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War

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“Says a writer whom few know, "Forty years after a battle it is easy for a non-combatant to reason about how it ought to have been fought. It is another thing personally and under fire to direct the fighting while involved in the obscuring smoke of it. Much so with respect to other emergencies involving considerations both practical and moral, and when it is imperative promptly to act.”
Herman Melville (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion and natural science are fighting a joint battle in an incessant, never relaxing crusade against scepticism and against dogmatism, against disbelief and against superstition, and the rallying cry in this crusade has always been, and always will be: "On to God!”
Max Planck (1858–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It isn't surprising," Piaget said, "to find the 'N-square' law from warfare being applied to advertising and politics — other kinds of warfare, you see — with no real conversion problem from one field to the other. Each has its concepts of concentration and exposure. The mathematics of differentials and predictions apply equally well, no matter the field of battle".”
Frank Herbert (1920–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's like a battle, trying to find the right words to say at the right time.”
Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No passion is stronger in the breast of man than the desire to make others believe as he believes. Nothing so cuts at the root of his happiness and fills him with rage as the sense that another rates low what he prizes high. Whigs and Tories, Liberal party and Labour party — for what do they battle except their own prestige?”
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The bravest man feels an anxiety 'circa praecordia' as he enters the battle; but he dreads disgrace yet more.”
Horatio Nelson (1758–1805) said by 1805 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Life of Nelson: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain, Volume 2. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1897, p. 52; attributed by Mahan to Locker's Greenwich Gallery article "…
“The business of the English Commander-in-Chief being first to bring an Enemy's Fleet to Battle, on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his Ships close on board the Enemy, as expeditiously as possible;) and secondly, to continue them there, without separating, until the business is decided.”
Horatio Nelson (1758–1805) first seen 1804 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Plan of Attack" (1805), drawn up during pursuit of the French fleet to the West Indies, as published in The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson with Notes (1866) edited by Sir Nicholas Harris Nic…
“Jim Crow is old. That's not who I'm mindful of today. The problem is that Jim Crow has sons. The one we've got to battle is James Crow Jr., Esq. He's a little more educated. He's a little slicker. He's a little more polished, but the results are the same.”
Al Sharpton (born 1954) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks at the funeral of Rosa Parks (3 November 2005).
“The Puerto Ricans forming the ranks of the gallant 65th Infantry on the battlefields of Korea … are writing a brilliant record of achievement in battle and I am proud indeed to have them in this command. I wish that we might have many more like them.”
Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted on 12 February 1951 in Tokyo
“Mutterings and murmurs, mingling with the rumours of glory, gave rise to fears of an indecisive battle, a precipitate retreat. Insolent voices gave out that a spirit of the lowest category, a guardian angel, the insignificant Arcade, had checked and routed the dazzling host of the three great archangels.”
Anatole France (1844–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do that which I do in every place. Here also, at the gateway of that garden into which time has not entered, I fight with time my ever-losing battle, because to do that diverts me.”
James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just because Charlie and I can clearly see dramatic growth ahead for an industry does not mean we can judge what its profit margins and returns on capital will be as a host of competitors battle for supremacy. At Berkshire we will stick with businesses whose profit picture for decades to come seems reasonably predictable. Even then, we will make plenty of mistakes.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1994 Chairman's Letter
“She will look at you as women look at men, and she will judge you as women judge men — not on the strength of their arguments, and not on their cleverness or prowess in battle, but rather on the force of their character, the intensity of their passion, the strength of their soul, their compassion, and — ah, this above all — their conversation.”
Orson Scott Card (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Such fools they were in Battle School, to let so few girls in. It left the boys completely helpless against a woman when they returned to Earth.”
Orson Scott Card (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So as through a glass, and darkly The age long strife I see Where I fought in many guises, Many names, but always me. And I see not in my blindness What the objects were I wrought, But as God rules o'er our bickerings It was through His will I fought. So forever in the future, Shall I battle as of yore, Dying to be born a fighter, But to die again, once more.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The military career of most of the people who aimed these accusations at us was notable for a consistent absence from the front, on the principle of "weit vom Schuss gibt alte Kreiger" - "far from the battle makes old soldiers.”
Erwin Rommel (1891–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God of our fathers, known of old, Lord of our far-flung battle line, Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine— Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget—lest we forget!”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't lecture me on race relations. I don't have a molecule of prejudice. I've been in battle with every kind of man there is. I've been in bed with every kind of woman there is — from a Laplander to a Tierra del Fuegian. If I'd ever been to the South Pole, there'd be a hell of a lot of penguins who looked like me.”
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The appeal to the decisiveness and masculine sobriety of the nation’s youth, with which Roosevelt here calls his readers to battle, is reminiscent of the ways and means by which Fascism awakened the Italian people.”
Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mussolini’s book review in Popolo d’Italia (July 7, 1933) Cited from Marco Sedda, “Il New Deal nella pubblicisticà politica italiana dal 1933 al 1938,” Il politico, vol. 64 (1999), p. 250
“It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins. To make a people great it is necessary to send them to battle even if you have to kick them in the pants. That is what I shall do.”
Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark to Galeazzo Ciano (11 April 1940), quoted in Famous Lines : A Columbia Dictionary of Familiar Quotations (1997) by Robert Andrews. p. 330
“We go to battle against the plutocratic and reactionary democracies of the west... This gigantic struggle is nothing other than a phase in the logical development of our revolution; it is the struggle of peoples that are poor but rich in workers against the exploiters who hold on ferociously to the monopoly off all the riches and all the gold of the earth...”
Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Declaration of War on France and England,” Mussolini Speech on June 10, 1940
“This is the final battle – they know it, I know it, you know it, everybody knows it. Either they win, or we win. And I promise you this: If you put me back in the White House, their reign will be over, and America will be a free nation once again.”
Donald Trump (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The battle of the Falklands was a remarkable military operation, boldly planned, bravely executed, and brilliantly accomplished. We owe an enormous debt to the British forces and to the Merchant Marine. We honour them all. They have been supported by a people united in defence of our way of life and of our sovereign territory.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (15 June 1982)
“The battle for women's rights has been largely won. The days when they were demanded and discussed in strident tones should be gone for ever. And I hope they are. I hated those strident tones that you still hear from some Women's Libbers'.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech on Women in a changing World (26 July 1982)
“It is simple dog-eat-dog,” said Waylock. It’s basic battle for survival, fiercer and more brutal than ever before in the history of man. You have blinded yourself; you subscribe to false theories; you are permeated with your obsession—not only you but all of us. If we faced the facts of existence, our palliatories would be less crowded.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to those who see it coming and jump aside.”
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Looking at this insolent earth, you hear the first battle cry of our species- trap it under a rock and together, screaming, attack and destroy it, as if killing a mammoth.”
Nâzım Hikmet (1901–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth is, no study is possible on the battle-field; one does there simply what one can in order to apply what one knows. Therefore, in order to do even a little, one has already to know a great deal and to know it well.”
Ferdinand Foch (1851–1929) said by 1929 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So was victory turned into defeat, and Billy's jaw became squarer and his eye more full of the light of battle than ever.”
P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The State is competent to assign duties and draw the line between good and evil only in its immediate sphere. Beyond the limits of things necessary for its well-being, it can only give indirect help to fight the battle of life by promoting the influences which prevail against temptation, — religion, education, and the distribution of wealth.”
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The barbarian chieftain, who defended his country against the Roman invasion, driven to the remotest extremity of Britain, and stimulating his followers to battle, by all that has power of persuasion upon the human heart, concludes his exhortation by an appeal to these irresistible feelings — "Think of your forefathers and of your posterity.”
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) said by 1848 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After a struggle longer and far more terrible than anyone could have foretold, the soil of Britain remains inviolate. Our Navy has everywhere held the seas, and wherever the enemy could be brought to battle it has renewed the glories of Drake and Nelson.”
George V (1865–1936) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the Royal Gallery of the Palace of Westminster (19 November 1918), quoted in The Times (20 November 1918), p. 7
“Even soldiers in battle have to be brought to a special state of mental excitement to shoot total strangers.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes, well…actual combat…is a lot stupider than I’d imagined. If two groups can cooperate to the incredible extent it takes to meet in battle, why not put in a tenth that effort to talk?”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Not when the enemy is me.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.”
Philip Roth (1933–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Being a Christian means that I am called upon to do battle against lies, injustice, cruelty, hypocrisy — you know, all the virtues in the church of liberalism.”
Ann Coulter (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your children's losing battle with time seems even sadder than your own.”
John Updike (1932–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Illustrating Tolkien means treading warily, dipping one's brush in shadow and rinsing them in light. Battle and balance, down the impossible path between the clear and the obscure.”
John Howe (illustrator) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Tolkien's World: Paintings of Middle-Earth (1992) published by MJF Books
“Just to show you how little reliance can be placed even on what are supposed the best accounts of a battle, I mention that there are some circumstances mentioned in General —'s account which did not occur as he relates them. It is impossible to say when each important occurrence took place, or in what order.”
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) first seen 1815 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wellington's papers (17 August 1815), as quoted in The History of England from the Accession of James II (1848) by Thomas Babington Macaulay
“Not at all. If I had lost the battle, they would have shot me.”
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've seen America in this campaign, and I like what I see. It's worth fighting for and that's a fight I'll never stop. As for the battle that ends tonight, I do believe, as my father once said, that "No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out.”
Al Gore (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dead bodies of their parents they cut up with their sheep, and devour at their feasts. They who have not died so as to become food for others, are thought to have died an accursed death. Their women are not by their sex softened to modesty. They uncover the breast, from which they suspend their battle-axes, and prefer warfare to marriage.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People at the top do not want to share their power. They’ve always got some marvellous reason: I’m following my religion; I’m following the laws of economics. Even Stalin: I’m representing the vanguard of the working class, so please don’t cause trouble. That is the battle that every generation has, and yet we mustn’t be pessimistic about it...”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tony Benn interview “Hope is the key, Share International” (January 2003)
“Blinkin Aaahhhh, you lost your arms in battle, but you grew some nice boobs (Blinkin gropes the Venus De Milo statue left behind after creditors take away Loxley Castle)”
Mel Brooks (born 1926) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain [and] the noise of battle. [It] has the power to give grief or universality that lends it a youthful beauty.”
John Cheever (1912–1982) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Accepting National Medal for Literature (April 27, 1982).
“Life is a roar of bargain and battle, but in the very heart of it there rises a mystic spiritual tone that gives meaning to the whole. It transmutes the dull details into romance. It reminds us that our only but wholly adequate significance is as parts of the unimaginable whole. It suggests that even while living we are living to ends outside ourselves”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the Harvard Alumni Association to the Class of '61, in Speeches (1913), p. 96.
“I'm not saying the battle is won But on Saturday night all those kids in the sun Wrested technology's sword from the hands of the warlords Ooh, the tide is turning Ooh, the tide is turning.”
Roger Waters (born 1943) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)", on Radio K.A.O.S. (1987)
“What do you gain, Soviet Union, from this miserable policy? Where is your decency? Would it be a disgrace for you to give up this battle?”
Golda Meir (1898–1978) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the suppression of freedom of Jews in the USSR to the World Conference on Soviet Jewry, Brussels, in The New York Times (20 February 1976)
“Of all the passions that inspire a man in a battle, none, we have to admit, is so powerful and so constant as the longing for honor and renown.”
Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source