A large collection of military quotes

Military power wins battles, but spiritual power wins wars.
- General George Catlett Marshall

Military glory - that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood.
- Quote by Abraham Lincoln

The majority of people are timid by nature, and that is why they constantly exaggerate danger. All influences on the military leader, therefore, combine to give him a false impression of his opponent's strength, and from this arises a new source of indecision.
- Karl von Clausewitz

Without a doubt, psychological warfare has proven its right to a place of dignity in our military arsenal.
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotes

A piece of spaghetti or a military unit can only be led from the front end.
- General George S. Patton

A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Today's military rejects include tomorrow's hard-core unemployed.
- John F. Kennedy Quotes

As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational art, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that he's a great military man-I want you to know that.
- General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Dead battles, like dead generals, hold the military mind in their dead grip.
Barbara Tuchman

World War II had been such a tremendous success story for this country that the political and military leadership began to assume that they would prevail simply because of who they were. We were like the British at the turn of the 19th century.
- Neil Sheehan

War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.
- Quote by Niccolo Machiavelli

Only one military organization can hold and gain ground in war-a ground army supported by tactical aviation with supply lines guarded by the navy.
- General Omar N. Bradley

I think you also understand that one of the key things that's got to be done in Iraq is to build a mentality of understanding that the military needs to be subordinate to civilian control and respectful of its own people.
- John Abizaid

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.
- Quote by Barry Goldwater

My decision to register women confirms what is already obvious throughout our society-that women are now providing all types of skills in every profession. The military should be no exception.” - Jimmy Carter

We don't thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.
- Golda Meir

A military life has ever comported with my inclination.
- George Stoneman

And like the old soldier in that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the sight to see that duty.
- Douglas MacArthur

A man must know his destiny... if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder... if he has the imagination, he will turn around and fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take, if he has the guts, he will take it.
- General George S. Patton

I had examined myself pretty thoroughly and discovered that I was unfit for military service.
- Joseph Heller

The one thing I never want to see again is a military parade. When I resigned from the army and went to a farm I was happy. When the rebellion came, I returned to the service because it was a duty. I had no thought of rank; all I did was try and make.
- Ulysses S. Grant

As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational art, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that he's a great military man-I want you to know that.
- General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away. And like the old soldier in that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the sight to see that duty. - Quote by Douglas MacArthur

In this war, which was total in every sense of the word, we have seen many great changes in military science. It seems to me that not the least of these was the development of psychological warfare as a specific and effective weapon.
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

You know as well as I do that counterinsurgency is a very nuanced type of military operation.
- John Abizaid

The sergeant was describing a military life. It was all drinking, he said, except that there were frequent intervals of eating and love making.
Charles Dickens Quotes

The military caste did not originate as a party of patriots, but as a party of bandits.
- Henry Louis Mencken

Another source of power in government is a military force. But this, to be efficient, must be superior to any force that exists among the people, or which they can command; for otherwise this force would be annihilated, on the first exercise of acts of oppression. Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealous will instantly inspire the inclination to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive...
- Noah Webster

For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.
- Quote by Winston Churchill

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity. If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.
- Karl von Clausewitz

The pioneers of a warless world are the young men (and women) who refuse military service.
- Albert Einstein

If there is one basic element in our Constitution, it is civilian control of the military.
- Harry S Truman

We owe our troops the opportunity to serve in the best-planned, best-equipped, and best-led military force in the world, and we owe them the peace of mind that comes from knowing that they and their families will be taken care of if they sacrifice life, limb or the ability to sleep without war's nightmares. We owe them not just thanks and best wishes, but action, and action in our nation's capital.
- Senator John Kerry Quotes

Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.
- Quote by George Washington

Man is a military animal, glories in gunpowder, and loves parade.
- Philip James Bailey

It may affront the military-minded person to suggest a regime that does not maintain any military secrets.
- Albert Einstein

Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.
- Groucho Marx

The military weapon is but one of the means that serve the purposes of war: one out of the assortment which grand strategy can employ.
- Sir Basil H. Liddel-Har

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.
- Thomas Jefferson

We have the largest economy and the strongest military in the world. Our core values of freedom and opportunity are ascendant around the globe.
- Quote by Joe Lieberman

Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards... Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.
- Sun Tzu

Military men are the scourges of the world.
- Guy de Maupassant

Well, the reports are correct that we're conducting very robust military operations on the Afghan side of the border in areas where we think al-Qaida is operating and Taliban remnants are.
- John Abizaid

The use of military force against Iran would be very dangerous. It would be very provocative. The only thing worse would be Iran being a nuclear power. - Rudy Giuliani

The law increasing and organizing the military establishment of the United States has been nearly carried into effect, and the Army has been extensively and usefully employed during the past season.
- Martin Van Buren

Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general.
- Barbara W. Tuchman Quotes

Dead battles, like dead generals, hold the military mind in their dead grip and Germans, no less than other peoples, prepare for the last war.
- Barbara W. Tuchman Quotes

When the military man approaches, the world locks up its spoons and packs off its womankind.
- George Bernard Shaw

I believe we can and should have it all. Lower deficits but higher spending. More peace with a bigger military that goes off and kills terrorists and whatnot. A cleaner environment without forcing SUVs off the road.
- Craig Armstrong

There are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army: By commanding the army to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey; This is called hobbling the army. By attempting to govern an army in the same way as he administers a kingdom, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army; This causes restlessness in the soldier's minds. By employing the officers of his army without discrimination, through ignorance of the military principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the soldiers.
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War

The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.
- Quote by John F. Kennedy Quotes