Quotes About Battle

be always best in battle and pre-eminent beyond all others

Untimely sent; they on the battle plain Unburied lay, a prey to rav'ning dogs, And carrion birds; but so had Jove decreed

their aggression reaches330 the iron sky.

My good friend, if, when we were once out of this fight, we could escape old age and death thenceforward and for ever, I should neither press forward myself nor bid you do so, but death in ten thousand shapes hangs ever over our heads, and no man can elude him; therefore let us go forward and either win glory for ourselves, or yield it to another.

Xanthus, you waste your breath by prophesying my destruction. I know well enough that I am doomed to perish here...Nevertheless, I am not going to stop until I have given the Trojans their bellyful of war.

There was no room for fear in Achilles' heart and he sprang at the Trojans with his terrible war-cry.

Man, supposing you and I, escaping this battle, would be able to live on forever, ageless, immortal, so neither would I myself go on fighting in the foremost 325  nor would I urge you into the fighting where men win glory. But now, seeing that the spirits of death stand close about us in their thousands, no man can turn aside nor escape them, let us go on and win glory for ourselves, or yield it to others.

So the gods pulled alternately on the rope of this violent and evenly balanced battle, to make it taut over the two sides. The rope was indestructible and no one could break it; but it broke many men.

Alles wird man ja satt, des schlafes sogar, und der liebe, Auch des süßen gesangs, und bewunderten reigentanzes: Welche doch mehr anreizen die sehnsuchtsvolle begierde, Als der krieg; doch die Troer sind niemals satt des gefechts! (Ilias; 13. Gesang V. 636-640)

Sprachs, und entsandte den speer; ihn richtete Pallas Athene Grad am aug in die nas; und die schimmernden zähne durchdrang sie; Auch die zung and der wurzel entschnitt das gewaltie erz ihm, Daß die stürmende Spitze am unteren Kinne hinausfuhr. (Ilias; fünfter Gesang V. 290-293)

Of men who have a sense of honor, more come through alive than are slain, but from those who flee comes neither glory nor any help.

On with you, horse-taming Trojans! Never give Greeks best in your will to fight! They are not made of stone or iron. Their flesh can't keep out penetrating spears when they are hit.

Jackson became a national hero when in 1814 he fought the Battle of Horseshoe Bend against a thousand Creeks and killed eight hundred of them, with few casualties on his side. His white troops had failed in a frontal attack on the Creeks, but the Cherokees with him, promised governmental friendship if they joined the war, swam the river, came up behind the Creeks, and won the battle for Jackson.

Weapons are the tools of violence; all decent men detest them. Weapons are the tools of fear; a decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity and, if compelled, will use them only with the utmost restraint. Peace is the highest value.… He enters a battle gravely, with sorrow and with great compassion, as if he were attending a funeral. (ch. 31) That

He cursed himself and cursed the hubris which had made him so sure the battle was won and the enemy in flight.

Waldron took care to convey confidence, to assure his men that they were the best torpedo squadron in the fleet, and even to guarantee that the squadron would score hits on the Japanese carriers in the coming battle.

Dixon prompted a round of applause on the Yorktown and Lexington when he radioed back the prearranged message: "Scratch one flattop! Dixon to Carrier, Scratch one flattop!

War, once declared, must be waged offensively, aggressively. The enemy must not be fended off, but smitten down." The enemy must be met and destroyed in a "decisive battle

forces in Batjan on June 11.61

The truth was that no one, not even Admirals Fletcher or Spruance, knew precisely how the battle was unfolding. It was too big, too spread out; too much was happening at once, and what little data could be pieced together may or may not be reliable. They were all feeling their way through the fog of war.

Shattered Sword

He would not be deterred by subtle arguments of strategy and tactics—he would simply throw everything he had at the enemy and slug it out until the issue was decided.

All the ships flew huge American battle flags from mastheads," he said. "Ships knifing through huge breaking blue swells, boiling wakes from high-speed ships, flags flying. . . . It was a scene I will never forget.

Even so, the Americans had needed more than a few strokes of good luck. The battle had been a near-run thing, and easily might have gone the other way.