Quotes About Combat

A duel is just two murders who agree to take turns trying to kill each other.

Because here's the thing?we don't give a shit about fairness here. We're soldiers. Soldiers do not give the other guy a sporting chance. Soldiers shoot in the back, lay traps and ambushes, lie to the enemy and outnumber the other bastard every chance they get. Your kind of murder only works among civilians. And you were too cocky, too stupid, too insane to realize it.

The enemy's gate is down.

Strategies and formations were nice, but they were nothing if the soldiers didn't know how to handle themselves in battle.

There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy show you where you are weak. Only the enemy shows you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. – Mazer Rackham

We do have a right to defend ourselves as best we can, and the only way we found that works is killing the buggers before they kill us.

There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. I am your enemy from now on. From now on I am your teacher.

The other boys started to complain that pushing off walls was movement, not combat. There is no combat without movement, Ender said.

Fairness is a wonderful attribute, Major Anderson. It has nothing to do with war.

Until you know that you're tougher than the enemy, you maneuver, you don't commit to battle.

When armies benefit from being perceived as necessary, and war provides a means of gaining prestige and leverage over the government," said Loaf. "Then victory ends a very profitable game. So you play the game of war only fervently enough to keep your military budget high. Nations can get used to a fairly high level of combat attrition without noticing or caring that nobody's actually trying to win, and nothing but the lives of a few soldiers is at stake.

That's how war is fought, in case any of you have foolish ideas to the contrary. You don't fight with minimum force, you fight with maximum force at endurable cost. You don't just pink your enemy, you don't even bloody him, you destroy his capability to fight back. It's the strategy you use with diseases.

So when war can't be avoided, you fight in such a way as to reveal to the enemy how war is destroying him. When he finally sees it, he stops.

There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you.

No hay más maestro que el enemigo. Nadie sino el enemigo te dirá lo que va a hacer el enemigo. Nadie sino el enemigo te enseñará a destruir y conquistar. Sólo el enemigo te enseña tus puntos débiles. Sólo el enemigo te enseña sus puntos fuertes. Y las únicas reglas del juego son qué puedes hacerle y qué puedes impedir que él te haga.

Ender conocía las reglas nunca dichas de la guerra entre hombres, aunque sólo tuviera seis años. Estaba prohibido golpear al oponente caído indefenso en el suelo; sólo un animal lo haría. Precisamente por eso se acercó al cuerpo inerme de Stilson y le dio otra parada en las costillas, con saña.

Violence was what the military existed for. Controlled violence directed against appropriate targets.

The soldiers called the bullets Lazarus pills: when possible, they could be picked up and used again.

Los que no pueden recordar la sangre de la guerra son siempre los más ardientes para la lucha.

Toadvine was four steps above him and when he kicked him he caught him in the throat.

Colonel. I'm here to kill people. And if I dont get to kill people I'm going to be a hard motherfucker to live with. And if you're not here to kill people you need to let me know. Because I dont want to work for you. And then he hung the phone up. And I knew that he was my kind of guy. He was a warmongering motherfucker.

A week later I went on R and R and three weeks after that I was back in an AC-130 all strapped in and ready to die all over again.

I fireballed him as he was seeking out treasure after we wiped out a band of orcs, playing rock-paper-scissors with each orc to determine who would prevail in combat. This is a lot more exciting than it sounds. It's quite civilized, and a little weird. You go running after someone through the woods, catch up with him, bare your teeth, and sit down to play a little roshambo.

The mighty bosoms of Big-Boobied Bertha had killed many a Warrior in mortal combat.