Medals Quotes

“Give me enough medals and I’ll win you any war”
― Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon's Art of War

“A warrior is defined by his scars, not his medals.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

“Ciba: "I thought you were supposed to be some big brave war hero. What about that goddamn gold star you polish every night?"

Natalya: "You know what this shiny piece of tin is, you fucking space cadet? It's the way stupid boys trick other stupid boys into dying for bullshit causes ... and I'm done acting like one of them.”
― Brian K. Vaughan, Y: The Last Man - The Deluxe Edition Book Four

“Where are the marks of the cross in your life? Are there any points of identification with your Lord? Alas, too many Christians wear medals but carry no scars”
― Vance Havner

“A purple sash crosses his doublet, pinned to his chest by a dozen medals he's never won from a hundred battlefields he's never stepped foot on.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Don't be afraid of suffering. Often scars are the medals of success.”
― Debasish Mridha

“Medals are great encouragement to young men and lead them to feel their work is of value, I remember how keenly I felt this when in the 1890s. I received the Darwin Medal and the Huxley Medal. When one is old, one wants no encouragement and one goes on with one's work to the extent of one's power, because it has become habitual.”
― Karl Pearson

“Get the big picture! See 2 Believe!”
― Leon Welch

“The last time I saw Collin was in 1917, at the foot of Mort-Homme.

Before the great slaughter, Collin’d been an avid angler. On that day, he was standing at the hole, watching maggots swarm among blow flies on two boys that we couldn’t retrieve for burial without putting our own lives at risk.

And there, at the loop hole, he thought of his bamboo rods, his flies and the new reel he hadn’t even tried out yet.

Collin was imaging himself on the riverbank, wine cooling in the current his stash of worms in a little metal box and a maggot on his hook, writhing like… Holy shit. Were the corpses getting to him?

Collin. The poor guy didn’t even have time to sort out his thoughts.

In that split second, he was turned into a slab of bloody meat. A white hot hook drilled right through him and churned through his guts, which spilled out of a hole in his belly.

He was cleared out of the first aid station. The major did triage. Stomach wounds weren’t worth the trouble. There were all going to die anyway, and besides, he wasn’t equipped to deal with them.

Behind the aid station, next to a pile of wood crosses, there was a heap of body parts and shapeless, oozing human debris laid out on stretchers, stirred only be passing rats and clusters of large white maggots.

But on their last run, the stretcher bearers carried him out after all… Old Collin was still alive.

From the aid station to the ambulance and from the ambulance to the hospital, all he could remember was his fall into that pit, with maggots swarming over the open wound he had become from head to toe… Come to think of it, where was his head? And what about his feet?

In the ambulance, the bumps were so awful and the pain so intense that it would have been a relief to pass out. But he didn’t. He was still alive, writhing on his hook.

They carved up old Collin good. They fixed him as best they could, but his hands and legs were gone. So much for fishing.

Later, they pinned a medal on him, right there in that putrid recovery room.

And later still, they explained to him about gangrene and bandages packed with larvae that feed on death tissue. He owed them his life. From one amputation and operation to the next – thirty-eight in all – the docs finally got him “back on his feet”. But by then, the war was long over.”
― Jacques Tardi, Goddamn This War!

“But nothing in human life is unmixed, and honors inevitably balance themselves with self-doubt. Everyone knows that medals are rubber”
― Donald Hall, Essays After Eighty

“Gymnastics gave her the power to snuff out gravity, fly like a bird and draw rainbows in the air. There was no medal she’d swap for that.”
― Eloise Smith , Winner Takes Gold: an all-action gymnastics story for ages 10+

“Because Banshees don’t think much of medals!”
― Henry V. O'Neil, Dire Steps

“The church celebrates people, possessions, and performances without a hunger to know the principles, practices, processes, procedures, and philosophies of attaining such heights. Therefore, our members remain fans and commentators, instead of team players. Commentators and fans don't get paid and don't win medals.”
― Charles Apoki

“Never accept medals unless they come printed on the back of a cheque.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel's Game

“Medals come with agendas pre-installed.”
― Dipti Dhakul, Quote: +/-