Military History Quotes

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

George S. Patton

Inspirational, Positive, Leadership

"War As I Knew It". Book by George S. Patton. Chapter "Reflections and Suggestions", 1947.

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Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Life, Change, Wise

1952 In Time, 6 Oct.

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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.

John Stuart Mill

Military, War, Patriotic

"The Contest in America", Fraser's Magazine, February 1862.

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The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.

George S. Patton

Country, Military, War

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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A ship without Marines is like a garment without buttons.

David Dixon Porter

Military, Marine, Buttons

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**** the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

David Farragut

War, Military, Marine

At the battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864 ('torpedoes' were mines). Capt. A. T. Mahan 'Admiral Farragut' (1892) ch. 10

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People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

Richard Grenier

Strength, Wisdom, Veterans Day

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We have met the enemy and they are ours.

Oliver Hazard Perry

Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Military

Message toWilliam Henry Harrison, 10 Sept. 1813. The source is Perry's dispatch from the U.S. brig Niagara to General Harrison, announcing that victory at the Battle of Lake Erie was secure. The dispatch was written in pencil on the back of an old letter; it is quoted in Robert B. McAfee, History of the LateWar in theWestern Country (1816). SeeWalt Kelly 2; Walt Kelly 3

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Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.

George S. Patton

Leadership, Military, Bad Ass

"Pocket Patriot: Quotes from American Heroes". Book edited by Kelly Nickell, p. 157, 2005.

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I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

Nathan Hale

Inspirational, Life, Country

Before being executed as a spy by the British, 22 September 1776, in Henry Phelps Johnston 'Nathan Hale, 1776' (1914) ch. 7.

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Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Leadership, Art, Business

Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1960). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954”, p.477, Best Books on

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I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Winston Churchill

Determination, Military, War

Speech in House of Commons, 13 May 1940

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Know the enemy and know yourself.

Sun Tzu

Fear, Military, War

The Art of War ch. 3 (translation by Yuan Shibang)

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A man 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 Stuart Mill

Freedom, War, Military

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Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never -- in nothing, great or small, large or petty -- never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.

Winston Churchill

Life, Inspiring, Graduation

Speech at Harrow School, Harrow, England, 29 Oct. 1941

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Never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Winston Churchill

Being Strong, Encouraging, Courage

Winston Churchill (2012). “Churchill: The Power of Words”, p.395, Da Capo Press

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Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Winston Churchill

Being Strong, Veterans Day, Stay Strong

Winston Churchill (2012). “Churchill: The Power of Words”, p.395, Da Capo Press

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Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Freedom, Military, 4th Of July

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Live for something rather than die for nothing.

George S. Patton

Birthday, Military, Army

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Live for something rather than die for nothing. —George Patton

Cindy Gerard

Military, Army Officers, Dies

Cindy Gerard (2008). “Whisper No Lies”, p.9, Simon and Schuster

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Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

William Shakespeare

Dog, Military, War

'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 3, sc. 1, l. 270

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Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.

Oscar Wilde

Love, Inspirational, Funny

Oscar Wilde (1947). “The Happy Prince”, p.16, New Line Publishing

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War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.

William Tecumseh Sherman

Death, Military, War

"The Civil War Generation". Book by Norman K. Risjord, p. 143, 2002.

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Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

Winston Churchill

Memorial Day, Military, War

Speech in House of Commons, 20 Aug. 1940

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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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