The Chains of Commanding/Quotes

The folly of leadership is knowing that no matter what you do, behind your back, there's hundreds certain that their own solution is the sounder one and that your decision was the by-product of a whimsical dart toss. I pronounce the blast sentence, and I soak the critical fallout. I make the decisions no-one else will. Leadership... I wear the albatross and the bullseye.

—Sebastian LaCroix, Vampire Bloodlines

You know, there are days when I really hate this job.

—Admiral William Adama, Battlestar Galactica

Must be a nice place to sit, at the top of the pyramid. And also pretty uncomfortable.

—Anthony Dinozzo, NCIS

Worker bees can leave
Even drones can fly away
The Queen is their slave

—Narrator, Fight Club

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a Throne."
(a) Suggest remedies, or
(b) Imitate the action of a Tiger.

—1066 and all that

I'm telling you - all of you - that I am sick of being responsible for the preservation of the universe and its outlying suburbs!

—Hot Rod, Transformers

Dr. Boyce: Chris, you set standards for yourself no one can meet. You treat everyone on board like a human being except yourself. And now you're tired and...
Captain Christopher Pike: You bet I'm tired! You bet! I'm tired of being responsible for two hundred and three lives and I'm tired of deciding which mission is too risky and which isn't and who's going on the landing party and who doesn't. And who lives... and who dies.

—Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Cage"

Rawne considered his troops chess pieces, but that was because he understood that if he saw them as faces, then it would become personal, and he couldn't do his job if it became personal. Jose had been forced to look into the faces of men and women who trusted him, and who had looked up to him and followed him, before he ended their lives.
No one who was still human came out the other side of that without being messed up.

—Tiberium Wars

"Poor boy. He's a perator now. He can't lavish praise upon you and beg you to teach him all you know."
"As if he would."
"He would. Our profile on him says he's one of your biggest admirers. But now he's locked behind the ruler's mask and can never admit it."

—Iella Wesseri and Wedge Antilles, Starfighters of Adumar

I am your leader
I am in command
The fate of all my followers
Lies in my hands
The burden of what is right or wrong
Decisions have to be made
I have to take you all
Into this burning gate...

—Iron Savior, "Never Say Die"

He cursed himself for his refusal of their offer, even while his stubborn manhood revolted at the thought, and he knew that were he taken forth and given another chance, his reply would be the same. He would not sell his subjects to the butcher. And yet it had been with no thought of anyone's gain but his own that he had seized the kingdom originally. Thus subtly does the instinct of sovereign responsibility enter even a red-handed plunderer sometimes.

—Conan the Barbarian, The Scarlet Citadel

"Being a leader isn't easy," Parker continued. "You get all these speeches asking 'Are you worthy' or 'know yourself to lead others' and that nonsense, but ultimately, it boils down to a simple question: can you live with condemning sons and daughters and fathers and mothers to their deaths?"
He took another long drink.
"We forge futures out of pain and grief, Commander. The computers and the communications officers and the EVAs and the displays only serve to isolate us so we can be inhuman. We're monsters, son. Cold, mechanical, rational monsters, and the only way we win is by being colder, more mechanical, and more rational than the next monster moving his little pieces on the screen. That's how war has been fought since Stalin rolled into the Allies a century ago. You point, you click, and they die. It's how it works."

—Tiberium Wars, Chapter XVIII

Lennier: Then you were not thinking clearly, Delenn. The fault is not yours. The humans misinterpreted the gesture of respect. They thought it to be a prelude to an attack. You were...
Delenn: ...The one who gave the order. Nothing can change that, Lennier.

—Babylon 5

Dammit. She was sure there were thousands of people simply dying to be King or Queen! Why couldn't she just pick one of them and pass the job to someone who actually wanted it.

—Worlds Of Honor

It's not fair. I never asked them to make me Emperor.

—Destiny's Shield

I look out my window each day. I look out my window at people who live and breathe. At people who have not been devoured by civil war. At people who have not been ravaged by disease. At people who have not starved to death, who have not been hacked apart by enemies of humanity, at people who are free to lie and steal and plot and complain and accuse and behave in all manner of repugnant ways because the Realm stands. Because law and order stands. Because something other than simple violence shapes the course of their lives. And I look...at a very few decent people who have had the luxury of living their lives without being called upon to make hideous decisions I would not wish upon my worst enemies, and who consequently find such matters morally appalling when they consider them — because they have not had to be the ones who dealt with them.

—Gaius Sextus, Codex Alera

Joan: It's not easy, is it? Making decisions that affect your friends' safety?
Auggie: No. It's not.
Joan: Got news for you; it doesn't get any easier.

—Covert Affairs

Mrs Johnson: My husband is, um. Well, he's required to speak publicly.
Doctor: Perhaps he should change jobs.
Mrs Johnson: He can't.
Doctor: Indentured servitude?
Mrs Johnson: ...Something of that nature, yes.

—The King's Speech

Williams. Listen to me. I'm in command. I chose to leave Alenko behind, not you. He's dead because of me.

—Commander Shepard, Mass Effect

No. [Ruling] gives me no pleasure. Politics always annoyed me. Now I do it every day. I haven't seen my wife in years. My old friends are gone. I haven't travelled or explored. At least with the Heterodynes we had the adventures. The occasional fight. Now it's send in the armies, then the bureaucrats with mops. It's become an old formula. Well, we do what we must.

—Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, Girl Genius

My personal opinion says 'yes' but the government policies underwhich I must weight my decision say 'no'.

—General Hammond Stargate SG 1

Drilan: No, I was given the crown by my people.
Myhrad: Really, why?
Drilan: It was thought I was most qualified.
Leaf: You won many battles as a general?
Drilan: Heheh. No.
(in the background three Amazons' arguments escalate into a Cat Fight with biting)
Drilan: I used to teach kindergarden.
Myhrad: Ah.

—Chasing the Sunset, "No Man's Land"

Kaff Tagon: When I said I don't know how to run a large company, I should have also said I don't like writing reports.
Karl Tagon: I get the feeling you don't like reading them, either.
Kaff Tagon: You were a General, dad. Desk work was your thing, not mine.
Karl Tagon: The word "officer" has the word "office" right there in it. Count the letters. It's practically the whole word.

— Schlock Mercenary, 2015 November 10

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