Quotes About War

Their lives had been different; but one day perhaps he would open this strange book of war, and by the vivid light of personal danger read the lessons it contained.

In the twelve months from June, 1940, to June, 1941, our civilian casualties were 43,381 killed and 50,856 seriously injured, a total of 94,237. Except for

Germany could not gain complete air superiority unless she could knock out our Air Force, and the aircraft industries, some vital portions of which are concentrated at Coventry and Birmingham.

Mr. Jorrocks has described fox hunting as providing all the glory of war with only thirty-five percent of its danger.

The problems of the second year of war must be dealt with by the experience of the first year of war. The problems of the third year of war must be met by results observed and understood in the second, and so on.

Ah, horrible war, amazing medley of the glorious and the squalid, the pitiful and the sublime, if modern men of light and leading saw your face closer, simple folk would see it hardly ever.

War is a hard school, but the British, once compelled to go there, are attentive pupils.

The British people do not, as is sometimes thought, go to war for calculation, but for sentiment

Nothing is more dangerous in wartime than to live in the temperamental atmosphere of a Gallup poll, always feeling one's pulse and taking one's temperature. I see that a speaker at the weekend said that this was a time when leaders should keep their ears to the ground. All I can say is that the British nation will find it very hard to look up to leaders who are detected in that somewhat ungainly posture.

If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.

I do most earnestly beg you not to be diverted from the highway of sound policy in this part of the world, both during the war and at the settlement, by wanderings into the labyrinth of Turkish duplicity and intrigue.

The following French defence has been made, and it cannot be lightly dismissed. If Czechoslovakia had refused to submit, and war had resulted, France would have fulfilled her obligations; but if the Czechs chose to give in under whatever pressures were administered French honour was saved. We must leave this to the judgment of history.

Madness is however an affliction which in war carries with it the advantage of SURPRISE.

Sin embargo, una guerra aplazada puede ser una guerra evitada.

Many things were adopted in the war which we were told were technically impossible, but patience, perseverance, and above all the spur of necessity under war conditions, made men's brains act with greater vigour, and science responded to the demands….

The facts remain that the Serbian reply was not read by the man on whose decision the fate of the world still hung, until nearly sixty hours after it had been delivered at Belgrade; and that before he could act upon it, the irrevocable declaration of war had gone forth from Vienna.

did not overlook the broad principle that in war as in life everything is relative.

The war impulse of Italy has been destroyed, and that unhappy country is paying a terrible penalty for allowing itself to be misled by false and criminal guides. How much easier it is to join bad companions than to shake them off!

I remember that we had a discussion in the war about unity of command, and that Mr. Lloyd George said, It is not a question of one general being better than another, but of one general being better than two.

All's quiet along the Potomac to-night Except now and then a stray picket Is shot, as he walks on his beat to and fro, By a rifleman hid in the thicket.

lines from Byron's Childe Harold: Here, where the sword United Nations drew, Our countrymen were warring on that day! And this is much—and all—which will not pass away.

General Paris received from the representative of the Admiralty the command of the Royal Naval Division which he was destined to hold with so much honour until he fell grievously wounded in his trenches after three years' war. This was the most important military command exercised in the great war by an officer of the Royal Marines.

The old wars were decided by their episodes rather than by their tendencies. In this war the tendencies are far more important than the episodes. Without winning any sensational victories we may win this war.

Statesmen in a crisis, like generals or admirals in war, have often to take fateful decisions without knowing a very large proportion of the essential facts. It is hard to do this, but anything is better than not taking decisions at all.