Admiral. That part of a warship which does the talking while the figurehead does the thinking.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
‘Tis the soldier’s life to have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man’s associates find him guilty of being phony, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore is integrity and high purpose.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
A great war leaves the country with three armies—an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.
—German Proverb
The best armor is to keep out of gun shot.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Secret operations are essential in war; upon them the army relies to make its every move.
—Sun Tzu (fl.c.544–496 BCE) Chinese General, Military Theorist
In this country it’s a good thing to kill an admiral now and then to encourage the others.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Armies, though always the supporters and tools of absolute power for the time being, are always its destroyers too, by frequently changing the hands in which they think proper to lodge it.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist
Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Nothing can be more hurtful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army the superiority over another.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
Rogues, would you live forever?
—Frederick II of Prussia (1712–86) Prussian Monarch
The greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
That’s what an army is—a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
O the joy of the strong-brawn’d fighter, towering in the arena in perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist
Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I must have the gentleman to haul and draw with the mariner, and the mariner with the gentleman. I would know him, that would refuse to set his hand to a rope, but I know there is not any such here.
—Francis Drake (1540–96) English Military Leader, Politician
War is too important a matter to be left to the military.
—Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929) French Statesman, Physician, Journalist
Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach.
—Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) Soviet Leader
Every man who expresses an honest thought is a soldier in the army of intellectual liberty.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
The mass, whether it be a crowd or an army, is vile.
—Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Italian Head of State, Politician
What makes a regiment of soldiers a more noble object of view than the same mass of mob? Their arms, their dresses, their banners, and the art and artificial symmetry of their position and movements.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Standing armies can never consist of resolute robust men; they may be well-disciplined machines, but they will seldom contain men under the influence of strong passions, or with very vigorous faculties.
—Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97) English Writer, Feminist
The army is a good book in which to study human life.—One learns there to put his hand to everything.—The most delicate and rich are forced to see poverty and live with it; to understand distress; and to know how rapid and great are the revolutions and changes of life.
—Alfred-Victor, count de Vigny (1797–1863) French Poet, Dramatist
Those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Writer, Poet, Novelist, Short Story Author
It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
Soldiers have many faults, but they have one redeeming merit; they are never worshippers of force. Soldiers more than any other men are taught severely and systematically that might is not right. The fact is obvious. The might is in the hundred men who obey. The right (or what is held to be right) is in the one man who commands them.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
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