Someone attributed "do you want to live forever" to Conan the Barbarian.
During WWI as the allies fled before the German steamroller, the 4th Marine Brigade, fresh to the war, arrived at the front, now only 30 miles from Paris.
As the Brigade prepared to march across 800 yards of open fields into the German Machine guns, Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly, USMC, climbed up out of the trenches and shouted,
"Come on you bastards, do you want to live forever?"
The Marines crossed the fields and entered Belleau Wood.
"It took them 20 days to go through that forest -- in
those 20 days they beat back five German counterattacks,
fighting off more than four divisions of crack German
troops. They did it with their rifles, their bayonets and
sometimes with their fists."
More Marines died in this battle than in all the battles fought by Marines during their entire history, prior to this, combined.
This battle saved Paris and marked the end of the German advance in WWI.
Such a good quote, under such dramatic circumstances, and the man who said it should get credit for it.
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