Quotes by Military Leaders - Page 7

History is written by the winners.
Napoléon Bonaparte
History is a set of lies agreed upon.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Read history, works of truth, not novels and romances
Robert E. Lee
Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.
Napoléon Bonaparte
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Imagination governs the world.
Napoléon Bonaparte
The history of the failure of war can almost be summed up in two words: too late.
Douglas MacArthur
Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.
Colin Powell
It is absolutely necessary... for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders.
George Washington
I conceive a knowledge of books is the basis upon which other knowledge is to be built.
George Washington
Always try to associate yourself with and learn as much as you can from those who know more than you do, who do better than you, who see more clearly than you.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
You don't know what you can get away with until you try.
Colin Powell
The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Colin Powell
You do not lead by hitting people over the head -- that's assault, not leadership.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
Colin Powell
A leader is a dealer in hope.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
A revolution is an idea, taken up by bayonets.
Napoléon Bonaparte
I was admonished to adopt feminine clothes; I refused, and still refuse. As for other avocations of women, there are plenty of other women to perform them.
Jeanne d'Arc
A prince ... is only the first servant of the state, who is obliged to act with probity and prudence. ... As the sovereign is properly the head of a family of citizens, the father of his people, he ought on all occasions to be the last refuge of the unfortunate.
Frederick the Great
It is enough", this malicious man tells us, "to extinguish the line of the defeated prince." Can one read this without quivering in horror and indignation?
Frederick the Great
Independence has made us Soft
Houari Boumediene
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.
George Washington
We must consult our means rather than our wishes.
George Washington
One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts.
George Washington
Diplomacy without arms is like a concert without a score
Frederick the Great
Where are our Men of abilities? Why do they not come forth to save their Country?
George Washington
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group of course that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few other Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Charles de Gaulle
Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?
Charles de Gaulle
Being born in a stable does not make one a horse.
Arthur Wellesley
Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my Commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life. (Address to Congress on Resigning Commission Dec 23, 1783)
George Washington
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction - to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.
George Washington
There are but few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice.
Ulysses S. Grant
The history of free men is never written by chance but by choice - their choice.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
In politics as in philosophy, my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy.
George Washington
If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
Napoléon Bonaparte
If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
George Washington
Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
The distant rear of an army engaged in battle is not the best place from which to judge correctly what is going on in front.
Ulysses S. Grant
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Give me ten thousand Filipino soldiers and I will conquer the world.
Douglas MacArthur
The reflection upon my situation and that of this army produces many an uneasy hour when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people know the predicament we are in.
George Washington
Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.
Arthur Wellesley
i have never advocated war except as a mean of peace
Ulysses S. Grant
Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Douglas MacArthur
Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
Hermann Göring
War means fighting, and fighting means killing.
Nathan Bedford Forrest
My centre is giving way, my right is in retreat, situation excellent. I attack.
Ferdinand Foch
Never send a battalion to take a hill if a regiment is available.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.
George Washington
It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.
Robert E. Lee
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
Dwight D. Eisenhower