Sublime

Outwardly, you must seem to respect the niceties, but inwardly, unless you are a fool, you learn quickly to be prudent, and to do as Napoleon advised: Place your iron hand inside a velvet glove.

Ike put the matter in personal terms. “For forty years I was in the Army, and I did one thing: study how you can get an infantry platoon out of battle. The most terrible job in warfare is to be a second lieutenant leading a platoon when you are on the battlefield.”19

When Henley wrote the prophetic lines, “I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul, “ he should have informed us that we are the Masters of our Fate, the Captains of our Souls, because we have the power to control our thoughts.

He understood the nuance of command at the highest level, as well as the reality of translating orders into action in the field. Above all, he had learned to look at problems from the standpoint of high command.

No one could argue that Montgomery was not qualified. He might be difficult, and Ike was not fond of him, but in Brooke’s opinion Montgomery would add the necessary battlefield experience to the command structure. Eisenhower accepted the inevitable.

an intangible impulse of thought can be transmuted into its physical counterpart by the application of known principles.