The military student does not seek to learn from history the minutiae of method and technique. In every age these are influenced by the characteristics of the weapons currently available and the means at hand for maneuvering, supplying, and controlling combat forces. But research does bring to light those fundamental principles, and their combinations and applications, which in the past have produced results.
—General Douglas MacArthur
The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.
—William Ralph Inge
Nothing is worse than that the soldier feels himself neglected in this respect, and to believe himself subject, without his own fault, to an effect to which he is powerless. Defeat would thus appear excusable, and success cannot have a worse enemy than this feeling.
—General Kolmar von Der Goltz, on morale
The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out.
—B. H. Liddell Hart
The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.
—Sir Edward Grey, on the eve of World War I
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
—Theodore Roosevelt
We cannot count on the instinct for survival to protect us against war.
—Ronald Reagan
In war, morale is to material as three is to one.
—Napolean Bonaparte
The Russians can give you arms, but only the United States can give you a selection.
—Anwar Sadat
Nothing is more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.
—Winston Churchill