
“Old soldiers never die, they just fade away. ”
The Pageant of Life (1964), On Soldiers
“Old soldiers never die, they just fade away. ”
Audio clip (ogg format)
1950s, Farewell address to Congress (1951)
Context: I am closing my 52 years of military service. When I joined the Army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all of my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that "old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.
“Philosophies, like old soldiers, do not die, they merely fade away.”
Pragmatism and the Outlook of Modern Science (1966)
Audio clip (ogg format)
1950s, Farewell address to Congress (1951)
“It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out.”
Playboy interview (1980)
Context: It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. I don't appreciate worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or of dead John Wayne. It's the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison — it's garbage to me. I worship the people who survive. Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo.
“I didn’t know that painters and writers retired. They’re like soldiers – they just fade away.”
General Robert E. Lee, Part IV, CH 5: Longsteet, p.361
The Killer Angels (1974)
Quoted in "The Longest Winter" - Page 71 - by Alex Kershaw - History - 2004.
“Whatever is truly alive must die. Look at the flowers; only plastic flowers never die.”
Flow
One Minute Wisdom (1989)