Rorke Denver · 304 pages
Rating: (2.2K votes)
“Read. You can always talk with another reader.”
― Rorke Denver, quote from Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior
“What we teach is pure SEAL. The lessons are simple, clear, and well-defined: They come right out of our basic values. Winning pays. Losing has consequences. Nothing substitutes for preparation. Life isn’t fair and neither is the battlefield. Even the smallest detail matters. We are a brotherhood. Our success depends on our team performance. And we will not fail.”
― Rorke Denver, quote from Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior
“We gotta haul ass so that clown doesn’t catch us,” Trey said. “What?” “That clown on the bicycle. He’s gaining on us. I don’t want that sucker to catch us.” Four days into Hell Week, and Trey truly believed that a clown on a bicycle on the Bay of San Diego was going to catch us in our IBS. He couldn’t let that happen.”
― Rorke Denver, quote from Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior
“I like working the day shift,” I told Ro and Rolex as they put their sniper rifles down and we climbed off the roof. “Any shift,” Ro said. It didn’t take long for word to spread across Anbar. A new group of predators were in town now, and they were working around the clock.”
― Rorke Denver, quote from Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior
“In summer months, the concrete gets so blisteringly hot, instructors have to hose it down so the recruits won’t singe their hands doing push-ups. The Grinder is where SEAL graduations are held and where, like a constant taunt, the SEAL exit bell hangs. A famous sign is also there: THE ONLY EASY DAY WAS YESTERDAY.”
― Rorke Denver, quote from Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. —LEO TOLSTOY”
― Rorke Denver, quote from Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior
“You’re going to see him quit and some of you are going to say, ‘If he can’t make it, I can’t make it.’ Don’t praise false idols. I promise you—one has nothing to do with the other.”
― Rorke Denver, quote from Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior
“Whatever might happen, I always knew my brother had my back.”
― Rorke Denver, quote from Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior
“It was like learning life lessons from your big brother or your crazy uncle. How to handle yourself in a bar fight: “Hit first. Hit hard. And be ready to move.” How to behave around women: “Date strippers. Don’t marry strippers.” Some of the advice was sage.”
― Rorke Denver, quote from Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior
“Like the apple bruising Kafka’s beetle, each of these pellets of recollection lodged in Moose’s flesh, releasing its cargo of memories of all the things he had lost— “Not lost! Gained!” Moose thundered aloud, but now, mercifully, that debate (lost or gained?) was supplanted in his mind by the proximity of Belmont Harbor and the yacht club. Yes, this was the place; Moose eased the station wagon into a parking space, desperate to free himself of its chassis, whose sole purpose, it now seemed, was to hold him still so that these bullets of memory could assault him, enter his flesh and release their shrapnel of foolish and unreliable nostalgia.”
― Jennifer Egan, quote from Look at Me
“More sheltering is rarely an antidote for too much in the first place.”
― Ginn Hale, quote from Lord of the White Hell, Book 1
“the difference between winners and losers is not that winners never lose. The difference is that winners lose well, and losers lose poorly.”
― Henry Cloud, quote from Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality
“FACING THE MUSIC Many years ago a man conned his way into the orchestra of the emperor of China although he could not play a note. Whenever the group practiced or performed, he would hold his flute against his lips, pretending to play but not making a sound. He received a modest salary and enjoyed a comfortable living. Then one day the emperor requested a solo from each musician. The flutist got nervous. There wasn’t enough time to learn the instrument. He pretended to be sick, but the royal physician wasn’t fooled. On the day of his solo performance, the impostor took poison and killed himself. The explanation of his suicide led to a phrase that found its way into the English language: “He refused to face the music.”2 The cure for deceit is simply this: face the music. Tell the truth. Some of us are living in deceit. Some of us are walking in the shadows. The lies of Ananias and Sapphira resulted in death; so have ours. Some of us have buried a marriage, parts of a conscience, and even parts of our faith—all because we won’t tell the truth. Are you in a dilemma, wondering if you should tell the truth or not? The question to ask in such moments is, Will God bless my deceit? Will he, who hates lies, bless a strategy built on lies? Will the Lord, who loves the truth, bless the business of falsehoods? Will God honor the career of the manipulator? Will God come to the aid of the cheater? Will God bless my dishonesty? I don’t think so either. Examine your heart. Ask yourself some tough questions. Am I being completely honest with my spouse and children? Are my relationships marked by candor? What about my work or school environment? Am I honest in my dealings? Am I a trustworthy student? An honest taxpayer? A reliable witness at work? Do you tell the truth . . . always? If not, start today. Don’t wait until tomorrow. The ripple of today’s lie is tomorrow’s wave and next year’s flood. Start today. Be just like Jesus. Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
― Max Lucado, quote from Just Like Jesus: Learning to Have a Heart Like His
“What we’re in is a vacuum.”
― Henning Mankell, quote from One Step Behind
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