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  1. #1
    Member Member Stiboo's Avatar
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    Default 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    I've always enjoyed the little quotes in the loading screens in TW games as battles load etc.., what 18th Century quotes do you think will be in ETW ?


    I will start the (cannon)ball rolling -


    "No soldier can fight unless he is properly fed on beef and beer."

    -John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough



    This post has been specially designed to take your mind off of the DEMO



    If we can get 100 quotes perhaps that will make the DEMO appear ?
    " What a lovely country " - Napoleon at his first sight of Torquay, July 1815

  2. #2
    The Laughing Knight Member Sir Beane's Avatar
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    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    I know one which is almost certainly in the game, given that I saw it on a screenshot.

    "Wars are just to those whom they are neccesary" -

    Edmund Burke, British author, philosopher and political theorist.


    ~ I LOVE DEMOS ~

    . -- ---------- --
    . By your powers combined I am!
    . ----------------------


  3. #3
    Member Member Dradem's Avatar
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    Wink Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    Well the get the Ball roling :)

    "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death"
    --Patrick Henry

    Cavalry is useful before, during, and after the battle.
    --Napoleon

    Without cavalry, battles are without result.
    --Napoleon

    The only way to form an army to be confided in, was a systematic discipline, by which means all men may be made heroes.
    --John Adams

    An army, like a serpent, travels on its belly.
    --Frederick II


    A cherished cause and a general who inspires confidence by previous success are powerful means of electrifying an army.
    --Henri de Jomini altough I think this one was said in the 19th century :) general in French army and afterwords the Russian (turncoat )

    An army is a nation within a nation, it is one of the vices of courage.
    --Alfred de Vigny also a bit late in the 18th or early 19th not shure


    It is not big armies that win battles, it is the good ones.
    Maurice de Saxe
    New lords, new laws

    No path of flowers leads to glory, mine is paved with blood and gore

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    Member Member Marten's Avatar
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    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    Always my favourites - all from Frederick II.

    1. "A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in."

    2. "Diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments."

    3. “I begin by taking. I shall find scholars later to demonstrate my perfect right.”

    4. "Don't forget your great guns, which are the most respectable arguments of the rights of kings."


    From Vicomte Turenne, who wrotes after the battle of Dunen to his king:

    "The enemy came. He was beaten. I am tired. Goodnight."
    Von der Woge, die sich bäumet, längs dem Belt am Ostseestrand; Bis zur Flut, die ruhlos schäumet, an der Düne flücht'gem Sand;
    Gott ist stark auch in den Schwachen, wenn sie gläubig ihm vertrauen; Zage nimmer, und dein Nachen wird trotz Sturm den Hafen schaun!


    Avatar made by Durango Signature made by 777Ares777 and proudly used by Marten!

  5. #5

    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    Frederick liked to impress officials of foreign governments with his giants, so when he reviewed the guard, he frequently asked some of them to come along. One day he invited a French minister and an English ambassador to accompany him on his review.

    As the ranks of giants marched before them, Frederick William asked the French minister if he thought an equal number of French soldiers would venture to engage with his Potsdam giants. The minister, with a politeness characterized by his nation, answered that it was impossible that men of ordinary stature would even consider such an attempt.

    Turning to the English ambassador, the king put the same question to him.

    To which the staid ambassador gave this measured reply: "I can not affirm that an equal number of my countrymen would beat them, but I think that I may safely say that half the number would try."

    Can't remember who the ambassador was (can't find it anymore) but that has to be one of the very the best, most civilised and cutting retorts ever.
    Last edited by Freedom Onanist; 02-13-2009 at 12:35.
    Cheers,
    The Freedom Onanist

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    Senior Member Senior Member Fisherking's Avatar
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    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    Quote Originally Posted by Freedom Onanist View Post
    Frederick liked to impress officials of foreign governments with his giants, so when he reviewed the guard, he frequently asked some of them to come along. One day he invited a French minister and an English ambassador to accompany him on his review.

    As the ranks of giants marched before them, Frederick William asked the French minister if he thought an equal number of French soldiers would venture to engage with his Potsdam giants. The minister, with a politeness characterized by his nation, answered that it was impossible that men of ordinary stature would even consider such an attempt.

    Turning to the English ambassador, the king put the same question to him.

    To which the staid ambassador gave this measured reply: "I can not affirm that an equal number of my countrymen would beat them, but I think that I may safely say that half the number would try."

    Can't remember who the ambassador was (can't find it anymore) but that has to be one of the very the best, most civilised and cutting retorts ever.
    Was the man perhaps Irish!

    Maybe not, els whe would’ve said “Two or three of a Saturday night might try”





    .


    Education: that which reveals to the wise,
    and conceals from the stupid,
    the vast limits of their knowledge.
    Mark Twain

  7. #7

    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    Quote Originally Posted by Freedom Onanist View Post
    Frederick liked to impress officials of foreign governments with his giants, so when he reviewed the guard, he frequently asked some of them to come along. One day he invited a French minister and an English ambassador to accompany him on his review.

    As the ranks of giants marched before them, Frederick William asked the French minister if he thought an equal number of French soldiers would venture to engage with his Potsdam giants. The minister, with a politeness characterized by his nation, answered that it was impossible that men of ordinary stature would even consider such an attempt.

    Turning to the English ambassador, the king put the same question to him.

    To which the staid ambassador gave this measured reply: "I can not affirm that an equal number of my countrymen would beat them, but I think that I may safely say that half the number would try."

    Can't remember who the ambassador was (can't find it anymore) but that has to be one of the very the best, most civilised and cutting retorts ever.
    Quote Originally Posted by Fisherking View Post
    Was the man perhaps Irish!

    Maybe not, els whe would’ve said “Two or three of a Saturday night might try”





    .
    :) :)


    This is still a joke in the US Army, with the Marines or another Army Branch playing the part of the Prussians.

    The punchline is...

    There were two of them.

  8. #8

    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    Frederick the Great:

    “A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in.”

    “The greatest and noblest pleasure which men can have in this world is to discover new truths; and the next is to shake off old prejudices.”

    “A German singer! I should as soon expect to get pleasure from the neighing of my horse.”

    “He who defends everything defends nothing.”

    "The most certain way of insuring victory is to march briskly and in good
    order against the enemy, always endeavoring to gain ground."

    "Without supplies no army is brave"

    "Rascals, do you want to live forever?"
    (Ihr Racker, wollt ihr ewig leben?)
    - Frederick the Great, 1757.
    When the guards hesitated at the battle of Kolin.

    "By push of bayonets, no firing until you see the whites in their eyes!"

    "Diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments."

    "If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one would remain in the ranks."

    "If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers."

  9. #9

    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    I can remember no quotes on my own, but here is a very interesting collection of things called CIC on this website:

    http://www.strategypage.com/cic/reader.asp?target=CIC01

    Each article (CIC) has some usually funny military quotes plus some descriptions of special occurrences in battle (often 1800s).
    The rest of the website writes current events as "military history of now", it may have some accurate information (second-tier or high tier) you would not find on the Web, but needs to be read with several grains of salt, because many or most of the article writers try to push the neoconservative view, which is BS and is founded on faulty BS assumptions.
    Last edited by ThePianist; 02-16-2009 at 03:32.
    Finished EB campaigns:
    Sweboz 1.0

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    Member Member KozaK13's Avatar
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    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    "Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all."

    -George Washington

    "I have conquered an empire, but have not been able to conquer myself."

    -Peter the Great of Russia

    "Where some states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state!"
    - Voltaire


    "There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake."
    - 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley


    No place like home.

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    Senior Member Senior Member Fisherking's Avatar
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    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    There is no way of dealing with the Frenchman but to knock him down - to be civil to them is to be laughed at. Why they are enemies!

    Lord Nelson-11 Jan 1798 after surrender of Capua.


    Education: that which reveals to the wise,
    and conceals from the stupid,
    the vast limits of their knowledge.
    Mark Twain

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    Lord of all Under-Thumb Member Jason X's Avatar
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    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    "It's a cigarillo case engraved with the regimental crest of two crossed dead Frenchmen, emblazoned on a mound of dead Frenchmen motif"

    - Lord Wellington (sort of)
    "Patriotism is the belief that your country is better than any other because you were born there"

  13. #13

    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    Soldats! Je suis content de vous (Soldiers, I am pleased with you).

    -Bonie after Austerlitz

  14. #14
    The Dam Dog Senior Member Sheogorath's Avatar
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    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    "Train hard, fight easy."
    Suvorov

    "Hair powder is not gunpowder, curls are not cannons,
    a queue is not a sword, and I am not a German..."
    - Suvorov to Tsar (Paul I had a serious Prussia fetish and was essentially trying to turn the Russian army into the Prussian one.)

    "... tell the Emperor that I am facing Russians.
    If they had been Prussians, I'd have taken the
    position long ago."
    - French Marshal Ney in 1813

    "If the French had the firmness
    and the docility of the Russians
    the world would not be great enough for me."
    - Emperor Napoleon

    "A soldier has no time for smartness on campaign."
    - Kutusov in 1812

    "Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!

    You, turkish devil and ****ed devil's brother and friend, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are you, that can't slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil s***s, and your army eats. You will not, you son of a b***h, make subjects of Christian sons; we've no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, fuck your mother.

    You Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-f**ker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, Armenian pig, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our d*ck. Pig's snout, mare's arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw your own mother!

    So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won't even be herding Christian pigs. Now we'll conclude, for we don't know the date and don't own a calendar; the moon's in the sky, the year in the book, the day's the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our a**e!

    Koshovyi Otaman Ivan Sirko, with the whole Zaporozhian Host"

    -The ever famous 'Reply of the Zaphorozhian Cossacks' to the Turkish Sultan in 1676.
    God I hope they dont get written off as generic 'rebels'. If anybody deserves a faction it's them.

    "Save us Lord, from Cossacks"
    -The German People, apparently, in the late 18th century

    "Chlapowski of Old Guard Lancers describes how they fought with the Cossacks: "News reached the headquarters at Dabrowna that a Russian force had crossed the Dnieper River ... The Emperor sent four squadrons of Polish Guards under Kozietulski to investigate. We set off after midnight, and ... arrived at a spot half mile from Katane. There we encountered our first Cossacks. Our main body halted by som ebuilding and one squadron went out to meet them...As we sent nobody out to skirmish with them, they came closer and closer, shouting; 'Lachy !' (slang for Poles) when they discovered we were Polish. A Cossack officer on a fine grey horse came as close as a 100 paces, perhaps less, and in good Polish challenged us to meet him in single combat. Kozietulski forbade any of us to move.
    The Cossack jumped from his horse and cried; 'Now you can catch me !' He then took off his cap and waved it in the air."
    -I love these people :P

    "By this time they were all approaching Tushin's battery
    and a ball struck the ground in front of them.
    'What's that that has fallen ?' asked the accountant.
    'A French pancake,' answered Zherkov.
    - Tolstoy "War and Peace"

    "I was surprised at the precision and assurance of this infantry,
    so well disciplined and of such extraordinary firmness would be
    the first in the world if, to these qualities, it united a little of the
    electric enthusiasm of the French."
    - Napoleon, on the Russian Imperial Guard

    "… a strong troop of Muscovite hussars halted at about a 100
    paces from our weak advance guard. … Coming toward us,
    the officer shut out in French: Qui vive ?
    "France!" - our men reply quietly.
    "What are you doing here ? F… off !" - shouted the hussar. "
    -Roman Soltyk

    "The English ... whenever they march or travel,
    they bear with them a haughty air of conscious superiority ..."
    - Moyle Sherer

    “They are a nation of shopkeepers,
    their glory is in their wealth”.
    - Napoleon, on the British

    "... the English army was absurdly under-rated in foreign countries
    and absolutely despised in its own ...the ill-success of the expeditions
    in 1794 and 1799 appeared to justify the general prejudice. "
    England, both at home and abroad, was in 1808
    scorned as a military power ..."
    - Napier “History of the
    War in Peninsula 1807-1814"

    "I hate them all ... the rebellious people were trash."
    -Admiral Nelson, on Americans

    "Well posted, as Wellington knows how to post it,
    and attacked from the front, I consider the English infantry
    to be impregnable ..." - French General Reille

    "Prussia had originally been an insignificant speck
    on the south-eastern rim of the Baltic ..."
    - Christopher Summerville

    "At Jena, the Prussian army performed the finest
    and most spectacular maneuvers, but I soon put
    a stop to this tomfoolery and taught them that
    to fight and to execute dazzling maneuvers and
    wear splendid uniforms were very different matters."
    - Napoleon

    "Simonyi ... led his Hungarian hussars into Fontainbleu Palace
    and, imitating Hadik, emptied his pipe on Napoleon's throne."
    - Dave Hollins, British historian

    "The most beautiful sight I have ever seen in my life
    then unfurled before our eyes. Within a radius of about a mile,
    we could see the entire Austrian army, with its right flank
    anchored on the Danube, and its left extending beyond Wagram..."
    - Chlapowski of Napoleon's Guard Lancers

    "You should not tell a recruit: 'I will make you into a jager !'
    You must instead take them from the forests. "
    - General de Ligne

    Hussar "Samuel Hemmer... had engaged
    a large Cossack patrol by himslef in 1812."
    Hollins - "Hungarian Hussar 1756-1815"

    Gone were the republican days "when any officer
    under the rank of major had had to hoof it with his men.
    ... Colonel Francois Roguet of the 1st Grenadiers...
    has brought with him 6 servants, 12 horses and 2 wagons
    filled with his personal effects ..."
    (Austin - "1812: The March on Moscow")

    "More dreadful-looking fellows I had never seen.
    They had the look of thoroughbread, veteran,
    disciplined banditti."
    - Mr Hayden, on the Old Guard

    "... the [French] government received the news of death
    of Washington who had died ... This death was announced
    to the Consular Guard by the following order:
    “Washington is dead ! This great man fought the tyrants ...
    His memory will be always dear to the French people,
    as to all free men ...”
    St.Hilaire - "History of the Imperial Guard"
    Last edited by Sheogorath; 02-14-2009 at 04:56.
    Tallyho lads, rape the houses and burn the women! Leave not a single potted plant alive! Full speed ahead and damn the cheesemongers!

  15. #15
    Member Megas Methuselah's Avatar
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    Exclamation Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    "Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home."

    -Tecumseh
    Last edited by Megas Methuselah; 02-14-2009 at 03:59.

  16. #16
    Member Member Kulgan's Avatar
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    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    Not a 18th century quote but half the people before me used 19th stuff so I'm not holding back :

    Lord Uxbridge - commander of the allied cavalry during the battle of waterloo - when about to give pursuit so some broken unit of french line infantry his leg was struck by a cannonball and was totally destroyed ( amputated the following night )

    Lord Uxbridge against another allied officer after getting the wound: I can't seem to be able to pursuit with this leg wound. Blast it! The officer's reply : Blast it indeed sir!

  17. #17
    Senior Member Senior Member Fisherking's Avatar
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    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    A couple from old Ben;

    They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

    Franklin's Contributions to the Conference on February 17 (III) Fri, Feb 17, 1775

    We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

    At the signing of the Declaration of Independence


    Education: that which reveals to the wise,
    and conceals from the stupid,
    the vast limits of their knowledge.
    Mark Twain

  18. #18
    Member Member KozaK13's Avatar
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    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    "Where some states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state!"

    - Voltaire

    "...it was Sparta in the morning, Athens in the afternoon."

    - Voltaire describing Prussia under Frederick II the Great
    Last edited by KozaK13; 02-15-2009 at 16:07.

    "Where some states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state!"
    - Voltaire


    "There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake."
    - 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley


    No place like home.

  19. #19
    Member Allu X's Avatar
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    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    You could have this one, as quoted in Sharpe;

    "God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of the best shots". - Voltaire

    In reference to Sharpshooters (Riflemen).

  20. #20

    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    Andrew Jackson, early 19th century:

    "If it were not for the viceroy of the United States, Tecumseh would be the leader of a great empire."
    Eras Total Conquest, your Eras TW for Kingdoms.

  21. #21

    Default Re: 18th Century military quotes, what can you find?!

    "They made him turn left and turn right; raise his ramrod; lower his ramrod; lie on his face; fire; march at the double; and they gave him thirty strokes of the cane." Voltaire

    "It was an Abar village that the Bulgars had burned in conformity to international law." Voltaire.

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