Mine is probobly

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

- George Orwell

It just really hits me at how true this is, and how we civilians can get so caught up with how horrible this stuff is, when were not even involved. Really makes you think.

It's hard to pick out one favorite quote, but I think the best one I've heard is:

"Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum".
("If you wan't peace, prepare for war")
- Flavius Vegetius Renatus. Roman Military strategist. c. 390. A.D.

This quote says everything about why I (and I hope most others) chose to work in the Military.

I have to throw in another one:

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."
-General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Ach, there's but so many to choose from!

'Who Dares, Wins'
-22nd SAS Regiment

For the sheer daring of how they handle their task.

"The man who has formed a clear notion of the nature of war, of its necessities, requirements and consequences, to wit, the soldier, will take a far more serious view of the potentialities of war than the politician or the business man who coldly weighs its advantages and disadvantages. After all, it is not so difficult to sacrifice one's own life, but the professional duty of risking the lives of others weighs heavily on the conscience. The soldier, having experience of war, fears it more than the doctrinaire who, being ignorant of war, talks only of peace; for the soldier has gazed into war's bloodshot eyes, he has observed from his point of vantage the battle-fields of a world war, he has to witness the agonies of nations, his hair has turned grey over the ashes of countless burned homesteads and he has borne the responsibility for the life and death of thousands. The figure of the saber-rattling, fire-eating general is an invention of poisoned and unscrupulous political strife, a figure welcomed to stupid comic papers, a catchword personified. There is no reason why the soldier's attitude towards war should not be called "pacifism." It is pacifism established on knowledge and born of a sense of responsibility, but it is not the pacifism engendered by national abasement or by a hazy internationalism. The soldier will be the first to welcome any effort to diminish the potentialities of war, but he does not march down the street to the slogan of "No more war!" because he knows that war and peace are decided by higher powers than princes, statesmen, parliaments, treaties and alliances-they are decided by the eternal laws which govern the growth and decay of nations. But the kind of pacifist who would deliberately make his own nation defenseless in such fateful encounters, who prefers to weaken it in alliance with a hostile neighbor rather than support his fellow-countrymen in preparation for legitimate resistance, deserves, as he always did, to be hanged to the nearest lamp-post, were it only a moral one."


-Colonel-General Hans von Seekt, Prussian military

Self explainatory.

I myself do like the SAS motto, mainly cause I think it reflects well on life, that is if your not going to take chances, then you can never advance.

yeah, sorry about the repost thing, just had to put my name on it. because i know you all care so much.



The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke





My path is clear here: I am to love my neighbor as myself, in the manner needed, in a practical way, in the midst of the fallen world, at my particular point of history. This is why I am not a pacifist. Pacifism in this poor world in which we live -- this lost world -- means that we desert the people who need our greatest help.
- Francis Schaeffer, 1984


sorry, had to throw that one in too, but you know what the tv says, double the pleasure double the fun.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke

I don’t know who saw the CBS Special Hitler: The Rise of Evil, but that quote was one of the centerpiece messages expressed in the film.

Can't say I have any single favourite.

"Of every one hundred men, Ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are nothing but targets, Nine are real fighters...We are lucky to have them...They make the battle.
Ah, but the One, One of them is a Warrior...and He will bring the others back."

-Hericletus (circa 500 B.C.)

Now what do they say again about all that hero-stuff being crap

"To set the cause above reknown,
To love the game beyond the prize,
To honor while you strike him down,
The foe that comes with fearless eyes;
To count the life of battle good
And dear the land that gave you birth,
And dearer yet the brother hood
That binds the brave of all the earth."

- Sir Henry Newbolt

"There is a time to kill, a time to heal" Ecclesiastes 3:3a

"Skill in battle is of little use if you do not have a life worth fighting for."

? Sweyn Plowright, from True Helm

I could add pages, but I'll stop now. I should arrange my collection of quotes sometimes, and add a favourites section..though it might prove impossible to select from a thousands

"I must not fear. Fear is the mindkiller. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will allow it to pass over and through me, and when it is gone I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
-Frank Herbert

You got some good taste, why not sign up!

"I am become Death, shatterer of worlds."
- Robert Oppenheimer, after seeing the tests of the atomic bomb

I'm a Chemist, so that appeals to me.

Also, the quote by John Stuart Mill, which starts: "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest thing . . . "

And as a human being, this also appeals to me:
"In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they cam for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me - and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
Martin Niemoller

Very similar to "All that is needed for evil to trimuph is for good men to do nothing", but I find this one much more personal.

Hi there D_Plus_One.
Welcome to the forum.

Good choice of quotes ther.

You can find the complete Oppenheimer quote here:
http://www.military-quotes.com/database/o.htm