Military Officer Quotes

When you're going through hell - just keep on going!

Do not criticize your government when out of the country. Never cease to do so when at home

The reservist is twice the citizen.

'No comment' is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.

I am not sure I should have dared to start; but I am sure that I should not have dared to stop.

Advertising mourishes the consuming power of men. It sets up before a man the goal of a better home, better clothing, better food for himself and his family. It spurs individual exertion and greater production.

There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away. The British people can face peril or misfortune with fortitude and buoyancy, but they bitterly resent being deceived or finding that those responsible for their affairs are themselves dwelling in a fool's paradise.

Science has given to this generation the means of unlimited disaster or of unlimited progress. There will remain the greater task of directing knowledge lastingly towards the purpose of peace and human good.

We should lay aside every hindrance and endeavour by uniting the whole force and spirit of our people to raise again a great British nation standing up before all the world; for such a nation, rising in its ancient vigour, can even at this hour save civilization.

Never give in, never! Be it concerning large things or small things, never, never, never!

In battles two things are usually required of the Commander-in-Chief: to make a good plan for his army and, secondly, to keep a strong reserve.

Baldwin often times stumbles over the truth, but he always picks himself up and hurries on as if nothing had happened.

All babies look like me.But then, I look like all babies.

Let me now warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party. The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another. In governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged.

Plans are worthless. Planning is priceless.

I'd rather spend half an hour in the company of a top carpenter, than three hours in the company of an average brain surgeon

It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

The whole of northern Norway was covered with snow to depths which none of our soldiers had ever seen, felt, or imagined. There were neither snow-shoes nor skis - still less skiers. We must do our best. Thus began this ramshackle campaign.

I never did, nor do I believe I ever shall, give advice to a woman who is setting out on a matrimonial voyage; first, because I never could advise one to marry without her own consent; and, secondly, I know it is to no purpose to advise her to refrain when she has obtained it. A woman very rarely asks an opinion or requires advice on such an occasion, till her resolution is formed; and then it is with the hope and expectation of obtaining a sanction, not that she means to be governed by your disapprobation, that she applies.

There is in the act of preparing, the moment you start caring.

We have no lasting friends, no lasting enemies, only lasting interests.

We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young. The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage.

Personal initiative, competitive selection, the profit motive, corrected by failure and the infinite process of good housekeeping and the personal ingenuity-here constitute the life of a free society.

Your greatest fears are created by your imagination. Don't give in to them.

Nourish your hopes, but do not overlook realities.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

Hess or no Hess, I'm going to watch the Marx Brothers.

I play for high stakes and given an audience - there is no act too daring or too noble.

I commend you, however, for passing the time in as merry a manner as you possibly could; it is assuredly better to go laughing than crying thro' the rough journey of life.

Science should be on tap, not on top.

[My ideal of a good dinner] is to discuss good food, and, after this good food has been discussed, to discuss a good topic - with myself the chief conversationalist.

You haven't learned life's lesson very well if you haven't noticed that you can give the tone or colour, or decide the reaction you want of people in advance. It's unbelievable simply. If you want them to take an interest in you, take an interest in them first. If you want to make them nervous, become nervous yourself...It's as simple as that. People will treat you as you treat them. It's no secret. Look about you. You can prove it with the next person you meet.

Speak not evil of the absent for it is unjust.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

It is easier to give directions than advice, and more agreeable to have the right to act, even in a limited sphere, than the privilege to talk at large.

In the composition of the human frame there is a good deal of inflammable matter, however dormant it may lie for a time.

Let me ... warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party.

Have not Manet and Monet, Cézanne and Matisse, rendered to painting something of the same service which Keats and Shelley gave to poetry after the solemn and ceremonious literary perfections of the eighteenth century? They have brought back to the pictorial art a new draught of joie de vivre; and the beauty of their work is instinct with gaiety, and floats in sparkling air. I do not expect these masters would particularly appreciate my defence, but I must avow an increasing attraction to their work.

It gives me real concern to observe ... that you should think it necessary to distinguish between my personal and public character, and confine your esteem to the former.

Preposition: An enormously versatile part of grammar, as in 'What made you pick this book I didn't want to be read to out of up for?'

Do not conceive that fine clothes make fine men any more than fine feathers make fine birds.

We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human, are created, strengthened and maintained.

I let the argument rip healthily between the departments. This is a very good way to finding out the truth.

To the security of a free Constitution it [knowledge] contributes in various ways: by teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights, to discern and provide against invasions of them, to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority, between burdens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society.

We must take care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, in a respectable defensive posture.

Peace with all the world is my sincere wish. I am sure it is our true policy, and am persuaded it is the ardent desire of the government.

Everyone has a right to pronounce foreign names as he chooses.

For it is fixed principle with me, that whatever is done should be done well.

A man is about as big as the things that make him angry.

I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it - but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by Legislative authority: and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting.

I dare say the men would fight very well if properly officered, although they are an exceedingly dirty and nasty people.

When I'm in office I always keep Members of Parliament talking. If they stopped they might start thinking.

Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

One cannot leap a chasm in two jumps.

Even the most eminent persons are subject to the laws of gravity.

Do what you like, but like what you do.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.