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Quotes About Armies

Once the command of the air is obtained by one of the contending armies, the war becomes a conflict between a seeing host and one that is blind.
~ H. G. Wells
The armies of the night are faceless and mindless and the modern equivalent of Visigoths, but when they have a leader, their time in history rolls around again.
~ James Lee Burke
included the destruction of any property or other resources used to sustain Confederate armies as well as of those armies themselves.
~ James M. McPherson
The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.
~ James Madison
In the past, war was confined for the most part to men in uniform, but with increased mechanization of armies and the introduction of air forces, there is an increased dependence on the home country, and eight to ten people working at home are now required to keep one man in the fighting line.
~ Frederick Banting
Were there no uniforms, there would probably be no armies.
~ Benjamin Banneker
By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall stipulate freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce against monopolies, trial by juries in all cases, no suspensions of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are fetters against doing evil which no honest government should decline.
~ Thomas Jefferson
It is a matter worthy of observation, that the more a country is peopled, the smaller their armies are. In military numbers, the ancients far exceeded the moderns: and the reason is evident, for trade being the consequence of population, men become too much absorbed thereby to attend to any thing else. Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence. And history sufficiently informs us, that the bravest achievements were always accomplished in the non age of a nation.
~ Thomas Paine
If nobody will be so kind as to become my foe, I shall need no more fleets nor armies, and shall be forced to reduce my taxes.
~ Thomas Paine
National armies fight nations, royal armies fight their like, the first obey a mob, always demented and the second a king, generally sane.
~ J. F. C. Fuller
Either the century was entrenching itself more deeply into the absurd, or the absurd was delivering evidence that it was possessed of some of the nutritive mysteries of a marrow which would yet feed the armies of the absurd.
~ Norman Mailer
Ender understood more than she said. Manipulation of gravity was one thing; deception by the officers was another; but the most important message was this: the adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth.
~ Orson Scott Card
These other armies, they aren't the enemy. It's the teachers, they're the enemy.
~ Orson Scott Card
The world is always a democracy in times of flux, and the man with the best voice will win. Everybody thinks Hitler got to power because of his armies, because they were willing to kill, and that's partly true, because in the real world power is always built on the threat of death and dishonor. But mostly he got to power on words, on the right words at the right time.
~ Orson Scott Card
I've got a pretty good idea what children are, and we're not children. Children can lose sometimes, and nobody cares. Children aren't in armies, they aren't commanders, they don't rule over forty other kids
~ Orson Scott Card
Most armies practiced mass maneuvers, preformed strategies. Ender had none. Instead he trained his toon leaders to use their small units effectively in achieving limited goals. Unsupported, alone, on their own initiative.
~ Orson Scott Card
The war has naught to do with slaves, cried Congress, the President, and the Nation; and yet no sooner had the armies, East and West, penetrated Virginia and Tennessee than fugitive slaves appeared within their lines.
~ W.E.B. Du Bois
A great war leaves the country with three armies — an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.
~ German proverb
Disease was more powerful than armies. Disease was more arbitrary than terrorism. Disease was crueler than human imagination. And yet young people like these doctors were willing to stand in the way of the most fatal force that nature has to offer.
~ Lawrence Wright
Ironically, societies characterized by a complex division of labor are often marked by inequality and support large specialized armies. Precisely these "civilized" societies are likely to resort to savage violence in their attempts to conquer "primitive" societies.22
~ James W. Loewen
sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.… —THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to a friend, 1816
~ Hedrick Smith
Shame on military glory, shame on armies, shame on the soldier's profession, which changes men, some into stupid victims, others into base executioners. Yes shame, that's true – but it's too true, it's true in eternity, but not yet for us.
~ Henri Barbusse
Civilized nations, however, do not use their armies and fleets to open one another's ports to trade. What they use their armies and fleets for, is, when they quarrel, to close one another's ports. ... What protection teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.
~ Henry George
The highest form of warfare Is to attack [the enemy's] Strategy itself; The next, To attack [his] Alliances. The next, To attack Armies;
~ Henry Kissinger