Even Dewey’s splendid capacity would not have enabled him to win the battle of Manila Bay had it not been for the traditional energy and seamanship of our naval service, so well illustrated in his captains, and the excellent gun-practice…

It is easy to say what we ought to do, but it is hard to do it; and yet no scheme can be devised which will save us from the need of doing just this hard work.

In the Santiago campaign the army was more than once uncomfortably near grave disaster, from which it was saved by the remarkable fighting qualities of its individual fractions, and, above all, by the incompetency of its foes.

To go against a well-organized, well-handled, well-led foreign foe under such conditions would inevitably have meant failure and humiliation.

No friendliness with other nations, no good will for them or by them, can take the place of national self-reliance.

As a matter of fact, the blame must rest in all such cases far less with them than with those responsible for the existence of the system.

Exactly as it is of no use to give an army the best arms and equipment if it is not also given the chance to practice with its arms and equipment, so the finest ships and the best natural sailors and fighters are useless to a navy if the…

Nevertheless, when the chance does come, only the great man can see it instantly and use it aright.

Not only is it impossible for a man to learn how to handle a ship or do his duty aboard her save by long cruises at sea, but it is also impossible for a good single-ship captain to be an efficient unit in a fleet unless he is accustomed to…

All that he could do was to choose a good man, give him the largest possible liberty of action, and back him up in every way; and this Secretary Long did.

A thoroughly good navy takes a long time to build up, and the best officer embodies always the traditions of a first-class service.

We should therefore keep in mind that the hero can not win save for the forethought, energy, courage, and capacity of countless other men.

Yet we must keep in mind also that all this forethought, energy, courage, and capacity will be wasted unless at the supreme moment some man of the heroic type arises capable of using to the best advantage the powers lying ready to hand.

The bureaus in Washington were absolutely enmeshed in red tape, and were held for the most part by elderly men, of fine records in the past, who were no longer fit to break through routine and to show the extraordinary energy, business…

In the second place, it must always be remembered that the power of using the chance aright comes only to the man who has faithfully and for long years made ready himself and his weapons for the possible need.

Not merely must each of us strive to do his duty; in addition it is imperatively necessary also to establish a strong and intelligent public opinion which will require each to do his duty.

A service will do well or ill at the outbreak of war very much in proportion to the way it has been prepared to meet the outbreak during the preceding months.

Therefore, when war threatens, preparations must be made in any event; for the evil of what proves to be the needless expenditure of money in one instance is not to be weighed for a moment against the failure to prepare in the other.

An excellent test is afforded by the readiness which the man has shown to take responsibility in any emergency in the past.

But only a limited number of men have the moral courage to make these preparations, because there is always risk to the individual making them.

The visionary or the self-seeking knave who promises the golden impossible, and the credulous dupe who is taken in by such a promise, and who in clutching at the impossible loses the chance of securing the real though lesser good, are as…

If disaster comes through lack of preparedness, the fault necessarily lies far less with the men under whom the disaster actually occurs than with those to whose wrong-headedness or short-sighted indifference in time past the lack of…

The boy can best become a good man by being a good boy—not a goody-goody boy, but just a plain good boy.

Without his brilliancy their labor might be wasted, but without their labor his brilliancy would be of no avail.

Probably the best way (although no way is infallible) to tell the worth of a naval commander as yet untried in war is to get at the estimate in which he is held by the best fighting men who would have to serve under him.