U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired Marine General James Mattis for defense secretary, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing unidentified sources.

The newspaper said the announcement was likely to be made early next week.

Quotes from ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis

“Bloom where you are planted.”

• A fellow Marine Corps officer says this was Mattis’ simple philosophy. If he didn’t like an assignment he was given, his attitude was to always do the best that he could.

“Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”

• Mattis shared this quote with his Marines as a rule to live by in Iraq, Thomas E. Ricks writes in “Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq.”

“Marines don’t know how to spell the word defeat.”

• Mattis joined the Marine Corps when he was just 19. He’s considered one of the more intense military intellectuals and owned a huge personal library.

“You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.”

• This quote is from a letter Mattis wrote to his Marines the night before the March 2003 Iraq invasion.

“It’s all the more important today that we hold to our precious legacy of ferocious, ethical combat performance.”

Mattis delivered these remarks during his speech at the Marine Corps University Foundation’s 2014 Semper Fidelis Award Dinner on Feb. 22, 2014.

“Marines who can do the necessary ‘rough work,’ but without becoming evil by doing so, despite an enemy who has opened apocalyptically the aperture for who they target, to include even women and children,” Mattis said. “It’s all the more important today that we hold to our precious legacy of ferocious, ethical combat performance. For in a world awash in change, Americans need to have confidence in the everlasting character of our Marines.”

“Actually it’s quite fun to fight them, you know. It’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people.”

• According to CNN, Mattis said he “should have chosen his words more carefully” after receiving counsel from the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Michael Hagee, for comments he made during a 2005 panel discussion about fighting the Taliban.