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General George S. Patton7 quotes
Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory. — General George S. Patton · 1933Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. — General George S. Patton · 1944Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. — General George S. Patton · 1969I won't have cowards in my army. — General George S. Patton · 1969A good plan violenty executed now is better than a perfect plan next week. — General George S. Patton · 1947I don't want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We're not holding anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding on to anything except the enemy. We're going to hold on to him by the nose and we're gonna kick him in the ass. We're gonna kick the hell out of him all the time and we're gonna go through him like crap through a goose! — General George S. Patton · 1969All 7 quotes →Dwight D. Eisenhower4 quotes
I doubt whether any of these people, with their academic or dogmatic hatred of war, detest it as much as I do. They probably have not seen the bodies rotting on the ground and smelled the stench of decaying human flesh...What separates me from the pacifists is that I hate the Nazis more than I hate war. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1943In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1962Every gun that is made, ever 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. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1953The 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. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1953George Orwell3 quotes
War is the greatest of all agents of change. It speeds up all processes, wipes out minor distinctions, brings realities to the surface. Above all, war brings it home to the individual that he is not altogether an individual. It is only because they are aware of this that men will die on the field of battle. — George Orwell · 1941There are occasions when it pays better to fight and be beaten than not to fight at all. — George Orwell · 1938All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting. — George Orwell · 1938Wilfred Owen3 quotes
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori. — Wilfred Owen · 1918If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori. — Wilfred Owen · 1920The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires. — Wilfred Owen · 1917Abraham Lincoln2 quotes
War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible. — Abraham Lincoln · 1864Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure. — Abraham Lincoln · 1848Benito Mussolini2 quotes
War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to face it. — Benito Mussolini · 1932War is to man as motherhood is to woman. — Benito Mussolini · 1934Bernard Montgomery2 quotes
Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow"...[Rule 2] is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China." — Bernard Montgomery · 1962Here we will stand and fight; there will be no further withdrawal. I have ordered that all plans and instructions dealing with further withdrawal are to be burnt, and at once. We will stand and fight here. If we can't stay here alive, then let us stay here dead. — Bernard Montgomery · 1942Carl Sandburg2 quotes
Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come. — Carl Sandburg · 1936Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work-
I am the grass; I cover all. — Carl Sandburg · 1918Douglas MacArthur2 quotes
In war, indeed, there can be no substitute for victory. — Douglas MacArthur · 1951The history of failure in war can almost be summed up in two words: too late. — Douglas MacArthur · 1940Helmuth von Moltke the Elder2 quotes
Eternal peace is a dream, and not even a beautiful one, and war is a link in God's world order. In him, the noblest virtues of man, courage and renunciation, devotion to duty and willingness to sacrifice, unfold with the institution of life. Without the war, the world would become bogged down in materialism. — Helmuth von Moltke the Elder · 1880No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength. — Helmuth von Moltke the Elder · 1871Herodotus2 quotes
If the Persians hide the sun, the battle will be in shade rather than sunlight. — Herodotus · 430 BCNo one is stupid enough to prefer war to peace; in peace sons bury their fathers and in war fathers bury their sons. However, I suppose the god must have wanted this to happen. — Herodotus · 430 BCHoot2 quotes
When I go home people'll ask me, "Hey Hoot, why do you do it man? Why, you some kinda war junkie?" I won't say a goddamn word. Why? They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the man next to you, and that's it. That's all it is. — Hoot · 2001See you're thinking, don't, 'cause Sergeant, you can't control who gets hit or who doesn't or who falls out of a chopper or why. It ain't up to you. It's just war. — Hoot · 2001Hunter2 quotes
Yes, the purpose of war is to serve a political end, but the true nature of war is to serve itself. — Hunter · 1995In my humble opinion, in the nuclear world, the true enemy is war itself. — Hunter · 1995President Merkin Muffley2 quotes
You're talking about mass murder, General, not war! — President Merkin Muffley · 1964Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room! — President Merkin Muffley · 1964Robert McNamara2 quotes
We all make mistakes. We know we make mistakes. I don't know any military commander, who is honest, who would say he has not made a mistake. There's a wonderful phrase: "the fog of war." What "the fog of war" means is: war is so complex it's beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend all the variables. Our judgment, our understanding, are not adequate. And we kill people unnecessarily. — Robert McNamara · 2003Military force—especially when wielded by an outside power—just cannot bring order in a country that cannot govern itself. — Robert McNamara · 1995Sgt. Adam Frantz2 quotes
Some of you think you have problems because you're against the war. You demonstrated in school, you wear peace symbols on your steel, and you have attitudes. I'm an orphan, my brother's queer, the city of Chicago got the clap from my sister, Mom drinks, Dad coughs blood, I have ringworm, immersion foot, the incurable crud and the draft ruined my chances of being a brain surgeon. People, you have no problem. Except me and him. — Sgt. Adam Frantz · 1987On guard at night you'll write letters, play with your organ, and think of your girl back home. Forget her. Some hair head has her on her back right now and is telling her to fuck for peace. — Sgt. Adam Frantz · 1987Thomas Hardy2 quotes
Yes, quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat if met where any bar is,
Or help to half-a-crown. — Thomas Hardy · 1902War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading. — Thomas Hardy · 1904Voltaire2 quotes
God is on the side not of the heavy battalions, but of the best shots. — Voltaire · 1750Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts flourish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town when it is under siege. — Voltaire · 1759William Shakespeare2 quotes
Let me have war, say I. It exceeds peace as far as day does night. It's sprightly waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible. — William Shakespeare · 1616We go to gain a little patch of ground
That hath in it no profit but the name. — William Shakespeare · 1616Abu Bakr1 quote
Give brief orders; speeches that are too long are likely to be forgotten. — Abu Bakr · 634Albert Einstein1 quote
As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable. — Albert Einstein · 1945Allen Ginsberg1 quote
What if someone gave a war & Nobody came?
Life would ring the bells of Ecstasy and Forever be Itself again. — Allen Ginsberg · 1973Anatole France1 quote
You think you are dying for your country; you die for the industrialists. — Anatole France · 1922Aristotle1 quote
Make war that we may live in peace. — Aristotle · 322 BCBarbara Tuchman1 quote
Dead battles, like dead generals, hold the military mind in their dead grip, and Germans, no less than other peoples, prepare for the last war. — Barbara Tuchman · 1962Benjamin Franklin1 quote
There never was a good War, or a bad Peace. — Benjamin Franklin · 1783Bertolt Brecht1 quote
War is like love, it always finds a way. — Bertolt Brecht · 1939Bill Killgore1 quote
I love the smell of napalm in the morning. — Bill Killgore · 1979Brooks Atkinson1 quote
After each war there is a little less democracy to save. — Brooks Atkinson · 1951