# Sun Tzu, The Art of War. Lionel Giles translation, 1910 (Project Gutenberg #132).
All warfare is based on deception.
Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
Rapidity is the essence of war.
In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.
There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.
The art of war is of vital importance to the State.
Move not unless you see an advantage.
#
# Carl von Clausewitz, On War. J. J. Graham translation, 1873 (Project Gutenberg #1946).
War is a mere continuation of policy by other means.
Everything is very simple in War, but the simplest thing is difficult.
War is the province of danger.
War is the province of chance.
War is the province of uncertainty.
#
# William Shakespeare, Henry V, c. 1599 (Project Gutenberg #100).
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
The game's afoot!
All things are ready, if our minds be so.
Every subject's duty is the King's; but every subject's soul is his own.
He which hath no stomach to this fight, let him depart.
Cry, 'God for Harry! England and Saint George!'
#
# William Shakespeare, other plays (Project Gutenberg #100).
# Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
# Shakespeare, Henry IV
The better part of valour is discretion.
# Shakespeare, Richard III
A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!
#
# Wilfred Owen (died 1918), Poems, 1920 (Project Gutenberg #1034).
The Poetry is in the pity.
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
#
# Rupert Brooke (died 1915), The Soldier, 1914 (Project Gutenberg #262).
There's some corner of a foreign field / That is for ever England.
#
# Rudyard Kipling (died 1936), Barrack-Room Ballads, 1892 (Project Gutenberg #2819).
It's 'Saviour of 'is country' when the guns begin to shoot.
It's 'Thin red line of 'eroes' when the drums begin to roll.
#
# Alfred, Lord Tennyson (died 1892), The Charge of the Light Brigade, 1854 (Wikisource). 'Theirs' is respelled from the 1855 printing's 'Their's'.
Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them, / Cannon to left of them.
#
# Napoleon, Maxims of War. Sir G. C. D'Aguilar translation, 1831 (Project Gutenberg #50750).
When you have resolved to fight a battle, collect your whole force. Dispense with nothing.
A single battalion sometimes decides the day.
The first qualification of a soldier is fortitude under fatigue and privation.
The transition from the defensive to the offensive is one of the most delicate operations.
#
# Antiquity. Vegetius in John Clarke's translation, 1767. Caesar in the original Latin, plus the customary rendering (via Wikiquote).
# Vegetius
He who desires peace should prepare for war.
# Julius Caesar
Veni, vidi, vici.
The die is cast.
#
# British commanders, 1805 to 1815 (sourcing per Wikiquote and Wikipedia).
# Horatio Nelson, Trafalgar, 1805
England expects that every man will do his duty.
# Horatio Nelson, 1805
Thank God, I have done my duty.
# Horatio Nelson
No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.
# Duke of Wellington
Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
# Duke of Wellington, Waterloo, 1815
Hard pounding this, gentlemen; let's see who will pound longest.
#
# American figures, 1775 to 1917, all died before 1931 (sourcing per Wikiquote, Wikisource and Project Gutenberg #4361).
# William Prescott, Bunker Hill, 1775
Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes.
# Patrick Henry, 1775
Give me liberty, or give me death!
# Nathan Hale, 1776
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
# John Paul Jones, 1779
I have not yet begun to fight!
# John Paul Jones
I intend to go in harm's way.
# Benjamin Franklin, 1783
There never was a good war or a bad peace.
# George Washington, 1790
To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
# Oliver Hazard Perry, 1813
We have met the enemy and they are ours.
# Ulysses S. Grant, 1862
No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.
# Ulysses S. Grant, 1864
I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer.
# Ulysses S. Grant
Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can.
# William T. Sherman, 1864
War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.
# Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, 1863
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
# Abraham Lincoln, 1865
With malice toward none, with charity for all.
# Theodore Roosevelt
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
# Woodrow Wilson, 1917
The world must be made safe for democracy.
#
# George Santayana (died 1952), Soliloquies in England, 1922 (via Wikiquote).
# George Santayana
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
#
# Franklin D. Roosevelt, official addresses: 1933 inaugural, fireside chat of 29 Dec 1940, address to Congress of 8 Dec 1941 (Wikisource). US government works.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
We must be the great arsenal of democracy.
A date which will live in infamy.
The American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.
We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.
#
# Dwight D. Eisenhower, Order of the Day, 6 June 1944 (US National Archives milestone document). US government work.
The eyes of the world are upon you.
Your task will not be an easy one.
The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle.
We will accept nothing less than full Victory!
#
# US officers in official statements, 1942 to 1945 (via Wikiquote). US government works.
# Douglas MacArthur, 1942
I shall return.
# Douglas MacArthur, 1945
Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has been won.
# Chester W. Nimitz, on Iwo Jima, 1945
Uncommon valor was a common virtue.
# Anthony McAuliffe, Bastogne, 1944
To the German commander: Nuts!
# Anthony McAuliffe, 1944
We continue to hold Bastogne.
#
# British government wartime posters, 1939 to 1945 (via Wikipedia). Crown copyright expired, 50 years from publication.
# Ministry of Information, 1939
Keep Calm and Carry On.
Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory.
Freedom Is in Peril. Defend It With All Your Might.
# British wartime poster
Careless Talk Costs Lives.
Dig for Victory.
