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Claude Louis Hector de Villars
18 quotes
“God protect me from my friends, I can protect myself from my enemies. [Variation: Defend me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies myself].”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) said by 1734 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The quote has been attributed to Voltaire, who was using it after Villars. Quoted in Connie Robertson, Dictionary of Quotations, 1998
“I am going to fight your enemies, I leave you in the midst of my own.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) said by 1734 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you want to know where Prince Eugene’s real enemies are? They are in Vienna, while mine are in Versailles.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) said by 1734 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A general has to expose his life as much as he exposes the lives of others.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) said by 1734 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in D'après Th. H. Barrau, Livre de morale pratique, Paris, Hachette et Cie, 1852
“What! Is it expected that I, a Marshal of France, should be the first to escalade, when I order you to attack?”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) first seen 1703 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Villars to his soldiers in 1703 after seeing them advance without spirit during a battle, quoted in The officer's manual. Napoleon's maxims of war
“When the first shot is fired, no one can calculate what will be the issue of the war. It is, therefore, of vast importance to reflect maturely before we begin it.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) said by 1734 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we are determined upon war, we should carry it on vigorously and without trifling.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) said by 1734 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In war everything depends upon being able to deceive the enemy; and having once gained this point, in never allowing him time to recover himself.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) said by 1734 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My principal attention was always directed to the study of the younger generals. Such a one I found, by the boldness of his character, fit to lead a column of attack; another, from a disposition naturally cautious, but without being deficient in courage, more perfectly to be relied on for the defence of a country.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) said by 1734 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No governor of a place should he permitted to excuse himself for surrendering, on the ground of wishing to preserve the king's troops. Every garrison that displays courage will escape being prisoners of war. For there is no general who, however well assured of carrying a place by assault, will not prefer granting terms of capitulation rather than risk the loss of a thousand men in forcing determined troops to surrender.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) said by 1734 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If God lets us have the grace of losing such a battle again, Your Majesty can count on all of his enemies being destroyed.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) said by 1734 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Villars to Louis XIV after the Battle of Malplaquet, quoted in Anquetil, Louis-Pierre, Histoire de France depuis les Gaulois jusqu'à la mort de Louis XVI (1819), Paris: Chez Janet et Cotelle, p. 241.
“I am going to drive your enemies so far that they shall not again see the banks of the Scheldt; and by a battle on my arrival, to regain all that has been taken from your majesty.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) first seen 1709 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Villars to Louis XIV upon departing for the 1709 campaign against the Allies, quoted in Prince Eugene's memoirs
“I was unable before starting to formulate a plan of campaign because I did not know whether I should find an army there ... In fact I found the troops in a deplorable condition, without clothes, without arms, and without bread.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) first seen 1709 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Villars reflecting on the state of the French army in 1709 when he took command, quoted in Winston Churchill, Marlborough: His Life and Times
“Where there are no peasants there are no supplies.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) first seen 1667 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Villars to Louis XIV in 1703, quoted in John A. Lynn, The Wars of Louis XIV 1667-1714
“My friends ... if you make the people run away, you will die of hunger.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) first seen 1667 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Villars to his soldiers before the 1707 campaign in Germany, quoted in John A. Lynn, The Wars of Louis XIV 1667-1714
“[Your nation] seems immovable, never doing glorious things but by halves, and never disgracing itself.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) first seen 1713 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Villars to Prince Eugene about the Austrians, 1713, quoted in Prince Eugene's memoirs
“The most shameful, humiliating and disastrous of routs.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) said by 1734 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Villars on the Battle of Ramillies, quoted in Holmes, Richard (2008). Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius. Harper Press. ISBN 978-0007225712, p. 349
“Fortify your towns, and above all the Schellenberg, that fort above Donauworth, the importance of which the great Gustavus taught us.”
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) first seen 1703 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Villars to Max Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, in 1703, on Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden's capture of Schellenberg on the Danube. It was to be captured again in 1704 by Marlborough after the Elector ignored Villars' advice. …