"Strength
lies not in defense but in attack."
- Marquis de Acerba
"Battles
are sometimes won by generals; wars are nearly always won by sergeants and
privates."
- F.E. Adcock, British classical scholar
"Go,
therefore, to meet the foe with two objects before you, either victory or
death. For men animated by such a spirit must always overcome their
adversaries, since they go into battle ready to throw away their lives.”
- Scipio
Africanus 202 BC
Roman general
(the conqueror of Hannibal in the Punic Wars),
in an address to the Roman Army before the battle of Zama.
It were better to
be a soldier's widow than a coward's wife.
- Thomas B. Aldrich, 1836-1907
"There is
nothing inevitable about military victory, even for forces of apparently
overwhelming strength. The Greeks at Marathon, Alexander against the Persian
Empire, the success of the colonists against the British in the American
Revolution, Napoleon over the Austrians in Italy... all offer dramatic
evidence to the contrary. In the absence of inspired military leadership...
the more powerful side wears down the weaker."
- Bevin Alexander
"I do not fear an
army of lions, if they are led by a lamb.
I do fear an army of sheep, if they are led by a lion."
- Alexander the Great
"The human
race is in the best condition when it has the greatest degree of
liberty."
- Dante Aligheri
Bullets
cannot be recalled. They cannot be un-invented. But they can be taken out of
the gun.
- Martin Amis
"Choose your
friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you."
- Yassir Arafat
"We
trained very hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form
into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn in this life that we tend
to meet any situation by reorganizing. And a wonderful method it can be for
creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and
demoralization."
-Wrongly attributed to Petronius Arbiter, Roman hedonist, about 60 A.D.
It is not found anywhere in his works. The earliest known occurrence seems to
be in the British occupation force in Germany after WWII. The quote is
believed to be a fabrication from this time.
"Courage!
Do not fall back; in a little the place will be yours. Watch! When the wind
blows my banner against the bulwark, you shall take it"
- Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc). 1429
In the assault on the bridge at Orleans
"In
god's name! Let us go bravely!"
- Joan of Arc, 1429
In the assault on the English fortress of the Augustines.
He, general or mere captain, who employs every
one in the storming of a position can be sure of
seeing it retaken by an organized counterattack of four men and a corporal”
Colonel Ardant du Picq
(Charles-Jean-Jacques-Joseph)
French Military Theorist (1821-1870)
“Frederick
liked to say that three men behind the enemy were worth fifty in front of
him.”
Colonel
Ardant du Picq
"The instruments
of battle are valuable only if one knows how to use them."
Colonel
Ardant du Picq
"The wise
learn many things from their enemies."
- Aristophanes, Greek writer of comedy, c. 448 B.C.–c.
388 B.C.
"We make war that we
may live in peace."
- Aristotle
"He who is to
be a good ruler must have first been ruled."
- Aristotle, Politics
"Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were
destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the
living who are killed in war"
- Isaac Asimov
"The purpose of all war is peace."
- Saint Augustine, 354-430
