Total War Quotes - Page 6

• Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

  Patrick Henry

  Death, Sweet, Freedom

  Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, Va., 23 Mar. 1775.

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• I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.

  Thomas Jefferson

  War, Wish, Enough

  1794 Letter to John Adams, 25 Apr.

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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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• You must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your King, and you must treat every Frenchman as if he were the Devil himself.

  Horatio Nelson

  Kings, War, Men

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• From hence, let fierce contending nations know, what dire effects from civil discord flow.

  Joseph Addison

  War, Flow, Fierce

  'Cato' (1713) act 5, sc. 1, closing lines

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• For God's Sake be sure you do not risk the cannon.

  John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

  War, Risk, Sake

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• The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility.

  John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

  Military, War, Essence

  Lecture notes 1899-1902, in R. H. Bacon Life of Lord Fisher (1929) vol. 1, ch. 7

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• If we had not driven them into hell... hell would have swallowed us.

  Alexander Suvorov

  Military, War, Hell

  "The Book of Military Quotations" by Peter G. Tsoura, (p. 138), 1998.

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• It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.

  James Madison

  War, Fall, Agency

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• I would rather wear out than rust out.

  George Whitefield

  War, Rust

  George Whitefield, G. B. (1829). “The Revived Puritan. Select Works of ... G. W., ... Containing a Memoir of His Life, Etc. [Edited by G. B.]”, p.90

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• Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

  Samuel Johnson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  Samuel Johnson, Francis William Blagdon (1811). “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia”, p.42

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• To place any dependence upon militia, is, assuredly, resting upon a broken staff.

  George Washington

  War, Broken, Staff

  George Washington (1871). “Words of Washington”, p.61

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• Every post is honourable in which a man can serve his country.

  George Washington

  Country, War, Men

  George Washington, John Clement Fitzpatrick, David Maydole Matteson, United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission (1944). “The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799: prepared under the direction of the United States George Washington bicentennial commission and published by authority of Congress”

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• As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.

  Edward Gibbon

  Military, War, Character

  Edward Gibbon (1781). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.8

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• I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.

  John Keats

  Fear, War, Failure

  Letter to James Hessey, 8 October 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) 'The Letters of John Keats' (1958) vol. 1, p. 374

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• The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Peace, Military, War

  "Adagia". Book by Desiderius Erasmus, 1500.

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• Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  War, Solitude, Thee

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (1816). “Alastor, or The spirit of solitude, &c., ed. by H.B. Forman”, p.43

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• You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Wisdom, Art, Military

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• You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy's ranks.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Death, War, Enemy

  "Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources" by Rev. James Wood, (p. 567), 1899.

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• When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

  Edmund Burke

  Honesty, Integrity, War

  Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770) See Edmund Burke 28; Mill 18

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• I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.

  Edmund Burke

  War, Long, People

  Edmund Burke (1855). “The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke: Charge against Warren Hastings concluded”, p.189

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• Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear.

  William Congreve

  Inspirational, Fear, War

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• They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Happiness, Peace

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.270

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• You may delay, but time will not.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Benjamin Franklin (1998). “Benjamin Franklin Wit and Wisdom”, p.43, Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

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• Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Peace, War, May

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