Quotes about war

[Yosy]

Post'em if you got'em

"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato

"Sweat saves blood." - Erwin Rommel

"So long as there are men there will be wars" - Albert Einstein

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein

"If you want peace, prepare for war" - An ancient Roman expression, derived from "Epitoma Rei Militaris," by Vegetius. In Latin: "Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum." Literal Translation: "Therefore, whoever wishes for peace, let him prepare for war."

"I went into the British Army believing that if you want peace you must prepare for war. I believe now that if you prepare for war, you get war." -- Major-General Frederick B. Maurice

"The purpose of all war is ultimately peace." - Saint Augustine

"War does not decide who is right, war decides who is left" - Bertrand Russell

"War is not a pathology that, with proper hygiene and treatment, can be wholly prevented. War is a natural condition of the State, which was organized in order to be an effective instrument of violence on behalf of society. Wars are like deaths, which, while they can be postponed, will come when they will come and cannot be finally avoided." - Philip Bobbitt, in "The Shield of Achilles"

"If soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army." - Frederick the Great

"It is a tribute to the humanity of ordinary people that horrible acts must be camouflaged [with words] like security, peace, freedom, democracy, the 'national interest'." - Howard Zinn, Boston University professor and former Second World War bomber pilot, USA.

"War is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror." - Ludwig von Mises

"War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it." - Erasmus

"How good bad music and bad reasons sound when one marches against an enemy!" - Friedrich Nietzsche

"You can't say civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way." Will Rogers

"War is the national industry of Prussia." attributed to Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau

"Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country." Bertrand Russell

"When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader." Plato

[Andyman]

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his" - i forget but i think its montgomery

[catalyst]

^^

Quote: Patton

[Abbyy]

"War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it." - Erasmus

This one concerns most people who posts different pro-war **** in discussions here :)

[mocking_loudly_died]

War is f*cking awesome - me

[n4292936]

"War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it." - Erasmus


To my knowledge Erasmus never tasted war. He was part of the educated gentry around the time of Thomas More. The most difficult battle he had to face was whether to side with More on the reformation. ArmChair philosophy at its finest.


War is not "sweet" for those who have tasted it!!! :cantbeli: :bash: just do a search for PTSD on this forum to understand my point.

[Brzeczyszczykiewicz]

"War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it." - Erasmus


To my knowledge Erasmus never tasted war. He was part of the educated gentry around the time of Thomas More. The most difficult battle he had to face was whether to side with More on the reformation. ArmChair philosophy at its finest.


War is not "sweet" for those who have tasted it!!! :cantbeli: :bash: just do a search for PTSD on this forum to understand my point.

"War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it." - Erasmus

[Fee Fi Fo Fum]

"I went into the British Army believing that if you want peace you must prepare for war. I believe now that if you prepare for war, you get war." -- Major-General Frederick B. Maurice


good quote...

[oldsoak]

"Aaaarrgh" - any one of the millions who got killed in every war since we started chucking rocks at each other.

Wasnt there a War of Secession general who said something along the lines of "It good that war is so terrible or men would never stop fighting" - I've probably got it way wrong.

[n4292936]

"War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it." - Erasmus


To my knowledge Erasmus never tasted war. He was part of the educated gentry around the time of Thomas More. The most difficult battle he had to face was whether to side with More on the reformation. ArmChair philosophy at its finest.


War is not "sweet" for those who have tasted it!!! :cantbeli: :bash: just do a search for PTSD on this forum to understand my point.

"War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it." - Erasmus
D'oh!!!!
I'll just go buy a pair of glasses, get them cleaned and blame the whole sordid affair on my bifocals :oops:

[mocking_loudly_died]

n4292936 made a mistake - noob :D

[n4292936]

n4292936 made a mistake - noob :DIm gonna start charging for your MP3s punk ;)

[mocking_loudly_died]

n4292936 made a mistake - noob :DIm gonna start charging for your MP3s punk ;)

:| :lol:

You must be russian.

[aartamen]

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation."

- George Washington

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You win the war, by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country!"

- Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. - May 31, 1944

By far my favorite, but I can never remember it wholly.

"Anyone who clings to the historically untrue--and thoroughly immoral--doctrine that 'violence never solves anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The Ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more disputes in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms."

- Robert Heinlein, author

Another excellent one

"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares about more than his personal safety; is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. "

- John Stuart Mill, English philosopher

This is a also not too shabby, though not exactly on the topic

"A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victim, and he wears their face and their garments and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared. The traitor is the plague."

- Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman Orator - 106-43 B.C.

This is what that crazy Democrat primary candidate tried to imitate.

"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills: we shall never surrender"

- Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister - speech in the House of Commons, 4 June 1940


Very apropo today.

"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing."

- Edmund Burke, British statesman and philosopher


”Veni, Vedi, Vici” - I came, I saw, I conquered.

- Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman emperor

[DE6]

My favorite quote isn't about war proper, but about the military anyway:

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

-George Orwell

[FallenAngel]

Wasnt there a War of Secession general who said something along the lines of "It good that war is so terrible or men would never stop fighting" - I've probably got it way wrong.

"It is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it." - General Robert E. Lee, Commander Army of Northern Virginia after seeing Federal forces decimated at the battle of Fredricksburg.

[FallenAngel]

"Boys,

I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here.

Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is hell!"

-General William T. Sherman to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy, 1880.

[Kilgor]

how many are these quotes are mentioned in operation flashpoint ;)

[GI_Rutger]

how many are these quotes are mentioned in operation flashpoint ;)

I've seen much quotes posted here before, thanks to OFP. I simply died to fast :P .

"War is not nice" - Bush seniors wife
"The easiest way to end a war is to lose it" - George Orwell

[digrar]

"Give me an Australian soldier and I shall conquer the world." - Rommell, Nth. Africa, WWII.

[Yosy]

"Anyone who clings to the historically untrue--and thoroughly immoral--doctrine that 'violence never solves anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The Ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more disputes in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms."

- Robert Heinlein, author


I don't agree AT ALL with this quote. This guy must be a psycho. All veterans that went through war don't recommend it to anyone (apart from a minority that actually likes war - most of them turn mercenaries).

"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares about more than his personal safety; is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. "

- John Stuart Mill, English philosopher


While I don't agree with the first sentence, the next ones are great. I can't stand the kind of people that say: "oh, I won't vote 'cuz it won't change anything" and things like that :slap:

[Digital Marine]

''Stay out of the road, if you want to grow old''-
i have no f*cking idea who made it, but it shows up in OFP when ur dead ;) p-)

[FallenAngel]

I don't agree AT ALL with this quote. This guy must be a psycho. All veterans that went through war don't recommend it to anyone (apart from a minority that actually likes war - most of them turn mercenaries).



I think Hienlien was simply pointing out that force is the ultimate tool of change-- hence why it should be left as a last resort. Read some more of his work before you call him a psycho. ;)

[Kilgor]

''Stay out of the road, if you want to grow old''-
i have no f*cking idea who made it, but it shows up in OFP when ur dead ;) p-)

pink floyd !

yes.. i died alot in that game too

[-Jack-]

Whats that quote made by G. W. Bush ?
About how terrorists only insight conflict and hatred and choose to destroy their surroundings rather than build schools etc.

I know that sounds nothing like it but its along those lines.

[aartamen]

Apparently Orwell never authored that quote. It's not in his written work, and nobody can point to a speach he said that.

[aartamen]

I don't agree AT ALL with this quote. This guy must be a psycho. All veterans that went through war don't recommend it to anyone (apart from a minority that actually likes war - most of them turn mercenaries).




Most of them simply stay in the armed forces. They become mercenaries when they get laid off against their will.

But primarily the author pointed out rather obvious idiocy of the statement that violence does not solve anything. It solves EVERYTHING. The world's history is the history of violence.

[Easy C.]

"Give me an Australian soldier and I shall conquer the world." - Rommell, Nth. Africa, WWII.

lol, we're that good?

[Flagg]

yup......and that means you're almost as good as the Kiwis ;)

[Easy C.]

yup......and that means you're almost as good as the Kiwis ;)

please dont say that again, i nearly choked on bull****.

plus heres some qoutes i picked up from playing Call of Duty:

"It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it."
- General Robert E. Lee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"To have good soldiers, a nation must always be at war." -Napoleon
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!" -Shakespeare.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than advance."
- Joseph Stalin
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an
eyelash." - General Douglas MacArthur
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not
a crime." - Ernest Hemingway
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Death solves all problems - no man, no problem" - Joseph Stalin

[Yosy]

I don't agree AT ALL with this quote. This guy must be a psycho. All veterans that went through war don't recommend it to anyone (apart from a minority that actually likes war - most of them turn mercenaries).




Most of them simply stay in the armed forces. They become mercenaries when they get laid off against their will.

But primarily the author pointed out rather obvious idiocy of the statement that violence does not solve anything. It solves EVERYTHING. The world's history is the history of violence.

:cantbeli:

Violance doesn't solve EVERTHING. It creates even more problems to be dealt with. But, it's in our nature to wage war. Can't really do anything about that. War is never a good thing, but sometimes, its necessary.

[aartamen]

Here we differ. I still hold that smart application of violence can solve any problem.

[Pandy]

I have a quote... which is my own..

"War is just like have sex with a condom, theres always a risk."

[Kilgor]

" A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic "

Stalin

p-)

[wiking]

Don't know if it's a quote about war, but it shows up in Call of Duty and i've allways remebered it(more or less accurate):

And the angel of death spread his wings out on the blast, and breath in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the beholders waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still.

I think it's called "The destruction of semnacherib" or something similar.

[TarwarWarrior]

"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it." ~ Thucydides (The History of the Peloponnesian War)

Different translation:

"But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger." ~Thucydides, (The History of the Peloponnesian War)

-TW. out!-

[wiking]

"For a soldier I listed, to grow great in fame. And be shot at for sixpence a day."
Charles Dibdin, 1745-1814

[Laconian]

I've been collecting quotes for about 20yrs now. Some of my favorites:

The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving. - Ulysses S. Grant

What the American people want to do is fight a war without getting hurt. You cannot do that any more than you can go into a barroom brawl without getting hurt. LTG Lewis "Chesty" Puller, USMC

Any damned fool can write a plan. Its the execution that gets you all screwed up. - GEN James F. Hollingsworth

Of every 100 men (in battle) 10 shouldn't even be there, 80 are mere targets, 9 are real fighters...we are lucky to have them, for they the battle make. Ah, but one, one is a warrior and he will bring the others back. - Hereclitus, 500 BC

We are opposed by American paratroopers. God help us, they are more ferocious than the Russians.
from a captured German letter, Normandy 1944

They got us surrounded. The poor bastards.
- Attributed to a 101st ABN paratrooper, Bastogne 1944

I cannot trust with higher command, with the command of others, a man who cannot command himself. Discipline of self, as well as others, is the soul of an Army. Robert E. Lee

If we don't know what we are doing, the enemy certainly can't anticipate our future actions. - American colonel, 1943

When you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend, because she knows she's dating a pussy.
GEN Tommy Franks, CENTCOM CG, 2003

I hope that in the final moments of your father's life his last thoughts were not of us. As he lay dying, I wanted him to think only of his mission to which he pledged himself. He chose the military, and "I shall not fail those with whom I serve," became his simple religion.
MSG Gary Gordon's widow.

[wiking]

Latin and Roman quote, compliments of Rome: Total war-

Bella, horida Bella
Wars, horrid wars

Silent enim Leges inter arma
Laws are silent in times of war
-Cicero

In peace, sons bury their fathers; in war fathers bury their sons

Vae Victus
Woe to the vanquished

War is not so much a matter of weapons as of money

The Proper arts of a general are judgement and Prudence
-Tacitus

I am more afraid of our own mistakes than our enemie's deisigns
-Pericles

Alta sedent civilis vulnera Dextrae
(can anyone translate this?)

When there is mutual fear men think twice before they make aggression upon eachother

Varus, give me back my legions
-Augustus Ceasar after hearing of the Teutoburg forest massacre

What can a soldier do who charges out of breath
-Vegetius

Extraordinary rains pretty generally fall after great battles

Constant exposure to dagers will breed contempt for them
-Seneca

[Delta Niner]

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his" - i forget but i think its montgomery

Gen. George S. Patton :)

[b.scheller]

''Stay out of the road, if you want to grow old''-
i have no f*cking idea who made it, but it shows up in OFP when ur dead ;) p-)

pink floyd !

yes.. i died alot in that game too

are you sure? I'm pretty sure I saw that in J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

The soldier is on friendlier terms than other men with his stomach and intestines. Three-quarters of his vocabulary is derived from these regions, and they give an intimate flavour to expressions of his greatest joy as well as of his deepest indignation. It is impossible to express oneself in any other way so clearly and pithily. Our families and our teachers will be shocked when we go home, but here it is the universal language.

Erich Maria Remarque All Quiet on the Western front

[b.scheller]

I thought if I owned the bullet with my name on it, I'd never get hit by it...

Baldrick BlackAdder Goes forth rofl

For two & a half years, the Western Front has been as likely to move as a Frenchman who lives next door to a brothel.

BlackAdder

We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.

All quiet on the western front

Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades--words, words, words, but they hold the horror of the world.

All quiet on the western front

[Yosy]

Those Blackadder quotes are awsome rofl

Here's some more of Blackadder:

'A war hasn't been fought this badly since Olaf the Hairy, High Chief of all the Vikings, accidentally ordered 80,000 battle helmets with the horns on the inside.'

"For us, the Great War is finito, a war which would be a damn sight simpler if we just stayed in England and shot fifty thousand of our men a week."

'We've been sitting here since Christmas 1914, during which time millions of men have died, and we've moved no further than an asthmatic ant with heavy shopping.'

When you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend, because she knows she's dating a pussy.
GEN Tommy Franks, CENTCOM CG, 2003

:cantbeli: :bash:

[wiking]

All Quiet on the Western Front is a great book.

But the Blacadder quotes are hilarious. The WW1 Episodes are some of the best. Really like the millenium movie to.

[Sayeret]

I hope these haven't been posted because I got them from CAG 147 on one his threads.

"Nowadays there's no such animal as a noncombatant"
-- Peter Strasser, German airman, WWI

"If you have a farm in Vietnam
And a house in hell
Sell the farm
And go home."

[Delta Niner]

I read these lines when I was still high school. I think he was made Man of the Year by Time Magazine. I just hope I remembered it right :)

"A man who fights a just cause is a paradox. He makes war so there could be peace. He sheds blood so there could be be no more bloodshed. A very tragic way to beset terror, there is no other."

Menachem Begin

[Ratamacue]

"Anyone who clings to the historically untrue--and thoroughly immoral--doctrine that 'violence never solves anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The Ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more disputes in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms."

- Robert Heinlein, author
I don't agree AT ALL with this quote. This guy must be a psycho. All veterans that went through war don't recommend it to anyone (apart from a minority that actually likes war - most of them turn mercenaries).
Robert A. Heinlein served in the US Navy and was an extremely well-respected science fiction author. In addition, he's not saying that violence is the only answer, he's saying that people who say that it never solves anything are naive and that there are times when the noblest effort one can make is to fight for what they believe in. The quote above is from Starship Troopers, which is majorly about serving your country in its time of need and that violence is often necessary.

[Yosy]

I read it wrong then. My bad.

[Yosy]

Another one:

"Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage, and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution."

Prince Feisal in Lawarance of Arabia

[FallenAngel]

"Take me to the Brig. I want to see the 'real Marines'. "
Major General Chesty Puller, USMC - while on a Battalion inspection.

:lol:

[OnTheRocks]

I dont know if I remember this one correctly but its also from heinleins starship troopers reffering to that sometimes violence is the only option

"Ask the people of Carthage if violence never solved anything"

[Bombtrack]

The core of our defense is the faith we have in the institutions we defend.
- FDR

[Bombtrack]

Kaphar hunnu bhanda marnu ramro
(Better dead than a live coward)
- Gurkha Motto

[garoco]

Digrar wrote:

"Give me an Australian soldier and I shall conquer the world." - Rommell, Nth. Africa, WWII".

Thats a big paraphrase and not a direct quote.

Herr Rommel did publically acknowledge Aussie soldiers in 1941-2 as being 'an elite' of the British Empire forces and being physically much bigger and better at marksmanship than other British troops.

I can look you up the reference in the relevant chapter of the Official History of the Australian Army (Barton Maughs work covering Bardia to Alamein) if you want mate. I was flicking through it today at work actually! :)

[digrar]

I thought it might have been because I couldn't find the actual quote anywhere, apart from another bloke who was using it as a sig and having heard it during my travels in the Army.
Wouldn't mind reading about it if it isn't too much of a drama.

[Catch22]

Ah the Classics ;)

"War is the continuation of politics by other
means." - Karl von Clausevitz

And Remov's favourite ;)

"War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you
can't grin, keep out of the way 'til you can." - Winston Churchill


As for the 'War is sweet to those..." question, my point is that its a latin translation of a ancient greek verse originally by Pindarus of Thebes (7 cent BC) by Erasmus of Rotterdam (early XVI century), as I put it in PTSD thread it goes like this:

Dulce Bellum Inexpertis

[plodey]

"Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning. "

Erwin Rommel
1891-1944


---------
Anthem for Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -- -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen
1893-1918

----------

"All we are saying..... is give peace a chance."

John Lennon
1940-1980

I thought it might have been because I couldn't find the actual quote anywhere, apart from another bloke who was using it as a sig and having heard it during my travels in the Army.
Wouldn't mind reading about it if it isn't too much of a drama.

I've read plenty of booke on Rommel and have never seen that quote. As much as I agree with it, its made up.

"I know not what weapons will be used in World War 3 but I know that in World War 4 it will be fought with sticks and stones"

-Albert Einstein

[wiking]

Was watching an interview with lots of War Correspondents who were with the US and Britsh army in Iraq in 2003 and heard this:

"You watch a dog tear intestins out of dead people, and you think to yourself; that's nature, but nature's a cold Bitch."
-Rob Curtis, Photographer Army times.

This is going to be my sig from now on.

[OldRecon]

Pride is mother of all wars!

(My very own proverb I think?)

[BadKarma26]

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

-George Orwell

[Yosy]

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Hermann Goering. Snopes.com says its true.

[Pandy]

"Keep a sharp eye, we ain't done with this war yet."

Capain Omohundro
Bravo Company
1st Batalion, 8th Marines
Battle of Fallujah

[Sir Zach of R.]

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

President Theodore Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

[b.scheller]

"The machine gun is a much over rated weapon.."

Field Marshall Haig

that guy was always a f*cktard

[Yosy]

All the quotes below are from Karl von Clauzwitz

"War is merely the continuation of policy by other means," is perhaps his most oft-quoted point. The idea that war -- violent military action -- is only the "strong arm" of diplomacy, utilized when more peaceful means of persuasion are not sufficient.

"Politics is the womb in which war develops - where its outlines already exist in their hidden rudimentary form, like the characteristics of living creatures in their embryos."

"War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale."

"War is an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will."

"War is such a dangerous business that the mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst."

"In War the result is never final."

"No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy".

"War is very simple, but in War the simplest things become very difficult"

"The Conquerer is always a lover of peace: he would prefer to take over our country unopposed."

"Theory should be study, not doctrine"

"Four elements make up the climate of war, danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance"

[Auzzzie]

"Give me an Australian soldier and I shall conquer the world." - Rommell, Nth. Africa, WWII.

Actually I believe Hitler asked him, "How could you let a single colonial division defy the might of the German empire?" And Rommel's reply was, "This is no colonial division! This is an Australian division! Give me an Australian division and I will conquer the world."

I love that quote, I think the most valuable respect is that earned from the enemy. Same as in Gallipoli with the Turks.

[James]

"The only bad thing about war is leaving your loved ones behind... and going back to your family."

A buddy of mine said that.

[Uncle Sam]

In war there is no prize for the runner-up
--General Omar Bradley

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.
--General Douglas MacArthur

You know the real meaning of PEACE only if you have been through the war.
--Kosovar

The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.
--Omar Bradley

In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.
--José Narosky

War is the only game in which it doesn't pay to have the home-court advantage.
--Dick Motta

If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
--Thomas Paine

War is hell.
--William Tecumseh Sherman

[tuckerhat]

"May our country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise always right. I disclaim as unsound all patriotism incompatible with the principles of eternal justice". - John Quincy Adams

[Sayeret]

Here are some quotes from Patton.

A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.
--General George S. Patton

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
--George S. Patton, Jr.

If a man does his best, what else is there?
--General George S. Patton

I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.
--General George S. Patton

Success is how high you bounce when you've hit bottom.
--General George Patton

In forty hours I shall be in battle; with little information; and on the spur of the moment will have to make the most momentous decisions; But I believe that one`s spirit enlarges with responsibility and that; with God`s help; I shall make them; and make them right.
--General George S. Patton

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
--General George S. Patton

May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't.
- General George Patton

"Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men." - General George S. Patton

"You're never beaten until you admit it."
- General George S. Patton

"A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances." - General George S. Patton

"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking." - General George Patton

"Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way." - General George Patton

"If I win I can't be stopped! If I lose I shall be dead." - General George S. Patton

"If you are going to win any battle, you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do... the body is never tired if the mind is not tired." -General George S. Patton

And one of my favorite quotes

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." - General George S. Patton

[xwar]

In the back of my Soldier's Handbook (field book for the US Army) there are a few quotes of inspiration. my fav:

"War is an ugly thing, but it is not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded mind that thinks nothing is worth fighting for is far worse."

[Yosy]

One of my fav quotes:

"Boys, I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here.

Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is hell!"

-General William T. Sherman to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy, 1880.

[the_janitor]

I don't agree AT ALL with this quote. This guy must be a psycho. All veterans that went through war don't recommend it to anyone (apart from a minority that actually likes war - most of them turn mercenaries).



I think Hienlien was simply pointing out that force is the ultimate tool of change-- hence why it should be left as a last resort. Read some more of his work before you call him a psycho. ;)

Ever read Starship Troopers? Seriously mate, he IS a psycho ;) :D

[Roldwin]

Alta sedent civilis vulnera Dextrae
(can anyone translate this?)



It means that the wounds of civil war are deeply felt

[Yosy]

"I don't know anything which is more exciting than war" - Moshe Dayan

[<Gypsum Fantastic>]

A sort of war quote....

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
George Orwell

[dannyc]

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
--John Stewart Mill--

The number of medals on an officer's breast varies in inverse proportion to the square of the distance of his duties from the front line.
--Charles Edward Montague--

The fixing of bayonets is more than a fixing of steele to a rifle it puts iron into the soul of the soldier doing the fixing.
--R.G. Lee--

‘The bullet and bayonet are brother and sister’ If you don’t kill him, he’ll kill you’ ‘ Stick him between the eyes, in the throat, in the chest’ ‘Don’t waste good steele. Six inches are enough. What’s the use of a foot of steele sticking out at the back of a mans neck?. Three inches will do for him; when he coughs, go and look for another.
--Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfries Sassoon, 1931--

not war qutoes... but good.

I have a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.
---Edmund, Blackadder III--

I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer.
--Douglas Adams--

one of my favs:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race.
--Calvin Coolidge--

[Thucydides]

"We must remember that one man is much the same as another. He who is best is trained in the severest of schools."

-Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War

[oregongrunt]

Religon is the gunpowder of the world

I don't remember where I heard it from.

[Sayeret]

A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it."

-William Ralph Inge


"Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum." [Who desires peace should prepare for war.]

(Flavius) Vegetius (Renatus), De Rei Militari III, c. 375 AD


"You shouldn't underestimate an enemy, but it is just as fatal to overestimate him."

Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.


Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

Winston Churchill


"No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."

Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981


"Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived."

Abraham Lincoln


"This difference is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his infancy."

Thomas Jefferson to Giovanni Fabbroni (1778), explaining the Americans' lower casualty rate than the Redcoats


"If I see any man turn his back today, I will shoot him through. I have two pistols loaded. But I will not ask any man to go further than I do. I will fight as long as I have a leg or an arm."

George Washington, speech to his troops before the Battle of Long Island, 1776


"Do you know what amazes me more than anything else-the impotence of force to organize anything. There are only two powers in the world-the spirit and the sword; and in the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit."

Napoleon Bonaparte


"One man with courage is a majority."

Thomas Jefferson


To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace."

George Washington


"My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack."

Marshall Ferdinand Foch (1851-1955), supreme commander of allied forces in 1918


Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand."

Mark Twain


"The only way to win a war is to attack and keep on attacking and after you have done that keep attacking some more."

Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.


"Never turn your back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!"

Winston Churchill


"The strong take from the weak, but the smart take from the strong."

Emerson


"I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep."

Talleyrand


"Crush your enemy totally."

Robert Greene and Joost Elffers, "The 48 Laws of Power," Law #15


"Every Communist must grasp the truth, 'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.' Our principle is that the [Communist] Party commands the gun and the gun will never be allowed to command the Party."

Mao Tse-tung, "Problems of War and Strategy," November 6, 1938, in Selected Works of Mao Zedong (1965)


"Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter."

Robert Greene and Joost Elffers, "The 48 Laws of Power," Law #42


"I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie."

H. Rap Brown


"Let's face it: armed combat beats unarmed combat any day of the week."

Tom Clancy


"Perhaps the meek shall inherit the Earth, but they'll do it in very small plots . . . about 6' by 3'."

Robert A. Heinlein


"Victory in battle is 90 percent preparation and 10 percent taking care of unanticipated emergencies."

James Dunnigan and Daniel Masterson, "The Way of the Warrior"


"Nay, the number of armies importeth not much, where the people is of weak courage; for as Virgil saith, 'It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be.'

Sir Francis Bacon, Essays, 1625


"Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."

Captain John Parker, commander of the seventy colonial minutemen who met more than seven hundred British troops under the command of General Thomas Gage (who were sent to seize the guns, ammunition, and other supplies at Concord) and fired the "shot heard 'round the world"


"I say: Know your enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are sure to be defeated in every battle."

Sun Tzu


"When the leader is morally weak and his discipline not strict, when his instructions and guidance are not enlightened, when there are no consistent rules, neighboring rulers will take advantage of this."

Sun Tzu


"The rules have changed. True power is held by the person who possesses the largest bookshelf, not gun cabinet or wallet."

Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book


"If you want an army to fight and risk death, you've got to get up there and lead it. An Army is like spaghetti. You can't push a piece of spaghetti, you've got to pull it."

Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.


"Battle is not a terrifying ordeal to be endured. It is a magnificent experience wherein all the elements that have made man superior to the beasts are present: courage, self-sacrifice, loyalty, help to others, devotion to duty."

Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.


"It's the misfortune of all Countries, that they sometimes lie under a unhappy necessity to defend themselves by Arms against the ambition of their Governors, and to fight for what's their own. If those in government are heedless of reason, the people must patiently submit to Bondage, or stand upon their own Defence; which if they are enabled to do, they shall never be put upon it, but their Swords may grow rusty in their hands; for that Nation is surest to live in Peace, that is most capable of making War; and a Man that hath a Sword by his side, shall have least occasion to make use of it."

John Trenchard (1662-1723) and Walter Moyle (1672-1721), "An Argument, shewing; that a standing Army is Inconsistent with a Free Government and Absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy," (London, 1697)


"In case of doubt, attack."

Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.


"War therefore is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will."

Karl von Clausewitz, "Vom Kriege" (On War)


"It's the unconquerable soul of man, and not the nature of the weapon he uses, that insures victory."

Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.


We see, therefore, that War is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means. All beyond this which is strictly peculiar to War relates merely to the peculiar nature of the means which it uses. . . But however powerfully this may react on political views in particular cases, still it must always be regarded as only a modification of them; for the political view is the object, War is the means, and the means must always include the object in our conception."

Karl von Clausewitz, "Vom Kriege" (On War)



http://www.healylaw.com/armquote.htm

[Rumsfailed]

"The Pope? How many divisions has he got?"

"History shows that there are no invincible armies."

- Stalin

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."

- Voltaire

"The first casualty when war comes is truth."

- Hiram Johnson

"We kill because we are afraid of our own shadow, afraid that if we used a little common sense we'd have to admit that our glorious principles were wrong."

- Henry Miller (The Wisdom of the Heart, 1941)

"They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason."

- Ernest Hemingway

"Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood."

- Gandhi (Non-violence in Peace and War, 1948)

O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it.

- Mark Twain (The War Prayer)

[oregongrunt]

"Boys,

I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here.

Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is hell!"

-General William T. Sherman to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy, 1880.

He sure has that one right.

[2RHPZ]

QUOTATIONS FOR WORLD WAR II COMMEMORATIVE ACTIVITIES (http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/history/marshall/military/navy/USN_wwii_quotes.txt)

[Erik2a4]

Those are all very fine quotes...and I am quite the Heinlein fan as well.
Here are some of my favorites, gleaned from members of another forum with some high-speed BTDTs. They are not all directly related to warfare, but have a certain relevence.

"Everyone has a plan...until you hit them in the mouth." -Mike Tyson

"Weakness is provocative."

"Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends "(John 15:13)

"Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here I am, Lord; send me. (Isaiah 6:8)

"Many years ago, as a cadet hoping some day to be an officer, I was pouring over ‘Principles of War,’ listed in the old Field Service Regulations, when the Sergeant-Major came up to me. He surveyed me with kindly amusement. ‘Don’t bother your head about all them things, me lad,’ he said. ‘There’s only one principle of war and that’s this. Hit the other fellow, as quick as you can, and as hard as you can, where it hurts him most,
when he ain’t lookin’!"
– Sir William Slim

"Good intel is a lot like good sex- we all think that everyone else is getting more of it than we are."

"This is not an insurgency, it's 1920's Chicago with more sand."

"It used to be about the hearts and minds. Now it's about two in the heart and one in the mind."

"We'll bury some more Rangers before we are done
We'll bury some brothers from the other tiers too
We'll get older every year, and it'll get a little harder
you'll miss your kids learning to walk,
some will miss them being born,
some will miss the death of parents,
the marriage of loved ones
there will be some girlfriends lost, even some wives
there are a lot of people who could be here doing this
but they're not. YOU ARE
THAT IS WHAT YOU DO!
THIS IS WHO YOU ARE!"
-MG Stanley McChrystal

"You want your soldiers to respect you not love you. When they look at you they should see a competent leader. The best compliment I ever received, was from a soldier who was PCSing. I was a PLT Sergeant in the First Ranger BN. He said " Sergeant Purdy I hated to hear you come in, in the morning, and some times I just flat hated you, but I would follow you to hell with gasoline drawers on"
-CSM Don Purdy

"History teaches that when you become indifferent and lose the will to fight someone who has the will to fight will take over."
-COL Bull Simons

[2RHPZ]

The enemy is a spiritual enemy. He's called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan.

deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, lieutenant general William Boykin

You know what? I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.

deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, lieutenant general William Boykin

In another church speech, delivered while wearing his army uniform, Boykin said this about a Muslim warlord in Somalia.