The Warrior Ethos

General Moshe Dayan, refused to discipline the man. “I will never punish an officer for daring too much, but only too little.”

Fight for this alone: the man who stands at your shoulder. He is everything, and everything is contained within him. The soldier’s prayer today on the eve of battle remains not “Lord, spare me” but “Lord, let me not prove unworthy of my brothers.”

We, in our day, know from history that this was no calculated gesture or grandstanding stunt on Alexander’s part. It sprung from the most authentic passions of his heart. He truly cared nothing for material things; he loved his men, and his heart was set on glory and the achievement of great things.

Every tattoo parlor adjacent to a U.S. Marine base has this in innumerable design variations: Death Before Dishonor

This is another key element of the Warrior Ethos: the willing and eager embracing of adversity.

The point of the common mess was to bind the men together as friends. “Even horses and dogs who are fed together,” observed Xenophon, “form bonds and become attached to one another.”

“No, my friend,” said Alexander, setting a hand on the man’s shoulder and making him sit again. “For you are Alexander, more even than I.”

Selflessness produces courage because it binds men together and proves to each individual that he is not alone. The act of openhandedness evokes desire in the recipient to give back. Alexander’s men knew, from their king’s spectacular gestures of generosity, that the spoils of any victory they won would be shared with them too, and that their young

the Warrior Ethos enlists three other equally innate and powerful human impulses: Shame. Honor. And love.