Rogues, would you live forever?
—Frederick II of Prussia (1712–86) Prussian Monarch
Those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
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
The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
The army is the true nobility of our country.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Leader, Historian, Journalist, 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
War is too important a matter to be left to the military.
—Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929) French Statesman, Physician, Journalist
Making the world safe for hypocrisy.
—Thomas Wolfe (1900–38) American Novelist
‘Tis the soldier’s life to have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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
The Royal Navy of England hath ever been its greatest defense and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of the island.
—William Blackstone (1723–80) English Judge, Jurist, Academic
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 greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
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
No profession or occupation is more pleasing than the military; a profession or exercise both noble in execution (for the strongest, most generous and proudest of all virtues is true valor) and noble in its cause. No utility either more just or universal than the protection of the repose or defense of the greatness of one’s country. The company and daily conversation of so many noble, young and active men cannot but be well-pleasing to you.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
The military mind is indeed a menace. Old-fashioned futurity that sees only men fighting and dying in smoke and fire; hears nothing more civilized than a cannonade; scents nothing but the stink of battle-wounds and blood.
—Sean O’Casey (1880–1964) Irish Dramatist, Memoirist
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
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
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
If our soldiers are not overburdened with money, it is not because they have a distaste for riches; if their lives are not unduly long, it is not because they are disinclined to longevity.
—Sun Tzu (fl.c.544–496 BCE) Chinese General, Military Theorist
Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts—a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
We are as near to heaven by sea as by land.
—Humphrey Gilbert (1539–83) English Adventurer, Explorer
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be never so vile. This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Bacchus’ blessings are a treasure; Drinking is the soldier’s pleasure.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
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