Military Officer Quotes

“It is not always possible to have everything go as one likes. In working with allies, it sometimes happens that they develop opinions of their own”

“No socialist government conducting the entire life and industry of the country could afford to allow free, sharp or violently worded expressions of public discontent. They would have to fall back on some form of Gestapo, no doubt very humanly directed in the first instance.”

“I'd rather argue against a hundred idiots, than have one agree with me.”

“Appeasement is feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last.”

“An iron curtain has descended over Europe.”

“Russian may seem narrow-minded, impudent, or even stupid people, but can only pray for those who are against them.”

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”

“I have had a number of threatening letters each week, some telling me the actual time and method of my death, and I don't like it.”

“Personally I think that private property has a right to be defended. Our civilisation is built up on property, and can only be defended by private property.”

“The English never draw a line without blurring it.”

“Still, it is the primary right of men to die and kill for the land they live in, and to punish with exceptional severity all members of their own race who have warmed their hands at the invaders' hearth.”

“I'm bored with it all. Before slipping into a coma. He died 9 days later.”

“The pictorial battlefield becomes a sea of mud mercifully veiled by the fog of war.”

“That long (Canadian) frontier from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, guarded only by neighbourly respect and honourable obligations, as an example to every country and a pattern for the future of the world.”

“Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

“They feed the crocodile in the hope that he will eat them last.”

“There are no limits to the majestic future which lies before the mighty expanse of Canada with its virile, aspiring, cultured, and generous-hearted people.”

“Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear - I fear greatly - the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar, even more loudly, even more widely.”

“I am weary of a task which is done and I hope I shall not shrink when the aftermath ends. My only wish is to live peacefully out the remaining years - if years they be.”

“I am very glad there are quite a number of people born with a gift and a liking for all of this; like great chessplayers who play sixteen games at once blindfold and die quite soon of epilepsy. Serve them right! I hope the Mathematicians, however, are well rewarded. I promise never to blackleg their profession nor take the bread out of their mouths.”

“Never run away from anything. Never!”

“Good night, then - sleep to gather strength for the morning. For the morning will come. Brightly will it shine on the brave and true, kindly on all who suffer for the cause, glorious upon the tombs of heroes. Thus will shine the dawn.”

“It may be that ... when the advance of destructive weapons enables everyone to kill everybody else nobody will want to kill anyone at all. [Referring to the hydrogen bomb.]”

“Don't argue about the difficulties. The difficulties will argue for themselves.”

“There is at least one thing worse than fighting with allies - And that is to fight without them”