Major General Smedley D. Butler, born on 30 July 1881, was a prominent figure in the US Marine Corps, receiving two Medals of Honor for separate acts of heroism.
He served in various locations, including the Philippines, China, Mexico, Haiti and France and was awarded multiple distinctions for his exceptional service.
Butler also served as the Director of Public Safety of Philadelphia and commanded the Marine Corps Base at San Diego.
He retired in 1931 after 33 years of service and passed away in 1940. The USS Butler, a destroyer later converted to a high-speed minesweeper, was named in his honor and participated in World War II.
Some of the nicknames of Smedley Butler are: “Old Gimlet Eye” “The Fighting Quaker” and “Fighting Hell-Devil”.
Here are some of the most inspiring quotes by Smedley Butler.
Best Smedley Butler Quotes
One hundred and twenty Marines were detailed to officer a force of twenty-six hundred Haitians. ~ Smedley Butler.
The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted. ~ Smedley Butler.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. ~ Smedley Butler.
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. ~ Smedley Butler.
War is a racket. It always has been. ~ Smedley Butler.
There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making. Hell’s bells! Are these 40,000,000 men being trained to be dancers? ~ Smedley Butler.
We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war. ~ Smedley Butler.
A few profit – and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can’t end it by disarmament conferences. You can’t eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can’t wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war. ~ Smedley Butler.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. ~ Smedley D. Butler.
War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. ~ Smedley Butler.
Famous Smedley Butler Quotes
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill. ~ Smedley Butler.
I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. ~ Smedley D. Butler.
The professional soldiers and sailors don’t want to disarm. No admiral wants to be without a ship. No general wants to be without a command. Both mean men without jobs. They are not for disarmament. They cannot be for limitations of arms. And at all these conferences, lurking in the background but all-powerful, just the same, are the sinister agents of those who profit by war. They see to it that these conferences do not disarm or seriously limit armaments. ~ Smedley D. Butler.
But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children? What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits? Yes, and what does it profit the nation? ~ Smedley Butler.
What business is it of ours whether Russia or Germany or England or France or Italy or Austria live under democracies or monarchies? Whether they are Fascists or Communists? Our problem is to preserve our own democracy. And very little, if anything, has been accomplished to assure us that the World War was really the war to end all wars. ~ Smedley Butler.
No one told these American soldiers they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with US patents. ~ Smedley Butler.
Top Smedley Butler Quotes
The active pacifists, however, are not of this class: they are not men without impulsive force but men in whom some impulse to which war is hostile is strong enough to overcome the impulses that lead to war. ~ Smedley Butler.
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. ~ Smedley Butler.
I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. ~ Smedley Butler.
War like any other racket, pays high dividends to the very few. The cost of operations is always transferred to the people who do not profit. ~ Smedley D. Butler.
In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows. ~ Smedley D. Butler.
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets?…How many of them were wounded or killed in battle? ~ Smedley Butler.
In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn’t join the army. ~ Smedley Butler.
Popular Smedley Butler Quotes
For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out. ~ Smedley Butler.
The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits – ah! that is another matter — twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent – the sky is the limit. ~ Smedley Butler.
My interest is, my one hobby is, maintaining a democracy. If you get these 500,000 soldiers advocating anything smelling of Fascism, I am going to get 500,000 more and lick the hell out of you, and we will have a real war right at home. ~ Smedley Butler.
My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military. ~ Smedley Butler.
And what is this bill? This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations. ~ Smedley Butler.
Only those who would be called upon to risk their lives for their country should have the privilege of voting to determine whether the nation should go to war. ~ Smedley Butler.
Yes, we have had disarmament conferences and limitations of arms conferences. They don’t mean a thing. One has just failed; the results of another have been nullified. We send our professional soldiers and our sailors and our politicians and our diplomats to these conferences. And what happens? ~ Smedley Butler.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. ~ Smedley Butler.
So these were the 32 top Smedley Butler quotes and sayings.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Samuel Johnson quotes and Shaquille O’Neal quotes.
