Great Army Quotes

• The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight.

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Peace, War, Army

  A J P Taylor (1974). “The First World War: An Illustrated History”, p.15, Penguin UK

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• I wonder whether those of our political masters who have been put in charge of the defence of the country can distinguish a mortar from a motor; a gun from a howitzer; a guerrilla from a gorilla, although a great many resemble the latter.

  Sam Manekshaw

  Country, Badass, Army

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• The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.

  Colin Powell

  Leadership, Military, Army

  Colin L. Powell (1995). “My American Journey”, Random House Incorporated

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  I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

  Alexander the Great

  Inspirational, Leadership, Wisdom

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• If soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army.

  Frederick The Great

  War, Army, Thinking

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  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.

  George S. Patton

  Country, Military, War

  Attributed in Patton (motion picture) (1970). This is sometimes said to have been uttered in a speech by Patton to the Sixth Armored Division of the Third Army, 31 May 1944, but documentation is lacking. The following poem appeared in the Bureau of Aeronautics Navy Department News Letter, 1 Jan. 1943: "The greatest duty of a sailor / Is duty from worries and cares, / Not to die for his country, / Make our enemies die for theirs!"

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• It has not fallen to your lot to command great armies. You had to create them, organize them and inspire them.

  Winston Churchill

  Military, Army, Inspire

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• Each letter of the alphabet is a steadfast loyal soldier in a great army of words, sentences, paragraphs, and stories. One letter falls, and the entire language falters.

  Vera Nazarian

  Fall, Army, Soldier

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• And what have we now in Germany? A land of bankers and car-makers. Even our great army has gone soft. Soldiers wear beards and question orders. I am not ashamed to say I believed in National Socialism. I still wear the Iron Cross with diamonds Hitler gave me. But today in all Germany you can't find a single person who voted Adolf Hitler into power. Many Germans feel guilty about the war. But they don't explain the real guilt we share - That we lost.

  Hanna Reitsch

  Real, War, Army

  "The first astronaut: tiny, daring Hanna" by Ron Laytner in The Deseret News (pp. C1+, 12C), February 19, 1981.

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• when night came on, the Macedonians and the barbarian crowd suddenly took fright in one of those mysterious panics to which great armies are liable

  Thucydides

  Army, Night, Crowds

  Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson, Robert B. Strassler (2008). “The Landmark Thucydides”, p.291, Simon and Schuster

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• By day certainly the combatants have a clearer notion, though even then by no means of all that takes place, no one knowing much of anything that does not does not go on in his own immediate neighborhood; but in a night engagement ( and this was the only one that occurred between great armies during the war) how could anyone know anything for certain?

  Thucydides

  War, Mean, Army

  Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson, Robert B. Strassler (2008). “The Landmark Thucydides”, p.453, Simon and Schuster

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• Where are you taking us?" Nico said. "You should be honored, my boy. You will have the opportunity to join a great army! Just like that silly game you play with cards and dolls." "They're not dolls! They're figurines! And you can take your great army and—

  Rick Riordan

  Silly, Army, Boys

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• Two armies at death-grips — that is one great army committing suicide.

  Henri Barbusse

  Suicide, Army, Two

  Henri Barbusse (1929). “Under Fire: The Story of a Squad”, p.8, Lulu.com

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• War is not two great armies meeting in the clash and frenzy of battle. War is a boy being carried on a stretcher, looking up at God’s blue sky with bewildered eyes that are soon to close; war is a woman carrying a child that has been injured by a shell; war is spirited horses tied in burning buildings and waiting for death; war is the flower of a race, battered, hungry, bleeding, up to its knees in filthy water; war is an old woman burning a candle before the Mater Dolorsa for the son she has given.

  Mary Roberts Rinehart

  Horse, Children, War

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• Lonely people have enthusiasms which cannot always be explained. When something strikes them as funny, the intensity and length of their laughter mirrors the depth of their loneliness, and they are capable of laughing like hyenas. When something touches their emotions, it runs through them like Paul Revere, awakening feelings that gather into great armies.

  Mark Helprin

  Running, Lonely, Laughter

  Mark Helprin (1989). “Winter's Tale”, Pocket Books

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• When great armies go to war, Sorrow is the sole winner.

  Laozi

  War, Army, Sorrow

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• As long as this great army of workers is scattered among so many craft unions, it will be impossible for them to unite and act in harmony together. Craft unionism is the negation of solidarity. The more unions you have, the less unity.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Army, Long, Unity

  "Class Unionism". Eugene V. Debs' speech in South Chicago (November 24, 1905), later published in Eugene V. Debs "Debs, His Life, Writings and Speeches: With a Department of Appreciations", 1908.

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• Let us do our duty in our shop or our kitchen, in the market, the street, the office, the school, the home, just as faithfully as if we stood in the front rank of some great battle, and knew that victory for mankind depended on our bravery, strength, and skill. When we do that, the humblest of us will be serving in that great army which achieves the welfare of the world.

  Theodore Parker

  Life, Success, Home

  Theodore Parker (1872). “The Collected Works of Theodore Parker: Lessons from the world of matter and the world of man”, p.86

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• Thus thought I, as by night I read Of the great army of the dead, The trenches cold and damp, The starved and frozen camp,-- The wounded from the battle-plain, In dreary hospitals of pain, The cheerless corridors, The cold and stony floors. Lo! in that house of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom And flit from room to room. And slow, as in a dream of bliss, The speechless sufferer turns to kiss Her shadow, as it falls Upon the darkening walls.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Dream, Wall, Pain

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1871). “The Poetical Works”, p.283

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• The conflicting missions of the two armies seemed to have no fog, no gray, only black-and-white clarity. I had lived my life in terms of compromise, rule-bending, trade-offs, concessions, bargaining, striking deals, finding middle ground. In these two great armies, there was no such thing. Good was good, and evil was evil, and they shared no common ground.

  Randy Alcorn

  Black And White, Army, Fog

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• ...a great army of the proletarian party [must be] prepared to smash the reactionary forces and to clear the way for the advanced forces of society.

  J. Stalin

  Party, Communication, Army

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• On the European Front the most important development of the past year has been the crushing offensive of the Great Armies of Russia.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Crush, War, Army

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• The very existence of armaments and great armies psychologically accustoms us to accept the philosophy of militarism. They inevitably increase fear and hate in the world.

  Norman Thomas

  Philosophy, War, Hate

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• Great armies are nothing but a collection of weakness.

  Christina, Queen of Sweden

  Army, Weakness, Collections

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• No prophet or apostle who ever lived equaled the power of these individuals in this great army of the Lord in these last days. No one ever had it; not even Elijah or Peter or Paul or anyone else enjoyed the power that is going to rest upon this great army.

  Paul Cain

  Army, Lasts, Lord

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