Famous Quotes

[Franconicus]

What is your favorite quote (military of course)? Do you have an extraordinairy one?

[Somebody Else]

Waterloo

Uxbridge: By God sir! I've lost my leg!
Wellesley: By God sir! So you have!

[Franconicus]

I love this one - even though it is from a politician:

The stronger we are the unlikleier is war

Otto von Bismarck, German Kanzler (01.04.1815 - 30.07.1898)

I like it because history proved that he was wrong. German strength didn't serve peace; it led directly to WW1.

Unfortunatelly many people still have the same opinion.

[phred]

From General Pershing to General Patton (just before Patton left for North Africa)

"I am happy they are sending you to the front at once. I like Generals so bold they are dangerous."

- as reported by Patton

[Etym]

From Tamerlane (Timur the Lame): "As there is but one god in heaven, so should there be but one ruler on earth." [meaning himself, I expect]

From the aristocrat (whose name I forget) sent by the French king to suppress the Protestants and heretics in southern France (including Navarre or Basque), upon being asked by a subordinate how to distinguish the faithful from the heathen when sacking a town: "Kill them all and let God sort them out."

[Wishazu]

my personal favourite is from the battle of Thermopylea. When told that the persian archers were so many their arrows would block out the sun, the Spartan Ploynikes replied

"Good, then we shall have our battle in the shade"

[Franconicus]

From the aristocrat (whose name I forget) sent by the French king to suppress the Protestants and heretics in southern France (including Navarre or Basque), upon being asked by a subordinate how to distinguish the faithful from the heathen when sacking a town: "Kill them all and let God sort them out."

I love this one. I think it was from a crusade in Southern France (it wasn't part of France then) against the Albigensian from 1209 to 1229. The crusade was startet by pope Innosence III with the aid of French king Phillip II. Many catholic citizens fought side by side with the heretic. When Bezier, the first town was conquered, the General sked the ambassader of the pope, abbot Arnaud-Amaury asked how to select the heteric. He answered: Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius - kill them all, God will find his own.

[Franconicus]

Hail Wichazu

my personal favourite is from the battle of Thermopylea. When told that the persian archers were so many their arrows would block out the sun, the Spartan Ploynikes replied

"Good, then we shall have our battle in the shade"

this one is grea, too. I always thought it was from the battle of Marathon, when the Persian landed!

[caesar44]

as expected - "v.v.v" (caesar 47 bce)
also " the state is i " (louis the 14th , somewhere in the 17th century)
"charge !!!!!!" (122,846 officers to their soldiers from the 6 millennium bce until now)

[Ayachuco]

This is from William the Conqueror's speech before the battle of Hastings...
"Fight your best and put everyone to death; for if we conquer, we shall be rich. What I gain, you gain; If I conquer, you conquer If I take the land, you will share it...Remember, if you shold flee from the field, more will die in flight than wold have died in battle. We will never return to Normandy disgraced. With God's aid we shall conquer.

[Rising_General]

Were do I begin? as a student of history I have a large collection of favorites. here I will list a few.


This one spoken by Ulysses S. Grant for those of you unsure of who he was he was one of the greater generals in the civil war. however he also struggled with alcohol and when president, a very corrupt cabinet.
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 (1822 - 1885)


The ancient Roman expression "if you want peace prepare for war" -"Epitoma Rei Militaris," by Vegetius



And for all you George Bush critics (I am not included in those ranks). You may love this for its stupidity, I love it for its humor. What's the use of sending a $2 million missile into a $10 tent to hit a camel in the butt? --George W. Bush


Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance."
Gen. --George S. Patton


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


JS,

[Byzantine Prince]

Blood alone moves the wheels of history.

Attributed to Benito Mussolini (1883 - 1945)

[Craterus]

What happened to Mussolini? I never knew he died in 1945
P.S. I like the qoutes in my name.

[Hurin_Rules]

Napoleon said something like, "The moral is to the physical as three is to one."

I also like the words that the fourteenth century mercenary captain Werner von Urslingen had emblazoned on his breastplate:

"Enemy to God.
Enemy to Piety.
Enemy to Pity."

[Wishazu]

Hail Wichazu

dude, its Wishazu :)

[Franconicus]

NO PASERAN (they shall not pass)

Slogan of the Republicans in the Spamnish civil war 1936-39

[Franconicus]

Keine Gefangene!
(No Prisoners)

Feldmarschall Blücher at the final attack of the Prussians at Waterloo in 1815

[Franconicus]

Another Waterloo (or Belle Alliance) quote:

Either night or the Prussians must come!
Lord Wellington, before the Prussians arrived.

[Franconicus]

Solitudinem faciunt, pacem apellant
(They create a dessert and call it peace) - Tacitus

There was never a good war, or a bad peace
Benjamin Franklin

These ones are to all who think war can make a better world!

[Etym]

@Franconicus . . . yeah, that's the one. Thanks for the original version! But, uh, you might want to re-translate "solitudinem": desserts have a lot of calories, whereas deserts have virtually no water (or calories).

[Naughtius Maximus]

Not all of my favorite quotes are military:

" The wallpaper here is atrocious. I or it has to go...."- The reputed last words of Oscar Wilde

" Dance music? I could have made that with a pair of windshield wipers and an out of tune old saxaphone playing ' My Melancholy Baby' " - Artie Shaw
_______________________________________________________________
My favorite military ones:

" They came on in the same old way, and we stopped them in the same old way" - The Duke of Wellington

" The Canadians are the best troops Monty has- and they're Americans!"
- George S. Patton

" Where is Grouchy?" - Napoleon

" McLellan brought superior numbers, that is true. But he also brought himself" - (I can't remember which Confederate Gen'l said that...perhaps one of the American Civil War scholars can tell me.)

[seghillian]

My all time favourite military quote was made following the war against Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. Lieutenant General Tom Kelly, speaking of the Iraq army in a post conflict briefing said that :-

"In 100 hours they went from being the fourth-largest army in the world to the second-largest army in Iraq." (lol!)

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

"Walls are no stronger than the men that defend them"-Ghengis Khan

[King Bob VI]

"I have just given to England a rival that will sooner or later humble her pride."
-Napoleon Bonaparte, 1803, after selling the Louisiana territory to the United States, nearly doubling it's size.

Another one I saw somewhere that's not really historical or military related:
"America is one big conspiracy to make you happy".
Can't remember who said it.

[Rodion Romanovich]

"A peace that one can be certain of is better than a victory one can hope for. You have the power to give peace, only the gods have the power to give victory. [...] The outcome matches the expectations much less in war than in any other case whatsoever."
Hannibal to Scipii Africanus before battle of Zama (according to Tacitus, so it's probably just made up)

...because you had already taken some of the better quotes I could only come up with this one.

[marcusbrutus]

My favorite military quotes from the British Army Pocket Guide 2002-2003

During the Second World War Air Marshal Sir Arthur (Bomber) Harris was well known for his glorious capacity for rudeness, particularly to beurocrats. 'What are you doing to retard the war effort today' was his standard greeting to senior civil servants.

'Peace - In international affairs, aperiod of cheating between two periods of fighting.' - The Devils Dictionary 1911

'The beatings will continue until morale improves.' - Attributed to the Commander of the Japenese Submarine Force.

'When other Generals make mistakes their armies are beaten; when I get into a hole, my men pull me out of it'. - The Duke of Wellington, after Waterloo

'One might as well try to charge through a wall'. - Napoleon, On St Helena, Regarding the British Infantry

'The purpose of war is not to die for your country. The purpose of war is to ensure that the other guy dies for his country', - General Patton

'Nothing is so good for the morale of the troops as occasionally to see a dead general', - Field Marshal Slim, 1891 - 1970

And finally - one for the scots...

At the end of the day it is the individual fighting soldier who carries the battle to the enemy; Sir Andrew Agnew commanding Campbell's Regiment (Royal Scots Fusiliers) giving orders to his infantrymen before the Battle of Dettingen in 1743 shouted; 'Do you see yon loons on yon grey hill? Well, if ye dinna kill them, they'll kill you!'

[ichi]

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."
-General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Amateurs think tactics while professionals think logistics

ichi

[Mouzafphaerre]

What happened to Mussolini? I never knew he died in 1945
P.S. I like the qoutes in my name.

-
IIRC he was slaughtered along with his mistress in late 1943 by the communist "partisans". Germany invaded part of Italy afterwards, the US taking the rest. The two fought over the peninsula and you know who won.
-

[Craterus]

Blood alone moves the wheels of history.

Attributed to Benito Mussolini (1883 - 1945)

BP said he died in 1945. I never knew about the communists killing him though, thanks..

[Constantinius]

Roman officer: "Cake or death"
Condemned christian, "Cake please"
Officer, "fine give him cake" (to next christian) "cake or death"
Next christian, "Cake please"
Officer, "Fine, give him cake as well" (to last christian) "cake or death"
Last Christian, "Cake please"
Officer, "Well we're all out of cake"
Last christian, "So my options are...or death?"
Officer, "We have already given out all the cake, we weren't expecting such a rush"

Quoted by Eddie Izzard