In the realm of conflict and strategy, words can hold immense power, capturing the essence of warfare's brutal reality and its profound impact on humanity. Whether you are a history enthusiast, a student of military strategy, or someone seeking inspiration from the past, exploring the thoughts of military leaders, strategists, and philosophers offers a window into their minds and experiences. This meticulously curated collection of the top 36 powerful warfare quotes delves into the complexities and challenges of war, offering timeless insights and reflections that continue to resonate in today's world. Prepare to embark on a journey through stirring words that reveal the strategic brilliance, indomitable spirit, and poignant truths born from the crucible of conflict.
1. “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.” - Robert E. Lee
2. “What passing bells for these who die as cattle?Only the monstrous anger of the guns.Only the stuttering rifle's rapid rattleCan patter out their hasty orisons.No mockeries now for them; no prayers, nor bells,Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells,And bugles calling for them from sad shires.What candles may be held to speed them all?Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes,Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall,Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,And each, slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.” - Wilfred Owen
3. “All Welsh knew was that he was scared shitless, and at the same time was afflicted with a choking gorge of anger that any social coercion existed in the world which could force him to be here.” - James Jones
4. “If the tradition which claims that war may be justified does not also admit that it could be unjustified, the affirmation is not morally serious. A Christian who prepares the case for a justified war without being equally prepared for hte negative case has not soberly weighted the prima facie presumption that any violence is wrong until the case for an exception has been made.” - John Howard Yoder
5. “Modern warfare wasn't supposed to have this much blood in it. The weapons were supposed to cook everyone neatly, like eggs in their shells. (Mark Vorkosigan's first experience with warfare, on seeing Miles Vorkosigan splattered before him)” - Lois McMaster Bujold
6. “As bronze may be much beautified by lying in the dark damp soil, so men who fade in dust of warfare fade fairer, and sorrow blooms their soul.” - Wilfred Owen
7. “In a world gushing blood day and night, you never stop mopping up pain.” - Aberjhani
8. “Thinking about operating at a quicker tempo - not just moving faster - than the adversary was a new concept in waging war. Generating a rapidly changing environment - that is, engaging in activity that is quick it is disorienting and appears uncertain or ambiguous to the enemy - inhibits the adversary's ability to adapt and causes confusion and disorder that, in turn, causes an adversary to overreact or underreact. Boyd closed the briefing by saying the message is that whoever can handle the quickest rate of change is the one who survives.” - Robert Coram
9. “Understanding the OODA loop enables a commander to compress time - that is, the time between observing a situation and taking an action. A commander can use the temporal discrepancy (a form of fast transient) to select the least-expected action rather than what is predicted to be the most effective action. The enemy can also figure out what might be the most effective. To take the least-expected action disorients the enemy. It causes him to pause, wonder, to question.” - Robert Coram
10. “...how impossible itis to really make a choice, when the best choice of all is an option youcouldn’t even imagine.” - Laurie J. Marks
11. “The real warfare of mankind is eternal struggle to earn higher rank in the pyramid of food chain.” - Toba Beta
12. “That's what you get,' he said, nodding towards a group of the men engaged in some close-order military drill, 'when you give people Bibles and guns. You should give 'em either one or the other, but not both. It just messes up their brains.” - K.W. Jeter
13. “Fight ever on: this earthly stuff If used God’s way will be enough. Face to the firing line o friendFight out life’s battle to the end. One soldier, when the fight was red,Threw down his broken sword and fled.Another snatched it, won the day, With what his comrade flung away.” - Edwin Markham
14. “As long as a person is involved with warfare, trying to defend or attack, then his action is not sacred; it is mundane, dualistic, a battlefield situation.” - CHOGYAM TRUNGPA
15. “His men had begun gathering the wounded or stunned into a small group some distance back up the slope. Here and there an animal or human stirred, but not many. There were few cries of pain or fear now. Mostly, it was eerily quiet. Even the insects had ceased their music.” - Derek Donais
16. “No less a bold and pugnacious figure than Winston Churchill broke down and was unable to finish his remarks at the sendoff of the British Expeditionary Force into the maelstrom of World War I in Europe.” - Barbara W. Tuchman
17. “We have relearned since 9/11 the timeless lesson that we don’t always get to fight the wars for which we’re most prepared or most inclined, “Given that reality, we will need to maintain the full-spectrum capability that we have developed over this last decade of conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.” - David Petraeus
18. “Those of strong character and training are chosen by fate. They cannot help but rise to the forefront when their nations are troubled.” - Daniel McHugh
19. “A man without equals is a dangerous man indeed. He must exercise the most difficult of attributes, restraint.” - Daniel McHugh
20. “(Evil people) do not believe in forgiveness. Their transgressions are either punished or not punished. That is the only result that matters.” - Daniel McHugh
21. “Why all this death?You might as easily ask ‘Why all this life?’.” - Daniel McHugh
22. “The world cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and to seek peace like intellectual pygmies.” - Basil O'Connor
23. “freedom is what your born with in America, joining the military is how you pay back uncle sam for giving you that freedom” - Erik mcmullen
24. “As politicians know all too well, even a Government that does not represent the wishes of a people can count on their support once the nation is locked in conflict with an external foe.” - Elisabeth Hoemberg
25. “King Abgarus asked, “If I may, general, what weapon do you prefer?” Crassus took no more than a moment to answer. “Overwhelming odds.” - Andrew Levkoff
26. “War is politics for everyone but the warrior.” - Tiffany Madison
27. “The skillful tactician may be likened to the shuai-jan. Now the shuai-jan is a snake that is found in the Ch'ang mountains. Strike at its head, and you will be attacked by its tail; strike at its tail, and you will be attacked by its head; strike at its middle, and you will be attacked by head and tail both.” - Sun Tzu
28. “The great wars of the present age are the effects of the study of history.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
29. “Lovers and warriors are not bound by the rules of fair play.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman
30. “Horror would not annoy a soldier any more than the sight of a hammer annoys a carpenter. It is sentimental to pretend that horror is not the tool of the soldier, just as the hammer is the tool of the carpenter. We live off death and the threat of death and we must take it calmly and use it well.... Eventually I came to enjoy killing, as a pianist enjoys the Czerny which keeps his fingers limber for the Beethoven.” - Irwin Shaw
31. “As a revolutionary people, we Americans won a probable victory over the best and biggest army in the world because we learned to fight from the Indians. You can do a lot of damage with a Kentucky rifle from behind a tree. You don't put on a peaked hat and a red coat and white leggings and crossed white bandoleers with a big silver buckle in the center of the X and march uphill into a line of Howitzers loaded with chain and chopped horseshoes.” - James Lee Burke
32. “This revolutionary idea of Western citizenship—replete with ever more rights and responsibilities—would provide superb manpower for growing legions and a legal framework that would guarantee that the men who fought felt that they themselves in a formal and contractual sense had ratified the conditions of their own battle service. The ancient Western world would soon come to define itself by culture rather than by race, skin color, or language. That idea alone would eventually bring enormous advantages to its armies on the battlefield. (p. 122)” - Victor Davis Hanson
33. “When he reached the last hole he saw, far to the west, a series of rockets bloom in the sky. He watched their green and yellow and red petals arch across the horizon, and fade into the gloom of the earth. It was very beautiful, but he recognized them for Chinese rockets.” - Pat Frank
34. “His ears were attuned for the steady firing of Couzens' heavy machine guns, which he knew should now commence, and the thud of his carefully sited mortars, but he did not hear them and he realized, suddenly and sickeningly, that the Chinese had not attacked across the spit of land. They were pouring across the ice, and had taken Dog Company in the rear.” - Pat Frank
35. “This is how I see humanity. When enemies come to your country, destroy the countryside and your village, kill your countrymen, your comrades and the defenseless wounded, you have to kill them and defend your compatriots; that is true humanity.” - Tom Mangold
36. “War yet shall be, but warriors are now operatives; war's made less grand than peace.” - Herman Melville
