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John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher
33 quotes
“Favouritism was the secret of our efficiency in the old days and got us young Admirals.....Going by seniority saves so much trouble. 'Buggins's turn' has been our ruin and will be disastrous hereafter!”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lord Selborne, dated 13 January 1901, describing Buggins's turn, a system by which appointments or awards are made in rotation rather than on merit.
“Big risks bring big success!”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Churchill, dated 25/2/1912, quoted in The World Crisis, Vol 1, 1911-14 (1923), Churchill, Thornton Butterworth (London), p. 107.
“The luxuries of the present are the necessities of the future. Our grandfathers never had a bath-room....”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Churchill, dated 16/1/1912, quoted in The World Crisis, Vol 1, 1911-14 (1923), Churchill, Thornton Butterworth (London), p. 139.
“Sea fighting is pure common sense. The first of all its necessities is SPEED, so as to be able to fight--When you like, Where you like, and How you like.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Churchill, dated 16/1/1912, quoted in The World Crisis, Vol 1, 1911-14 (1923), Churchill, Thornton Butterworth (London), p. 140.
“Favouritism is the secret of efficiency”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The World Crisis, Vol 1, 1911-14 (1923), Churchill, Thornton Butterworth (London), p. 74.
“I went the whole hog, totus porcus.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The World Crisis, Vol 2, 1915 (1923), Churchill, Thornton Butterworth (London), p. 165.
“thumb|O.M.G. (Oh! My God) - Letter to [[Winston Churchill|Churchill, 9 Sept 1917]]We want brave men! ANY BLOODY FOOL CAN OBEY ORDERS!”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Admiral Beatty, dated 3 February 1915.
“Can the Army win the war before the Navy loses it?”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The World Crisis, Vol 3, 1916-1918, Part I (1927), Churchill, Thornton Butterworth (London), p. 283.
“D-mn the Dardanelles! they'll be our grave!”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Churchill, dated 5 April 1915 (Chartwell Papers - CHAR 13/57/2)
“O.M.G. - Oh! My God!”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Churchill, dated 9 Sept 1917.
“If any subordinate opposes me, I will make his wife a widow, his children fatherless and his home a dunghill.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lord Fisher and his Biographer, Great Contempories (1947), Churchill, John Gardner (Liverpool), 3rd Ed. p. 265.
“Length of course depends on the stupidity of the class...”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1868 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fisher's notes in the front cover of his own copy of A Short Treatise on Electricity and the Management of Electric Torpedoes (1868)
“Those who rise in peace are men of formality and routine, cautious, inoffensive...Hawke represented the spirit of war, the ardour, the swift initiative, the readiness of resource, the impatience of prescription and routine, without which no great things are done!”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fisher of Kilverstone (1973), Ruddock F. Mackay, Clarendon Press, p. 265.
“We left our element, the sea, to make ourselves into a conscript nation fighting on the Continent with four million soldiers out of a population of forty millions.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are an Island. Every soldier that wants to go anywhere out of England - a sailor has got to carry him there on his back.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tact" is insulting a man without his knowing it.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even a man's faults may reflect his virtues.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thought it would be a good thing to be a missionary, but I thought it would be better to be First Sea Lord.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hit first! Hit hard! Keep on hitting!! (The 3 H's)”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The 3 Requisites for Success - Ruthless, Relentless, Remorseless (The 3 R's)”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Also The World Crisis, Vol 1, 1911-14 (1923), Churchill, Thornton Butterworth (London), p. 73.
“Never Deny : Never Explain : Never Apologise”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The best scale for an experiment is 12 inches to the foot.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL.... Nature is no respecter of birth or money power when she lavishes her mental and physical gifts. We fight God when our Social System dooms the brilliant clever child of a poor man to the same level as his father.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Essence of War is Violence. Moderation in War is Imbecility.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...and you may sleep quietly in your beds.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at The Royal Academy Banquet, 1903, regarding the threat of invasion.
“As age increases, audacity leaks out and caution comes in.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Frontiers of England are the Coasts of the Enemy.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is an historical fact that the British Navy stubbornly resists change.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Submarine will be the Battleship of the future!”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is very silly indeed to build vessels of War so strong as to last a hundred years. They are obsolete in less than ten years.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When by-and-by the Chinese know their power, they hae only to walk slowly westwards and, like the locusts in Egypt, no Pharaohs in Europe with all their mighty boats will stop them. They won't want to fire guns or bombs. They'll just all walk along and smother Europe. (Richard Hough, First Sea Lord, p. 35)”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The humanising of war? You might as well talk about the humanizing of Hell!...... The essence of war is violence! Moderation in war is imbecility!..... I am not for war, I am for peace! That is why I am for a supreme Navy....... The supremacy of the British Navy is the best security for peace in the world...... If you rub it in both at home and abroad that you are ready for instant war.....and intend to be first in and hit your enemy in the belly and kick him when he is down and boil your prisoners in oil (if you take any), and torture his women and children, then people will keep clear of you.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At the 1st Hague Peace Conference, May 1899
“...Jellicoe had all the Nelsonic attributes except one - he is totally wanting in the great gift of Insubordination. Nelson's greatest achievements were all solely due to his disobeying orders!..... Any fool can obey orders! But it required a Nelson to disobey Sir John Jervis at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, to disregard the order to retire at Copenhagen, to go into the Battle of the Nile by night with no charts against orders, and, to crown all, to enter into the Battle of Trafalgar in a battle formation contrary to all the Sea orders of the time! BLESS HIM! Alas! Jellicoe is saturated with Discipline!”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source