Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“...the basic principles of the military services are unchangeable. Courage and candor, obedience and comradeship, love of fatherland and loyalty to the State: these are ever the distinguishing characteristics of the soldier and sailor. Building character through intelligent training and education is always the first and greatest goal.”
Erich Raeder (1876–1960) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "He Led Hitler's Navy," "New York Times" article, April 24, 1960.
“I was never in the army - I never had a uniform - I was never a soldier. I detest uniforms because they make one unfree. There is an old quotation that goes something like this: 'Your mind will be trained well, but confined to Spanish boots.' That quotation is very apt. It signifies how narrow the military mind becomes.”
Hjalmar Schacht (1877–1970) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Leon Goldensohn (18 May 1946). Quoted in "The Nuremberg Interviews" - by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004.
“To the Soviet soldier”
Georgy Zhukov (1896–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every German soldier must be made to feel that he is living under the muzzle of a Russian gun.”
Vasily Chuikov (1900–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "199 Days: The Battle for Stalingrad" - Page 142 - by Edwin Palmer Hoyt - History - 1999
“Napoleon’s troops fought in bright fields, where every helmet caught some gleams of glory; but the British soldier conquered under the cool shade of aristocracy. No honours awaited his daring, no despatch gave his name to the applauses of his countrymen; his life of danger and hardship was uncheered by hope, his death unnoticed.”
William Francis Patrick Napier (1785–1860) first seen 1810 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Peninsular War (1810), Vol. ii, Book xi, Chap. iii.
Also quoted by: Sir W. F. P. Napier
“So many able writers have shown that the unjust institutions which work so much misery and suffering to the masses have their root in governments, and owe their whole existence to the power derived from government. We cannot help but believe that were every law, every title deed, every court, and every police officer or soldier abolished tomorrow with one sweep, we would be better off than now.”
Lucy Parsons (1851–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In all my years as a soldier, I have never seen men fight so hard.”
Wilhelm Bittrich (1894–1979) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Commenting on the British Paratroopers at Arnhem (September 1944). Quoted in "Hitler's Generals" - Page 327 - by Correlli Barnett - History - 2003
“As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist: He is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational art, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that, he's a great military man.”
Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. (1934–2012) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gulf War briefing (28 February 1991), as quoted in "WAR IN THE GULF: Commander's Briefing; Excerpts From Schwarzkopf News Conference on Gulf War" in The New York Times
“No, they've got no time for glory in the Infantry. No, they've got no use for praises loudly sung, But in every soldier's heart in all the Infantry Shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young.”
Frank Loesser (1910–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's best that you know this immediately: I have never been a Fascist, but always a soldier who obeyed orders.”
Rodolfo Graziani (1882–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To SS Colonel Eugen Dollmann. Quoted in "Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce" - Page 27 - by Ray Moseley - History - 2004
“I am convinced that in times such as these, every man must be a soldier, in substance as well as in name.”
Seishirō Itagaki (1885–1948) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "The Fight for the Pacific" - Page 157 - by Mark Gayn - 1941.
“Cold on Canadian hills or Minden’s plain, Perhaps that parent mourned her soldier slain; Bent o'er her babe, her eye dissolved in dew, The big drops mingling with the milk he drew Gave the sad presage of his future years,— The child of misery, baptized in tears.”
John Langhorne (poet) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Country Justice, Part i, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). This allusion to the dead soldier and his widow on the field of battle was made the subject of a print by Bunbury, under which we…
Also quoted by: John Langhorne
“It was not till Jesus had cried, "It is finished," and from His riven side the soldier's spear had fetched the blood and water; it was not till then, that the fountain sealed of Incarnate Love became the fountain opened of Redeeming merit, and that the Siloah began to flow, which ever since has flowed adown the oracles of God.”
James Hamilton (1814–1871) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm gonna marry the night. I won't give up on my life. I'm a warrior queen, Live passionately tonight.I'm gonna marry the dark, Gonna make love to the stark. I'm a soldier to my own emptiness. I am a winner.”
“I have no health for a soldier, and as I have no expectation of serving my country in that way, I am spending my time in the old trifling manner, and am so taken with optics, that I do not know whether, if the enemy should invade this part of the country, as Archimedes was slain while making geometrical figures on the sand, so I should die making a telescope.”
David Rittenhouse (1732–1796) first seen 1756 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Thomas Barton (Sep 20, 1756) as quoted by Florian Cajori, The Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (1890) p. 39.
“The better you are as a soldier, the worse you are as a human being.”
Harry Harrison (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We want to get our army involved with the people in productive work and remind it constantly that, without patriotic training, a soldier is only a criminal with power.”
Thomas Sankara (1949–1987) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a speech to the United Nations on 4 October 1984
“There were three sisters, three little sisters, And each one was only in her teens, And one loved a soldier, and one loved a sailor, And one loved a man from the marines.”
Vic Mizzy (1916–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mal Hombre: God damn it, Sergeant. I thought you were a professional soldier. Sergeant: I waited as long as I could, Sir. Any longer, and I was gonna lose my man. Mal Hombre: This outfit is perfectly capable of taking care of its own dirty laundry. Is that clear, Sergeant? Sergeant: Colonel, since when is a wounded trooper 'dirty laundry'?”
Michael Herr (1940–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This may be my last message. From today Bangladesh is independent. I call upon the people of Bangladesh wherever you are and with whatever you have, to resist the occupation army. Our fight will go on till the last soldier of the Pakistan Occupation Army is expelled from the soil of independent Bangladesh. Final victory is ours. Joy Bangla!”
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920–1975) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Declaration of Independence on the night of 26th March, 1971. The declaration was made minutes before his arrest by the Pakistan Army.
“My paternal grandfather, George, had been a regular soldier in India until chucking-out time in 1948, and funnily enough bore an uncanny resemblance to Mahatma Gandhi (who apparently suffered from corns and bad breath, in other words a supercallousedfragilemysticplaguedwithhalitosis, as Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke almost sang).”
John Cooper Clarke (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All I know is that I'm young and your rules they are old If I've got to kill to live then there's something left untold I'm no statesman I'm no general. I'm no kid I'll never be It's the rules not the soldier that I find the real enemy.”
“An old soldier, who had been in Waterloo, informed me that to his mind there was no pleasure equal to running a man through the body, and that he could lie awake at night musing on the pleasurable sensations afforded him by that act.”
Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have never eaten a boiled egg, but I have had a soldier or two.”
Nigel Slater (born 1958) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Eating For England, Fourth Estate Ltd, , October 2007)("Soldiers" can refer to slices of toast cut into long thin strips for dipping into a boiled egg.)
“I have a habit to be reborn as a writer. So if I find myself in a crisis that I have never experienced, I can be born, or I can write something, by the power of the habit. Even a soldier or a farmer or a fisherman can be reborn by the power of the habit when he meets the greatest crisis of his life.”
Kenzaburō Ōe (1935–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[to a soldier who bumped into her] You keep away from me, you motherfucker.”
Elena Ceaușescu (1916–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just as you celebrated your Muslim son’s sacrifice, there are others who could give testimony to their loss due to those Muslim soldiers — and I use lower case reference to them (soldiers) because they dishonored the oath and were traitors to our Code of Honor. Your son was not, but that had nothing to do with him being a Muslim: he was an American Soldier.”
Allen West (politician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mr. Khan, you had a moment to speak on history and provide us clarity and truth from a Muslim man who lost his son, an American Soldier, to Islamists. .... Then again, maybe you had no intention of using the platform provided to you as a teachable moment…but rather a politically-influenced opportunity for gain.”
Allen West (politician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most desirable quality in a soldier is constancy in the support of fatigue; valor is only secondary.”
Napoleon (1769–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges; the old ones, grub.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Realizing that common sense and common decency alike dictate the futility of appeasement, we shall never try to placate an aggressor by the false and wicked bargain of trading honor for security. Americans, indeed all free men, remember that in the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If a soldier would command an army he must be prepared to withstand those who would criticize the manner in which he leads that army. There is no place in a democratic state for the attitude which would elevate each military hero above public reproach simply because he did the job he has been trained and is paid to do.”
Omar Bradley (1893–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Precisely at 7 Patton boomed in to breakfast. His vigor was always infectious, his wit barbed, his conversation a mixture of obscenity and good humor. He was at once stimulating and overbearing. George was a magnificent soldier.”
Omar Bradley (1893–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An aristocratic society may hold that a soldier or a man of learning is superior to a rich manufacturer or banker, but in a democratic society the latter are inevitably put higher, if only because their achievement is more readily comprehended by the inferior man, and he can more easily imagine himself, by some favour of God, duplicating it.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1778 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (10 April 1778)
“It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. I don't appreciate worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or of dead John Wayne. It's the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison — it's garbage to me. I worship the people who survive. Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I was a child my mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Life with Picasso, by François Gilot, 1964, p. 60
“One becomes a critic when one cannot be an artist, just as a man becomes a stool pigeon when he cannot be a soldier.”
Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 22 October 1846
“What your soldier wants -- really, really wants -- is no-one shooting back at him.”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bringing in a wounded soldier is getting to be rather like waving an American flag at the end of an act. One cannot harbor feelings of unmixed admiration for the playwright who will hide behind either of them. p. 250”
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Forward, the Light Brigade!" Was there a man dismay'd? Not tho' the soldier knew Some one had blunder'd: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: Into the valley of death Rode the six hundred.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Seek out — less often sought than found — A Soldier's Grave, for thee the best; Then look around and choose thy Ground, And take thy Rest.”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Soldier is perhaps one of the most difficult things to realise; but Governments, had they not realised him, could not have existed: accordingly he is here.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He stated it distinctly...as what he conceived was the unalterable resolution of ministers, that no proposal for peace should be entertained, while a single French soldier had a footing on British ground. [This sentiment was universally applauded.]”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1697 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons on the war with France (10 August 1803), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England, From the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXXVI (1820), column 1697
“[My gay child] would be a soldier, and he would change the slogan from "Don't ask, don't tell" to "Don't fuck with me, queen!!”
Margaret Cho (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now a willpower that I have polished with an artist's delight will sustain some shaky legs and some weary lungs. I will do it. Give a thought once in awhile to this little soldier of fortune of the twentieth century.”
Che Guevara (1928–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The soldier who executes his captain's commands is no less valuable than the captain who gave the order.”
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) said by 1616 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch. 5 (tr. Tobias Smollett, 1755).
“And then, for an old man like me, it's not exactly right, This kind o' playing soldier with no enemy in sight.”
Bret Harte (1836–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Drinking is the soldier’s pleasure; Rich the treasure; Sweet the pleasure; Sweet is pleasure after pain.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The soldier then in Grecian arts unskill’d, Returning rich with plunder from the field, If cups of silver or of gold he brought With jewels set, and exquisitely wrought, To glorious trappings strait the plate he turn’d, And with the glitt’ring spoil his horse adorn’d.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source