War And Battle: The Quotations

Right Wing News ^ | 11/10/2002 | By John Hawkins

[Nonfaction]

In times of war, and not before,
God and the soldier men adore;
When the war is o'er and all things righted,
The Lord's forgot and the soldier slighted.

--Anonymous Revolutionary War soldier

[friendly]

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

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger: Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. --William Shakespeare King Henry V , Act 3

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

--Psalms 27 1-3

[Hugin]

"War is a matter of supreme importance to the state"--Sun Tzu

"War is simply politics carried out by other means"--Karl von Clausewitz

"Wars may be fought by weapons, but the are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and the man who leads that gains victory"--George S. Patton

"Weapons are an important factor in in war, but not the decisive one; it is the man and not the materials that counts"--Mao Tse Tung

"War is in the realm of chance. No other human activity gives it greater scope; no other has such incessant and varied dealings with this intruder. Chance makes everthing uncertain and interferes with the whole course of events."--Karl von Clausewitz

"Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less."--Robert E. Lee

"Logistics is the ball and chain of armored warefare."--Hans Guderian

"An army marches on it's stomach"--Napoleon Boneparte

"Go sir, gallop, and don't forget that the world was made in six days. You can ask me for anything you like, except time."--Napoleon Boneparte

"Nothing is easy in war. Mistakes are always paid for in causualties, and troops are quick to sense any blunder made by their commander"--Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Leadership is intangable, and therefore no weapon ever designed can replace it."--Omar Bradley

"Time is everything; five minutes makes the difference between victory and defeat."--Admiral Horatio Nelson

"A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic."--Josef Stalin

"God is always with the strongest battalion."--Frederick the Great

"When you want to do battle, muster all your forces, not neglecting any of them; a battalion somtimes decides a battle."--Arthur Wellesey, Duke of Wellingon

"Look at the infantryman's eyes and you can tell how much war he has seen"--Bill Mauldin

"Nothing but a battle lost can be half so melencholy as a battle won"--Arthur Wellesey, Duke of Wellingon

[grimalkin]

"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." -Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

"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

"Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples' money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other peoples' freedom and security." -William F. Buckley

[WhiskeyPapa]

Today is General Patton's Birthday. 11//11/85.

Walt

[MP5SD]

Nothing is too hard for the man that dosen't have to do it.

BOHICA - Bend over, here it comes again.

The worst ride beats the best walk.

Too light to fight, too heavy to run.

[John Lenin]

"Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!" -- George Patton

[ArcLight]

The memorial to the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae:

"Go tell the Spartans, travelers passing by, that here, obedient to their laws we lie."

[ArcLight]

From the Iliad:

"And looking darkly upon Hektor, swift-footed Achilles answered 'I cannot forgive you. For just as there are no trustworthy oaths between men and lions, there can be no love between you, and I. One, or the other, must fall before then to glut with his blood, Aries, the God who fights under the shield's guard. You must recall every valor of yours, for now the need falls hardest upon you to be a spearman, and a bold warrior. There can be no escape for you. You will pay in a lump, for all those sorrows of my companions you killed in your spear's fury...' "

[ArcLight]

At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us with a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined with a Bonaparte at their head and disposing of all the treasure of the earth, our own excepted, could not by force make a track on the Blue Ridge or take a drink from the Ohio in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up from amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all times, or die by suicide. - Abraham Lincoln

[prognostigaator]

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

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." -- George Washington ++

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." --John F. Kennedy ++

"No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave." --Calvin Coolidge ++

"Honor to the soldier, and Sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field, and serves, as he best can, the same cause." --Abraham Lincoln ++

"...[L]et us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain. --Dwight D. Eisenhower ++

"Sir, I have not yet begun to fight!" --John Paul Jones ++
"The patriot volunteer, fighting for country and his rights, makes the most reliable soldier on earth." --Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson ++

"So, as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants." --Tacitus ++

"Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land!" --Walter Scott ++

"A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle." --George William Curtis ++

"There exist only three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create." --Charles Baudelaire ++

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." --Dwight D. Eisenhower ++
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many, to so few." --Winston Churchill ++

"There never was a good war, or a bad peace." --Benjamin Franklin ++

"That is not to say that we can relax our readiness to defend ourselves. Our armament must be adequate to the needs, but our faith is not primarily in these machines of defense but in ourselves." --Admiral Chester Nimitz

[Glutton]

Re#3, Thanks for reminding me of this quote I first saw at Ft. Bragg, N.C. in the J.F.K. Special Warfare Museum.

It is a gem of wisdom I have always loved. AIRBORNE!

[Glutton]

ON LIBERTY by John Stuart Mill

[John Lenin]

Thanks, more ammo to use against the libs on some other boards.

[houstonian]

Another from Patton:

Pacifists would do well to study the Siegfried and Maginot Lines, remembering that these defenses were forced; that Troy fell; that the walls of Hadrian succumbed; that the Great Wall of China was futile; and that, by the same token, the mighty seas which are alleged to defend us can also be circumvented by a resolute and ingenious opponent. In war, the only sure defense is offense, and the efficiency of offense depends on the warlike souls of those conducting it.

-----George S. Patton, Jr. [War As I Knew It]

[B-Chan]

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon: let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide;
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof-
Fathers that like so many Alexanders
Have in these parts from morn till even fought,
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument.
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding- which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit; and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

-- Shakespeare, Henry V (1599) act 3, sc. 1, l. 31

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Reply to the question of what is good in life,

"To crush your enemies, see them flee before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women."

Conan (with apologies to Genghis Khan)

[Andy from Beaverton]

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
--Dwight Eisenhower 1953 speech

Marriage is the only war where you sleep with the enemy.
--Gary Busey

War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men
--Georges Clemenceau

There is a war going on between law enforcement and privacy, and privacy is losing.
--Steve Chapman

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

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger: Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.
--William Shakespeare King Henry V , Act 3 scene ?

When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.
--Sir Winston Churchill

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

Nuclear war would really set back cable.
--Ted Turner

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

You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
--Jeannette Rankin first woman Member of Congress

The opposite of war is not peace, It's creation
--Jonathan Larson Rent

WAR! - Huuuh - What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.
--Edwin Starr

The architects of this wickedness will find no safe harbor in this world. We will chase our enemies to the furthest corners of this Earth. It must be war without quarter, pursuit without rest, victory without qualification.
--Rep. Tom Delay majority whip, US House of Representatives

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil -- hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

This war will not be over by the next commercial break
--US spokeperson talking to reporters during the Gulf War

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
--Patrick Henry March 23,1775

What's the use of sending a $2 million missile into a $10 tent to hit a camel in the butt?
--George W. Bush

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 or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
--John Stuart Mill

A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
--WOPR - In the movie "War Games" after learning the futility of "playing" Global Thermonuclear War by playing a seemingly endless series of games of Tic-Tac-Toe with itself.

But in modern war you will die like a dog for no good reason.
--Ernest Hemingway

Either war is obsolete or men are.
--R. Buckminster Fuller

[Ajnin]

"Let's Roll!" -Todd Beamer, FLT 93