Favorite Military Quotes

[Chas]

"After a victory, tighten your helmet cords." ~ Tokugawa Ieyasu

"It is a good day to fight! It is a good day to die! Strong hearts, brave hearts to the front! Weak hearts and cowards to the rear." ~ Crazy Horse

"It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking." ~ Julius Caesar

"Where is Grouchy?" ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

 

[BigFitz]

Since Iran has started to increase tensions in the middle east lately, it brought to mind this quote:

'I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National city Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.'

Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

 

[DNO]

Since Iran has started to increase tensions in the middle east lately, it brought to mind this quote:

'I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National city Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.'

Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

Interesting quote. Thanks for posting it. "...muscle man for Big Business..." Refreshing candor.

 

[Cicero]

I always liked this one from Patton.

"No ba***rd ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb ba***rd die for his country."

 

[Stanley Doble]

"General Grant is a great general. I know him well. He stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk; and now, sir, we stand by each other always."

- William Tecumseh Sherman


"Lucian Truscott could chew up a ham like Patton without bothering to pick his teeth"

- War correspondent Bill Mauldin

 

[Tony B]

Brigadier Tom Brodie "A bit sticky, things are pretty sticky down there."

This line probably lead to his battalion being pretty much destroyed by the chinese during the korean war, his american comanders didn't realise this was english for we are massively outnumbered and about to be overun and should be either pulled out or re-enforced HELP!......undersatement has it place but that wasn't the time or the place.

Quote I remember from years ago from a british para officer but dont remember who.

"The para regiment NEVER retreats, they just advance in another direction sometimes"

Another line from an old fallschirmjäger I used to know who was at Arnhem....untill he saw the polish paras landing.

"They shot me in the arse, you kow why they shot me in the arse...I was running away so it was the only bit they could hit"

I was going to do the general Sedgewick quote but renault beat me to it so I thought a bit of light relief might go down well, refreshingly honest as well.

 

[Widebrim]

Since Iran has started to increase tensions in the middle east lately, it brought to mind this quote:

'I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National city Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.'

Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

He pretty much nailed on the head American foreign policy for the first quarter of the 20th century. I wish more commanders would be as honest.

 

[BigFitz]

Interesting quote. Thanks for posting it. "...muscle man for Big Business..." Refreshing candor.

He has a few others that I like and I think the next book on my reading list will be his biography.

'A few profit - and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.'

'Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.'

'War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.'

 

[Widebrim]

^^You may fire when ready, "Smedley"...and boy, did he...

 

[MikePotts]

"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordian" - Jed Babbin

source:http://www.snopes.com/quotes/babbin.asp

MP

 

[Noirblack]

Two from 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."


"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

 

[WH1]

He has a few others that I like and I think the next book on my reading list will be his biography.

'A few profit - and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.'

'Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.'

'War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.'

He also wrote a very interesting and very slim volume called fittingly enough "War Is A Racket"

http://www.google.com/products/cata...a=X&ei=eXUDT43zEIibtweEv9yzAQ&ved=0CEQQ8wIwAg

Old Gimlet Eye was one heck of a Marine. Tough, honest and integrity to spare. He was much loved and respected by the grunts in his day. Two time recipient Medal of Honor (once officers were allowed to receive it) and one Brevet Medal (in lieu of MOH when it was an enlisted only award). He also allegedly stopped a coup against FDR. He was in many ways the anti-MacArthur, probably why most Americans have no damned idea who he was. Too bad in my opinion.

 

[BigFitz]

He was in many ways the anti-MacArthur, probably why most Americans have no damned idea who he was. Too bad in my opinion.

Agreed.

 

[DNO]

General Smedley Butler...new to me but obviously a man who gained a different perspective once he was out of that environment. I'll have to find out more about this gentleman. As I said in an earlier post, refreshing. Most officers of that sort of rank seem to be too busy blowing their own horn to be so honest.

 

[old barnacle]

Ancient Greece
"Leonidas, their arrows darken the sky !"
"Beautiful, now we can fight in the shade !"

Greatwar
"Something´s wrong with our bloody ships today !"
Admiral Beatty after three battlecruisers blew up

WW 2
"Never was so much owed by so many to so few"
Churchill

"Ich will Meyer heissen, wenn auch nur eine Bombe auf das Ruhrgebiet fällt !"
("I will call myself Meyer if a single bomb is dropped on the Ruhrgebiet !")
Hermann Meyer, ex Goering

"Nuts !"
McAuliffe

Vietnam, battle of Hue
Reporter : "How many times have you been injured ?"
Marine : "You mean today ?"

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

"Victory has many fathers but defeat is an orphan."
...Erwin Rommel

 

[1961MJS]

Wasn't it Gen. Sedgewick during the Wilderness campaign that said, after being warned of Confederate sharpshooters in the area;

"They couldn't hit and elephant at this ran........."

Hi

I live in Sedgwick County, named after the general in question. I want to put that quote on our Rifle Team t-shirts with his picture on the front, and that wood cut picture on the back showing him lying on the ground dead, but NOOOOOO, the team Mommies won't let me dammit.

Full quote:

"As the bullets whistled by, some of the men dodged. The general said laughingly, " What! what! men, dodging this way for single bullets! What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." A few seconds after, a man who had been separated from his regiment passed directly in front of the general, and at the same moment a sharp-shooter's bullet passed with a long shrill whistle very close, and the soldier, who was then just in front of the general, dodged to the ground. The general touched him gently with his foot, and said, " Why, my man, I am ashamed of you, dodging that way," and repeated the remark, " They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." The man rose and saluted and said good-naturedly, " General, I dodged a shell once, and if I hadn't, it would have taken my head off. I believe in dodging." The general laughed and replied, "All right, my man; go to your place."
For a third time the same shrill whistle, closing with a dull, heavy stroke, interrupted our talk; when, as I was about to resume, the general's face turned slowly to me, the blood spurting from his left cheek under the eye im a steady stream. He fell in my direction ; I was so close to him that my effort to support him failed, and I fell with him."

From: http://www.civilwarhome.com/sedgwickdeath.htm

Later

 

[MisterCairo]

• Better to die voluntarily crashing than to have the enemy send you down in flames.
• The Air Age faces mankind with a sharp choice - the choice between Winged Peace or Winged Death. It's up to you.

Air Vice-Marshall William Avery (Billy) Bishop

 

[Otter]

"Only the dead have seen the end of war" Plato

 

[Phantomfixer]

Old Barnacle
Vietnam, battle of Hue
Reporter : "How many times have you been injured ?"
Marine : "You mean today ?"

nice :eusa_clap
BTW wonder why the Marine didn't correct the reporter for confusing wounded and injured....
John