Quotable

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Hey guys! Here is a thread for your favorite quotes in history.



A couple of mine:


"If politics is a science comparable to medicine, then history is it's pathology."
-Niccolo Machiavelli-

The more history I learn, the more I come to realize it's value. History is a lense through which we see the present, and provides scope and perspective for the future.

"If the Persians blot out the sky with their arrows, then we shall fight in the shade."
-Diomedes-

I just love the attitude.

[KrooK]

"Necessitas in loco, spes in virtute, salus in victoria" (sorry for potencial grammar mistakes) - Żółkiewski

[Ariovistus Maximus]

If I may be so bold, I would request that you provide a translation.

I got some of that but I can't quite figure all of it.

[Hooahguy]

"a room without books is like a body without a soul."
-Cicero

"wise men speak when they have something to say; fools when they have to say something."
-Plato
this quote is probably why im generally a quiet person.

and there are many more.
i have about 250 quotes on my wall.

[KrooK]

It will be something like

"Necessity into place, hope into courage, faith into victory."

[Ariovistus Maximus]

"When the people is ready the master will appear."

As a history buff of sorts, I've seen this many times and it's an important concept in history. It is not the leader of the people that makes them do one thing or another, but the people themselves who have prepared for such a leader, whether good or bad.

"An undisciplined rabble is no more an army than a pile of bricks is a house."

[rotorgun]

I always thought that the guy I quote in my signature, Onasander, who was a Greek general during ancient times, makes good sense. See below:

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Good quote, rotorgun. It puts me in mind of Sun Tzu's observations on the character of generals.

Hmmm, I think I borrowed my copy out to sombody... let's see if I can remember.

IIRC, there are 5 types of generals. One who:

1. desires to live

2. desires to die

3. can be angered

4. is benevolent

5. is cruel

Not so sure about those... anyways it was something like that. Somebody will remember.

[rotorgun]

Thanks AM. These may be of some help.

There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general:
(1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction;

(2) cowardice, which leads to capture;

(3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;

(4) a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame;

(5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble.

These are the five besetting sins of a general, ruinous to the conduct of war.-Sun Tzu

http://suntzusaid.com/

[drone]

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Ooh I was close. Roughly 4 of 5.

Thanks!

Excellent quote, drone.

"I am the state."

Louis... XIV?

[Warmaster Horus]

"In fide et in bello fortis" - "Strong in faith and war" ~ My family (of Irish descent) motto
We've also got: "Flecti non frangi" - "May be bent, not broken".

There are just so many very good quotes out there, that it would be really impossible to list them all...

[Ariovistus Maximus]

All these latin quotes remind me:

"Latine dictum, sit altum videtur."

"Everything sounds better in Latin."

[Centurion1]

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. They must study so that their sons may study poetry and sculpture."

-John Adams

This is why i serve.

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Excellent, Centurion.

Interestingly, though, at some point another person down the line will have to study politics and war too. And usually that is where it breaks down.

People are all too willing to benefit from the work of their fathers, but are not so prepared to work the same for their sons.

[Centurion1]

True point AM. I think the real line should be a FEW study politics and war so the rest of us can do whatever the &%^ we want.

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Quite.

[King Kurt]

Three from me

The one paraphrased in my sig:

Bill Shankly, legandary manager of Liverpool Football Club

"Some people say that football is a matter of life or death, but you have to realise it is more important than that"

The second is the mantra that I have wargamed and gamed with for many years. It comes from the Confederate general General Nathan Bedford Forrest:

"Get there firstest with the mostest"

Some people say that is a misquote and he really said "to git thar fust with the most men." - But I prefer the other - and we never want facts to get in the way of a good quotation. I have practised this simple rule in many walks of gaming from figures to PC and I do think it works.

Finally a master piece of irony - the last words of Major General John Sedgwick of the Union Army, also in the American Civil War:

"I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."

Just seconds later he fell forward with a bullet hole below his left eye.

I will let Wiki tell the story:

"In a rather ironic turn of events, Sedgwick fell at the beginning of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, on May 9, 1864. His corps was probing skirmish lines ahead of the left flank of Confederate defenses and he was directing artillery placements. Confederate sharpshooters were about 1,000 yards (910 m) away and their shots caused members of his staff and artillerymen to duck for cover. Sedgwick strode around in the open and was quoted as saying, "What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Although ashamed, his men continued to flinch and he repeated, "I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Just seconds later he fell forward with a bullet hole below his left eye.

Sedgwick was the highest ranking Union casualty in the Civil War. Although James B. McPherson was in command of an army at the time of his death and Sedgwick of a corps, Sedgwick had the most senior rank by date of all major generals killed. Upon hearing of his death, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant repeatedly asked, "Is he really dead?"

[Sarmatian]

As football has already been mentioned, I have post this one by Gary Lineker...


"Football is a game for 22 people that run around, play the ball, and one referee who makes a slew of mistakes, and in the end Germany always wins." - Gary Lineker

[rotorgun]

Here is a good one from Napoleon Bonaparte that I wish the American high command would consider applying in their current dilemma.

If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.-Bonaparte

He must have known what he was talking about if the Duke of Wellington said of him, early in the Waterloo campaign, "By God, but that man does war honor"

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Oh sooooooo true Rotorgun.

We could have applied that much better in quite a few wars by now.

War of all things is not a good endeavor to enter half-heartedly.

[CBR]

Here is a good one from Napoleon Bonaparte that I wish the American high command would consider applying in their current dilemma.

If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.-Bonaparte

He must have known what he was talking about if the Duke of Wellington said of him, early in the Waterloo campaign, "By God, but that man does war honor"

And yet he ended up with a certain ulcer.


CBR

[Caius]

"In peace, sons bury their father. In war, father bury their sons."
-Herodotus

"It could break but do not make it bend!"
-Leandro Alem, founder of the Radical Union Party. Looks like it is very similar to WH post:

"Flecti non frangi" - "May be bent, not broken".

[rotorgun]

And yet he ended up with a certain ulcer.


CBR

-Indeed CBR..chuckle.

One of my favorites- Remember that your equipment is made by the lowest bidder
-one of Murphy's Laws...Murphy was an optimist.

[Ibrahim]

"I've seen fifty-some battles, and there's not a place on my body without the blow of a sword, the thrust of a spear or the throw of a bow. yet here I am, dying the death of a camel, so may the eyes of cowards never sleep."

khalid ibn al-walid's last words

"I am sending you the Caravan, one end will be here at Syria and the other end will be at Madinah."

the governer of Syria to the Caliph, telling him of the supplies relieving the Arabian peninsula from its famine, 638-639 AD.

I also like to cite this after a victory:

"see them run!" british soldier in Quebec, 1759. he said it to Gen.James wolfe as he lay dying.


"God is on the side with the most artillery" Napoleon Bonaparte.

[Ariovistus Maximus]

"See them run" indeed.

But wasn't it Frederick the Great who said the line about artillery? I could definitely be wrong; I just read it somewhere and it referenced him.

Anyways, "see them run" reminded me of another favorite quote:

"Another such victory we are lost!"

Who else but Pyrrhus.

[Centurion1]

"In peace, sons bury their father. In war, father bury their sons."
-Herodotus

good one. i think i've seen it somewhere.......... *cough* RTW *cough*

[rotorgun]

Here are some good ones about artillery I found on the Wiki search.

* Our artillery... The Germans feared it almost more than anything we had.
o Ernie Pyle, Brave Men (1944)

* Ultima Ratio Regum
o Translation: the final argument of kings.
o Motto engraved on French cannons at the direction of Louis XIV. Later, "ultima ratio regis" was similarly used by Frederick the Great.

* "Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl."
o Napoléon Bonapart

[Samurai Waki]

"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 Mills

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Fortis Cadere, Cedere Non Potest.

A brave man may fall, but he cannot yield.