Army Navy Quotes

• A good Navy is not a provocation to war. It is the surest guaranty of peace.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Military, War, Navy

  Theodore Roosevelt (1916). “Fear God and Take Your Own Part”, New York : George H. Doran

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• We few. We happy few. We band of brothers, for he today That sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother.

  William Shakespeare

  Brother, Business, Military

  'Henry V' (1599) act 4, sc. 3, l. 35

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• The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength, - the floating bulwark of our island.

  William Blackstone

  Strength, Islands, Royal Wedding

  Commentaries on the Laws of England bk. 1, ch. 13 (1765)

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• The deadliest weapon in the world is a MARINE and his rifle!

  John J. Pershing

  Military, Marine, Rifles

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• Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.

  Samuel Johnson

  Army, Men, Thinking

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 3, p. 265 (10 April 1778)

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• Those who served, and those who continue to serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard took an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and we can never forget the importance of their commitment to our Nation.

  Robin Hayes

  Commitment, Marine, Army

  Congressional Record, V. 150, PT. 8, May 18, 2004 to June 1, 2004, Government Printing Office, p. 10718, 2009.

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• When I lost my rifle, the Army charged me 85 dollars. That is why in the Navy the Captain goes down with the ship.

  Dick Gregory

  Funny, Military, Responsibility

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• In the weakness of one kind of authority, and in the fluctuation of all, the officers of an army will remain for some time mutinous and full of faction, until some popular general, who understands the art of conciliating the soldiery, and who possesses the true spirit of command, shall draw the eyes of all men upon himself. Armies will obey him on his personal account. There is no other way of securing military obedience in this state of things.

  Edmund Burke

  Art, Military, Eye

  Edmund Burke (1868). “Reflections on the Revolution in France and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event: 1790”, p.249

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• Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts - a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Art, Marine, Army

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.198, Graphic Arts Books

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• Making the world safe for hypocrisy.

  Thomas Wolfe

  Army, Hypocrisy, Navy

  Look Homeward, Angel pt. 3, ch. 36 (1929) SeeWoodrowWilson 15

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• And gentlemen in England now-a-bed Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

  William Shakespeare

  Military, Army, Thinking

  'Henry V' (1599) act 4, sc. 3, l. 35

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• If I should die, think only this of me: that there's some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England.

  Rupert Brooke

  Army, Thinking, Navy

  "The Soldier" l. 1 (1914)

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• I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a Gentle-man and is nothing else.

  Oliver Cromwell

  Love, Military, Army

  Letter to Sir William Spring, September 1643, in Thomas Carlyle 'Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches' (2nd ed., 1846)

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• O the joy of the strong-brawn'd fighter, towering in the arena in perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent.

  Walt Whitman

  Strong, Army, Power

  Walt Whitman (2008). “Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1860-1867”, p.335, NYU Press

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• The Navy can lose us the war, but only the Air Force can win it. The fighters are our salvation, but the bombers alone provide the means of victory.

  Winston Churchill

  War, Mean, Winning

  Winston Churchill (1986). “Their Finest Hour”, p.405, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Admiral. That part of a warship which does the talking while the figurehead does the thinking.

  Ambrose Bierce

  War, Army, Thinking

  Ambrose Bierce (2011). “Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs”, p.568, Library of America

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• 'Tis the soldier's life to have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.

  William Shakespeare

  Army, Soldier, Navy

  William Shakespeare (2016). “Othello: Revised Edition”, p.201, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• If our soldiers are not overburdened with money, it is not because they have a distaste for riches; if their lives are not unduly long, it is not because they are disinclined to longevity.

  Sun Tzu

  Money, Military, War

  Sun Tzu “Sun Tzu: The Art of War (Illustrated)”, Charles River Editors

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• Children play soldier. That makes sense. But why do soldiers play children?

  Karl Kraus

  Children, Army, Play

  Karl Kraus, Jonathan McVity (2001). “Dicta and Contradicta”, p.50, University of Illinois Press

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• Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

  Samuel Johnson

  Travel, Jail, Sailing

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 16 Mar. 1759)

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• There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Army, Gentleman, Navy

  "History of England". Book by Thomas B. Macaulay, Volume I, Chapter III, Part XXXII, 1848.

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• No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.

  Samuel Johnson

  Funny, Army, Men

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 16 Mar. 1759)

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• An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.

  Mao Zedong

  Military, Army, Enemy

  Zedong Mao (1972). “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung”, p.303, China Books

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• Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.

  Winston Churchill

  Funny, Army, British Navy

  In Sir Peter Gretton Former Naval Person (1968) ch. 1

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• I don't know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but by God, they frighten me.

  Duke of Wellington

  Military, War, Humorous

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