselves as a display of their callous disregard for life. [/QUOTE] “No poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making other bastards die for their country.” – General George Patton ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/55 "2007-07-18T16:34:51Z")
General Winfield Scott Hancock at Gettysburg. When the Confedreates opened the artillery bombardment prior to Pickett’s Charge, it was the heaviest artillery attack up to that point in the war. As the Union soldiers huddled behind the stone wall, Hancock rode out in front of the line on horseback. When someone protested, “General, the corps commander ought not to risk his life that way,” Hancock is said to have replied, “There are times when a corps commander’s life does not count.” Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/56 "2007-07-18T16:52:08Z")
Hancock again…I should have added this part. The day before (July 2nd), Hancock had been organizing the defense of the center of Cemetery Ridge. He realized that there was a gap in the Union line just as a large Confederate column bore down on it. Shelby Foote put it well: [QUOTE=Shelby Foote, Stars in Their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign June-July 1863] As he himself climbed back up the slope on horseback, under heavy fire from the attackers, Hancock wondered how he was going to stop or even delay them long enough for a substantial line of defense to be formed on the high ground. Gibbons and Hays “had been ordered up and were coming on the run,” he later explained, “but I saw that in some way five minutes must be gained or we were lost.” Just then the lead regiment of Gibbon’s first brigade came over the crest in a column of fours, and Hancock saw a chance to gain those five minutes, though at a cruel price. “What regiment is this?” He asked the officer at the head of the column moving toward him down the slope. “First Minnesota,” its commander William Colville replied. Hancock nodded. “Colonel, do you see those colors?” As he spoke he pointed at the Alabama flag in the front rank of the charging rebels. Colville said he did. “Then take them,” Hancock told him. [/QUOTE] The 262 men of the First Minnesota charged the 1,600 oncoming Confererates, and suffered one of the highest loss rates of any American unit in any war. They bought Hancock ten minutes. The line was saved. _Those_ are the kind of guys Lincoln was talking about when he said, [QUOTE=Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address] The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. [/QUOTE] Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/57 "2007-07-18T17:02:48Z")
Kruschev in the middle of a photo op leaned over to Kennedy and said, “History is on our side, we will bury you.” It’s an old saying and he meant Russia will outlast the US, but it’s more cold blooded the way Kennedy took it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/58 "2007-07-18T21:53:52Z")
[QUOTE=dotchan] There was also an unusual tactic in the Warring States period in which the frontmost line killed themselves as a display of their callous disregard for life. (As the _Cartoon History of the World_ pointed out, this was not a tactic to be repated often! :D) [/QUOTE] "We are the Judean People’s Front Crack Suicide Squad! Men . . . " ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/59 "2007-07-22T21:17:09Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] (badass quote snipped) Is this quotation missing a word or two? [/QUOTE] What do you mean? I’ll have to go back and actually dig up the quote and re-translate it, but what the guy meant was that if he could not succeed, then he wanted to be like the waters of the river: i.e., gone and never to return. (And, I dunno, it worked, I guess, because he did lead the troops to victory.) ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306/60 "2007-07-23T04:00:00Z")
Patton’s reply to an order not to enter Messina, after his soldiers had already taken it: “Ask them if they want me to give it back.” Wikiquote also credits him with this one: “We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.” Figures that would come from old blood and guts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-hero-quotes-in-real-life/411306.md?page=4)