The 25 Greatest Military Quotes of All Time

Military.com ^ | Aug 1, 2026, 3:00 AM EDT | Ryan Thomas LaBee

[E. Pluribus Unum]

From Caesar to Eisenhower, 25 verified military quotes that captured courage, command, sacrifice and the chaos of war in a single line.

1. “Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
   Sun Tzu
2. “I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.”
   Queen Elizabeth I
3. “I came, I saw, I conquered.” (Veni, vidi, vici)
   Julius Caesar
4. “War is a mere continuation of policy by other means.”
   Carl von Clausewitz

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TOPICS: Military/Veterans
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[E. Pluribus Unum]

5. “No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force.” (often shortened to “No plan survives contact with the enemy”)
   Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
6. “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
   George Washington
7. “I have not yet begun to fight!”
   John Paul Jones
8. “Don’t give up the ship!”
   James Lawrence
9. “Don’t you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?”
   Lyudmila Pavlichenko
10. “England expects that every man will do his duty.”
    Horatio Nelson
11. “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.”
    Ulysses S. Grant
12. “War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.”
    William Tecumseh Sherman
13. “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”
    David Farragut
14. “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
    Theodore Roosevelt
15. “War is a racket.”
    Smedley D. Butler
16. “We shall fight on the beaches … we shall never surrender.”
    Winston Churchill
17. “I shall return.”
    Douglas MacArthur
18. “The eyes of the world are upon you.”
    Dwight D. Eisenhower
19. “Nuts!”
    Anthony McAuliffe
20. “Among those who served on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
    Chester W. Nimitz
21. "While our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.”
    Clara Barton
22. “Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.”
    George S. Patton Jr.
23. “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
    Dwight D. Eisenhower
24. “War happens to people, one by one.”
    Martha Gellhorn
25. “Only the dead are safe; only the dead have seen the end of war.”
    George Santayana

[bankwalker]

"Everyone has a plan 'til they punched in the mouf"
Mike Tyson

[Billthedrill]

“All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us...they can’t get away this time...” Chesty Puller

[ansel12]

Quote 9 doesn’t seem very stirring, meaningful or famous, and seemed out of place.

[bankwalker]

"Now youse can't leave"
Sonny LoSpecchio in 'A Bronx Tale'

[dfwgator]

“Quantity has a quality all its own.”

[Merrick]

If it is a confirmed quote I find it profoundly meaningful.

[Fai Mao]

“You can make something fool proof but not damn fool proof”
~ Dwight Eisenhower

[montag813]

[al baby]

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution

[LambSlave]

“The first casualty of battle is the plan. The second is the RTO.”

[al baby]

[BradyLS]

Imagine instead if Abraham Lincoln had said it in 1862. “It is time to take action.” I think that is the spirit of it.

[decal]

#19 is a slight misprint

What he said was, “Balls!”

[KitJ]

These are all nice, respectable military quotes.

My favorite quote, from an unnamed Staff Sergeant (E-6) in Afghanistan is,

“INCOMING! Get your asses down. Cover your F**king heads. Cover your asses. Get some fire on that ridge. Where’s the lieutenant? We need some air.”

Maybe not quite as poetic as all the dead guys. It was poignant at the time.

[Jan_Sobieski]

“One death is a tragedy. One million deaths are a statistic”

[ArtDodger]

They have us surrounded, the poor bastards!
Somebody or other.

[Señor Presidente]

26. “Well, we’re not just gonna let you walk out of here.”-Harry Callahan

[ansel12]

It was a speech to a large American crowd in New York city during an international publicity tour, it doesn’t strike me as any meaningful or memorable in a military sense, just a normal kind of thing to say during a publicity tour trying to stir up war participation from foreign populations.

[PTBAA]

“Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?”

U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daley, at the Battle of Belleau Wood in 1918.