Action hero quotes, in real life.

[Ranchoth]

“I am not ordering you to attack, I’m ordering you to die!” Mustafa Kemal, Battle of Gallipoli, 1915

“We asked them to surrender, but they said they’d rather die…So they’re gonna die,”
—Captain Brian Chontosh India Company of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. 2004

“Peccavi.” (“I have sinned.” i.e. “I have sindh.”)—Sir Charles Napier

“Well…now I can see how it wouldn’t work!”
—Jamie Hyneman (After a particularly spectacular engineering test failing)

“When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.”
—Winston Churchill, on being questioned about his formally polite language in the declaration of war against Japan

“President Bush sends his regards.”
—Major Reed to Saddam Hussein, upon his capture [Hey, Red or Blue (I’m purple myself), that’s a great line.]

[BrainGlutton]

@Sitnam

The leader of the Persian army, Mardonius, met the Spartan commander, Pausanias, on the plains of Plataea and the conversation went something like this:

Mardonius: If your army is defeated every Spartan woman will be raped, your homes will be burned and your children will be sold into slavery.

Pausanias: If.

After the Persians were defeated, Pausanius and the other Greek generals had a look at Mardonius’ incredibly (by Greek standards) luxurious command tent. Pausanias: “You see what fools these were, who live like this, yet came here to rob us of our poverty!”

[BrainGlutton]

@Malodorous

The Spartans (or quotes attributed to the Spartans) are probably a source for a lot of these. This exchange where the Spartans are warned that the enemy archers are so numerous that their arrows will block out the sun, and reply that they will “fight them in the shade” was the first thing that came to mind.

“With this Shield or on it” (said by Spartan mothers giving their sons the shields they would use in battle)is pretty bad ass too, though it was said to Spartan warriors rather then by them, so might not technically count as an action hero quote.

Sort of an anti-action quote: When a bolt (giant arrow) from the recently invented catapult was shown to Spartan King Archidamos III, he exclaimed, “O Herakles! The valor of man is extinguished!”

[BrainGlutton]

When Philip II of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great) was besieging the city of Methone, an archer named Aster offered his services, saying he could hit birds in flight. Philip replied, “I will employ you when I make war upon starlings.” Miffed at the slight, Aster threw in with the Methonians. During the siege, Philip was struck in the right eye by an arrow, on which was inscribed, “From Aster, to Philip’s right eye.” After the city fell, Philip had Aster executed.

[Banquet_Bear]

…he isn’t quite an action hero, but he is a New Zealand hero and cultural icon.

Sir Edmund Hillary, after returning from climbing Everest with Sherpa Tensing…

“Well George, we finally knocked the bastard off.”

Edmund Hillary

[Sitnam]

Wasn’t it Colonel Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller who also said, “We aren’t retreating, we’re just advancing in the opposite direction.”

[Mahaloth]

@Dewey Finn

Todd Beamer, United Flight 93: “Let’s roll.”

Are we sure he said/meant this? I thought I read that he may have been saying, “Let’s roll it,” referring to a food cart or something.

I can’t find a cite either way.

Anyone?

[Loach]

@Mahaloth

Are we sure he said/meant this? I thought I read that he may have been saying, “Let’s roll it,” referring to a food cart or something.

I can’t find a cite either way.

Anyone?

It was a common saying for him according to his wife. He would say it when he was about to start something.

“That’s Todd,” his wife, Lisa, said yesterday of the “Let’s roll!” command, which he made over the plane’s in-flight telephone. A GTE supervisor talked with him for about 13 minutes before the plane crashed.

“My boys even say that. When we’re getting ready to go somewhere, we say, ‘C’mon guys, let’s roll.’ My little one says, ‘C’mon, Mom, let’s roll.’ That’s something they picked up from Todd.”

Cite

[Jodi]

@BrainGlutton

During the siege, Philip was struck in the right eye by an arrow, on which was inscribed, “From Aster, to Philip’s right eye.”

Don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’ve heard that during the British Naval wars, when ships were hurling cannonballs at one another, if the British gun crews found enemy cannonballs rolling around the decks, they’d chalk RETURN TO SENDER on them and fire them back.

[Spiny_Norman]

Thorgrim the Easterling’s last words in the Saga of Njal are pretty kick-ass. (Thorgrim is one of the bad guys, approaching the home of Gunnar of Hlidarende):

Gunnar slept in a loft above the hall, and so did Hallgerda and his mother. 
   Now when they were come near to the house they knew not whether Gunnar were at home, and bade that some one would go straight up to the house and see if he could find out. But the rest sat them down on the ground. 
   Thorgrim the Easterling went and began to climb up on the hall; Gunnar sees that a red kirtle passed before the windowslit, and thrusts out the bill, and smote him on the middle. Thorgrim's feet slipped from under him, and he dropped his shield, and down he toppled from the roof. 
   Then he goes to Gizur and his band as they sat on the ground. 
   Gizur looked at him and said, "Well, is Gunnar at home?" 
   "**Find that out for yourselves,**" said Thorgrim; "**but this I am sure of, that his bill is at home,**" and with that he fell down dead.

Pretty much a perfect example of the stoicism in the face of death idolized by the Vikings.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

In 1801, Lord Nelson was fighting in the Battle of Copenhagen. His commanding officer, Sir Hyde Parker, who believed that the Danish fire was too strong, signalled to Nelson to break off the action. Nelson turned to his flag captain, Sir Thomas Foley, and said “You know, Foley, I only have one eye — I have the right to be blind sometimes.” Holding his telescope to his blind eye, he said, “I really do not see the signal!” Nelson won the battle, and his action was later approved by the Admiralty.

[slitterst]

I’ve always been partial to General John Sedgwick’s last words –

“” They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist–"

(slightly edited for humor)

Cite

[Sitnam]

During Operation Desert Shield I saw a picture of an Abrams with black lettering on it’s main gun; “Attitude Adjustment”.

Still makes me chuckle.

[Lust4Life]

@Jodi

Don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’ve heard that during the British Naval wars, when ships were hurling cannonballs at one another, if the British gun crews found enemy cannonballs rolling around the decks, they’d chalk RETURN TO SENDER on them and fire them back.

During the Napoleonic wars when a Royal Navy ship was about to receive an enemy broadside it was an old joke for someone to say"For what we are about to receive may the lord make us truly thankful."

“Well here goes the last of the Brudenels” spoken by the commander of the Light Brigade as he began to lead them down the valley of death.

At Waterloo when a senior British officer on horseback was hit by a cannonball next to the Duke of W.

D.of.W “By god sir youve lost your leg”
Officer"By god sir I have "

[Spoke]

“Hokahey! Today is a good day to die!” - Crazy Horse

After the first day of Shiloh:

Sherman: We’ve had the devil’s own day of it, haven’t we?
Grant: Yes. . . . Lick 'em tomorrow, though.

[Spoke]

Oh, and let’s give Queen Elizabeth I some credit for an action hero speech, on the eve of the attack by the Spanish Armada, delivered to the troops in the field:

…I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms…

[Surbey]

@spoke-

Oh, and let’s give Queen Elizabeth I some credit for an action hero speech, on the eve of the attack by the Spanish Armada, delivered to the troops in the field:

thats pretty impressive

[Spoke]

@surbey

thats pretty impressive

Yeah, QEI was a badass.
I just thought of another:

Confederate cavalryman J.E.B. Stuart, upon learning that his father-in-law had decided to fight for the Union:

“He will regret it but once, and that will be continually.”

[Spoke]

And here’s another good one from the U.S. Civil War, at the Battle of Chattanooga:

Attacking with Thomas was General Phil Sheridan, who recklessly pulled a flask from his pocket and toasted the Confederate gunners on the ridge. “Here’s to you,” he shouted and rifles opened fire at him, showering he and his officers with dirt. Sheridan was furious. “That was ungenerous!” he shouted at them. “I’ll take your guns for that!”

I should point out that there is considerable variance (as to details) in reports of this incident.

[Spoke]

A couple more occur to me.

Early American action hero Davy Crockett to the Tennesse electorate, upon being defeated in a congressional re-election bid:

“Since you have chosen to elect a man with a timber toe to succeed me, you may all go to hell and I will go to Texas.”

(Of course, some of us non-Texans might argue that there’s not a substantive difference between the two locales. Or as the ever-quotable Phil Sheridan put it: “If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent out Texas and live in Hell.”)

And from World War II there’s this story:

On a Sunday morning in December 1941, a chaplain had his most difficult assignment — to say a prayer to sailors aboard a U.S. navy ship actively under low–flying attack by the enemy firing from all directions. He quickly realized the best he could do was walk the ammunition line saying, “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!”

Now that’s an action movie chaplain!