Quotes: Leadership (05)

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Leadership 222 The general believed that the men who worked for him should be willing to die for carrying out the orders given to the general. "[General Dreedle’s] credo as a professional soldier was unified and concise: he believed that the young men who took orders from him should be willing to give up their lives for the ideals, aspirations and idiosyncrasies of the old men he took orders from." Heller, Catch-22.

Leadership 228 “You mean I can’t shoot anyone I want to?” General Dreedle demanded with uncompromising indignation. Heller, Catch-22.

Leadership 62 Whatever the general thought he acted on immediately. "What the General had was an almost unique ability to extend his thoughts into immediate and effective action…." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Leadership 69 Hearn could see the results of the general's thoughts and actions the next day and into the next month. "The General might even have been silly if it were not for the fact that here on this island he controlled everything…as long as Hearn remained with him, he could see the whole process from the inception of the thought to the tangible and immediate results the next day, the next month" Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Leadership 113 Leadership leads to courage. "Martinez’s terror developed in a void; the moment he had to lead men, his courage returned." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Leadership 133 The attitude of officers toward enlisted men. "Stupid ass, he thought, and immediately afterward, with a shock, he realized the trace of contempt he was beginning to feel for an enlisted man…slight, barely apparent, and yet it was there." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Leadership 251 The general's thoughts on power and fear. "The General: The fear, the respect his soldiers held for him now was a rational one, and admission of his power to punish them, and that was not enough…other kind of fear was lacking, the unreasoning one in which his powers were immense and it was effectively a variety of sacrilege to thwart him." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Leadership 251 As the person in charge, the general had to quash resistance immediately. "The General: The longer you tarried with resistance, the greater it became; it had to be destroyed." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Leadership 255 The organization of the army and the worship of power as a vision of the future in society. The General: "I’ve been trying to impress you, Robert, that the only morality of the future is a power morality, and a man who cannot find his adjustment to it is doomed…one thing about power…can flow only from the top down; when there are little surges of resistance at the middle levels, it merely calls for more power to be directed downward, to burn it out…You can consider the Army, Robert, as a preview of the future." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Leadership 256 The naked use of power and punishment. The General: "The only way you generate the proper attitude of awe and obedience is through immense and disproportionate power…if punishment is at all proportionate to the offense, then power becomes watered." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.