64 Battle-Inspired Quotes

In times of challenge and conflict, words can be a powerful weapon to inspire, motivate, and drive us forward. From ancient warriors to modern-day leaders, the essence of battle has been encapsulated in timeless quotes that resonate with our inner strength. Whether you're gearing up for a personal battle or simply looking to draw inspiration from the bravery and tenacity of others, our curated collection of the top 64 battle-inspired quotes is here to ignite your warrior spirit. Dive into these profound words and let them serve as your rallying cry in the face of adversity.

1. “The day of battle dawned pink as the fresh-bitten thigh of a maiden.” - Roger Zelazny

2. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Eph. 6:12 (NIV)” - Anonymous

3. “Live Free or Die; Death is Not the Worst of Evils.” - John Stark

4. “You cannot choose your battlefield,God does that for you;But you can plant a standardWhere a standard never flew.(From The Colors)” - Nathalia Crane

5. “It is a long-cherished tradition among a certain type of military thinker that huge casualties are the main thing. If they are on the other side then this is a valuable bonus.” - Terry Pratchett

6. “One day Wallace was fishing in the Irvine when Earl Percy, the governor of Ayr, rode past with a numerous train. Five of them remained behind and asked Wallace for the fish he had taken. He replied that they were welcome to half of them. Not satisfied with this, they seized the basket and prepared to carry it off. Wallace resisted, and one of them drew his sword. Wallace seized the staff of his net and struck his opponent's sword from his hand; this he snatched up and stood on guard, while the other four rushed upon him. Wallace smote the first so terrible a blow that his head was cloven from skull to collar-bone; with the next blow he severed the right arm of another, and then disabled a third. The other two fled, and overtaking the earl, called on him for help; "for," they said, "three of our number who stayed behind with us to take some fish from the Scot who was fishing are killed or disabled."How many were your assailants?" asked the earl.But the man himself," they answered; "a desperate fellow whom we could not withstand."I have a brave company of followers!" the earl said with scorn. "You allow one Scot to overmatch five of you! I shall not return to seek for your adversary; for were I to find him I should respect him too much to do him harm.” - G. A. Henty

7. “When heaven joins the battle against you, who could stand?” - Stephen R. Lawhead

8. “Like a falling star, he descended on the Tarbh Cró, a Cassiline berserker, his sword biting and slashing like a silver snake.” - Jacqueline Carey

9. “That's a nice song," said young Sam, and Vimes remembered that he was hearing it for the first time. "It's an old soldiers' song," he said. "Really, sarge? But it's about angels." Yes, thought Vimes, and it's amazing what bits those angels cause to rise up as the song progresses. It's a real soldiers' song: sentimental, with dirty bits. "As I recall, they used to sing it after battles," he said. "I've seen old men cry when they sing it," he added. "Why? It sounds cheerful." They were remembering who they were not singing it with, thought Vimes. You'll learn. I know you will.” - Terry Pratchett

10. “If you will not die for us, you cannot ask us to die for you.” - Jacqueline Carey

11. “Under the Mountain dark and tallThe King has come unto his hall!His foe is dead,the Worm of Dread,And ever so his foes shall fall.The sword is sharp, the spear is long,The arrow swift, the Gate is strong;The heart is bold that looks on gold;The dwarves no more shall suffer wrong.The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,While hammers fells like ringing bellsIn places deep, where dark things sleep,In hollow halls beneath the fells.-from The Hobbit (Dwarves Battle Song)” - J.R.R. Tolkien

12. “You know how hard it is to feel like an extreme falcon-headed combat machine when somebody calls you "chicken man"?” - Rick Riordan

13. “Right," Sadie said. "And Set will just stand there calmly while I read him to death.” - Rick Riordan

14. “Reason lost the battle, and all I could do was surrender and accept I was in love.” - Paulo Coelho

15. “Then he heard a terrible cry that pulled at his insides, that expressed agony of a kind that neither flame nor curse could cause, and he stood up, swaying, more frightened than he had been that day, more frightened, perhaps, than he had been in his whole life...” - J.K. Rowling

16. “Meantime the clang of the bows and the shouts of the combatants mixed fearfully with the sound of the trumpets, and drowned the groans of those who fell, and lay rolling defenceless beneath the feet of the horses. The splendid armour of the combatants was now defaced with dust and blood, and gave way at every stroke of the sword and battle-axe. The gay plumage, shorn from the crests, drifted upon the breeze like snowflakes. All that was beautiful in the martial array had disappeared, and what was now visibke was only calculated to awaken terror or compassion.” - Walter Scott

17. “Fight on, brave knights! Man dies, but glory lives! Fight on; death is better than defeat! Fight on brave knights! for bright eyes behold your deeds!” - Walter Scott

18. “Nice jewelry and a boys corpse. Oh you're so pretty.” - Koushun Takami

19. “You don't get it, Clary. You don't understand what it's like to live always at war, to grow up with battle and sacrifice. I guess it's not your fault. It's just how you were brought up-” - Cassandra Clare

20. “Bring it on, fur-ass!” - Charlaine Harris

21. “He ran as he'd never run before, with neither hope nor despair. He ran because the world was divided into opposites and his side had already been chosen for him, his only choice being whether or not to play his part with heart and courage. He ran because fate had placed him in a position of responsibility and he had accepted the burden. He ran because his self-respect required it. He ran because he loved his friends and this was the only thing he could do to end the madness that was killing and maiming them.” - Karl Marlantes

22. “What happened next? I retain nothing from those terrible minutes except indistinct memories which flash into my mind with sudden brutality, like apparitions, among bursts and scenes and visions that are scarcely imaginable. It is difficult even to even to try to remember moments during which nothing is considered, foreseen, or understood, when there is nothing under a steel helmet but an astonishingly empty head and a pair of eyes which translate nothing more than would the eyes of an animal facing mortal danger. There is nothing but the rhythm of explosions, more or less distant, more or less violent, and the cries of madmen, to be classified later, according to the outcome of the battle, as the cries of heroes or of murderers. And there are the cries of the wounded, of the agonizingly dying, shrieking as they stare at a part of their body reduced to pulp, the cries of men touched by the shock of battle before everybody else, who run in any and every direction, howling like banshees. There are the tragic, unbelievable visions, which carry from one moment of nausea to another: guts splattered across the rubble and sprayed from one dying man to another; tightly riveted machines ripped like the belly of a cow which has just been sliced open, flaming and groaning; trees broken into tiny fragments; gaping windows pouring out torrents of billowing dust, dispersing into oblivion all that remains of a comfortable parlor...” - Guy Sajer

23. “To us, it is incomprehensible that millions of Christian men killed and tortured each other because Napoleon was ambitious or Alexander was firm, or because England's policy was astute or the Duke of Oldenburg was wronged. We cannot grasp what connection such circumstances have the with the actual fact of slaughter and violence: why because the Duke was wronged, thousands of men from the other side of Europe killed and ruined the people of Smolensk and Moscow and were killed by them.” - Leo Tolstoy

24. “Humility and pride will forever battle whenever or wherever love is concerned” - Jeremy Aldana

25. “Remorse has no place in a warrior's mind... A war is like a game of chess, Nicholaa. Every battle is like a well-thought-out move on the board. Once it begins, there shouldn't be any emotion involved whatsoever.” - Julie Garwood

26. “Ella was fluttering above him, dodging missiles and calling out advice: "The groin. The Earthborn's groin is sensitive."SMASH!"Good. Yes. Tyson found its groin.” - Rick Riordan

27. “Do not hate the player, nor the game...rule it!” - T.F. Hodge

28. “Everyone has their own ways of expression. I believe we all have a lot to say, but finding ways to say it is more than half the battle.” - Criss Jami

29. “Kill every enemy twice, Wilky said. Better than gettin' shot by a soldier pretending to be dead.” - Joseph Bruchac

30. “It’s only a scratch, don’t cut my arm off!” - Carrie Vaughn

31. “We're supposed to strive for harmony, and that's what the art of tea is supposed to accomplish... but harmony is very, very difficult to achieve in this country. Tea ceremony is powerless. But it's also not such a bad thing either. You should enjoy it while you can.” - Koushun Takami

32. “To live is - to war with trolls In the holds of the heart and mind” - Henrik Ibsen

33. “No singer would ever make a song about that battle. No maester would ever write down an account for one of the Reader's beloved books. No banners flew, no warhorns moaned, no great lord called his men about him to hear his final ringing words. They fought in the predawn gloom, shadow against shadow, stumbling over roots and rocks, with mud and rotting leaves beneath their feet.” - George R.R. Martin

34. “One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful, subduing the other's military without battle is the most skillful.” - Sun Tzu

35. “Only a battle lost is sadder than a battle won.” - Robert Jordan

36. “fue una de las raras batallas en que los muertos victoriosos tienen peor entierro que los vencidos” - Jorge Ibargüengoitia

37. “The dust cannot fight against the wind; the wind cannot fight against the mountain. Everything and everyone has a battle to lose!” - Mehmet Murat ildan

38. “If the universe does consist of a battle between the devil and God, the final analysis should conclude that religion would have been the devil’s most brilliant move and science, God’s.” - Steve Maraboli

39. “A beautiful battle is one you don't have to fight” - Robert Jordan

40. “...the experience of battle forever divides those who talk of nothing else but its prospect from those who talk of everything else but its memory.” - James D. Hornfischer

41. “There are always risks in battle. It's a dangerous business. The trick is to take the right ones.' [said Halt].'How do you know which are the right ones?' Shigeru asked.Halt glanced at his two younger companions. They grinned and answered in chorus, 'You wait and see if you win.” - John Flanagan

42. “The war had been a daily thought, a continual consciousness in her life for two years, but never a real presence. Battles were things that were fought somewhere else, won somehow, by someone, and lost by someone else. Now as she stood by her own door and listened to the cannons, it was with a chilling, dreadfully full and clear realization that men were out on the field beneath that gray cloud taking each other’s lives.” - Elisabeth Grace Foley

43. “We'll never be ready. So I guess that means we're as ready as we'll ever be.” - Neal Shusterman

44. “The greatest war every fought, and are still fighting, where more people have been defeated and died, is the war within.” - Anthony Liccione

45. “Today is yesterday's victory, yesterday is tomorrow's conquest, and tomorrow is today's war. Though I face death, I am not fearsome.” - Nadège Richards

46. “We've got facts," they say. But facts aren't everything; at least half the battle consists in how one makes use of them!” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

47. “The warrior who goes off to battle should not boast as the one who returns from it.” - Richard Paul Evans

48. “They fought because they loved the dance, and the weight of a sword in their hands. The clash and spark of metal and hiss of flame was like music written just for them. They fought for glory, but not for blood. They were Weirlind, heirs of the warrior's stone. And they always slept better with blades beneath their beds.” - The Warrior Heir Cinda Williams Chima pg. 426

49. “There will come a time in your life when you lose something that matters to you. You'll fight for it and you won't win. But what really matters isn't the war you're waging, it's that you don't lose the person you are in the midst of the battle.” - J. Sterling

50. “Madoka: I'm always... making somebody else fight for me. I can't do anything... Does that make me a coward?Kyōko: Why do you gotta be a magical girl?Madoka: "Why"...?Kyōko: ...This work isn't about playing around. When the job's about putting yourself in harm's way, the only ones who do it are the poor slobs who don't have any other choice. The others who are surrounded by loving families and have the whole world ahead of 'em... the idiots who become magical girls on a whim... They're the ones I can't accept. I just wanna crush 'em! ...Someday the time may come when you have your back to a wall and you gotta fight. You can think about that stuff when the time comes.” - Magica Quartet

51. “And one battle looks much like another when you survey the corpses after.” - William Napier

52. “In battle, in a war, a soldier sees only a tiny fragment of what is available to be seen. The soldier is not a photographic machine. He is not a camera. He registers, so to speak, only those few items that he is predisposed to register and not a single thing more. Do you understand this? So I am saying to you that after a battle each soldier will have different stories to tell, vastly different stories, and that when a was is ended it is as if there have been a million wars, or as many wars as there were soldiers.” - Tim O'Brien

53. “You're welcome in my house when this is over. We'll open a cask of Master al'Vere's best brandy. We'll remember those who fell, and we'll tell our children how we stood when the clouds turned black and the world started to die. We'll tell them we stood shoulder to shoulder, and there was just no space for the Shadow to squeeze through.” - Robert Jordan

54. “You’ll do fine if you have any strength at all, but listen to your Green angel and give yourself more exit points. You’re in for some rude awakenings in battle, and young souls often retreat under fire. You’ll end up trying to find a shortcut back home and that always makes a big mess.” - Dawn Jayne

55. “When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home,Let him combat for that of his neighbours;Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome,And get knocked on the head for his labours.To do good to Mankind is the chivalrous plan,And is always as nobly requited;Then battle fro Freedom wherever you can,And, if not shot or hanged, you'll get knighted.” - George Gordon Byron

56. “Success is often followed by failure. Yesterday's victory doesn't win today's battle.” - Wayde Goodall

57. “Whenever we want to combat our enemies, first and foremost we must start by understanding them rather than exaggerating their motives.” - Criss Jami

58. “Don't worry know what you can't change. rest when you can so you'll be ready for tomorrows battle.” - Richelle Mead

59. “Alamo has been a strong inspiration for nations striving for freedom all around the globe since 1836. Gvozdansko has not earned public reputation, but profoundly touched the heart of the bitter enemy Ferhat-paša alone in 1578. Croats have a duty and obligation to learn about Gvozdansko.” - Vinko Vrbanic

60. “Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one's enemies.” - Leon Trotsky

61. “Most people consider life a battle, but it is not a battle, it is a game.” - Florence Scovel Shinn

62. “The single greatest advantage anyone can take into any battle is hope.” - Karen Marie Moning

63. “If love is a battlefield and we all get scars....These were my reminders…my necessary thorns.” - Sabrina Childress

64. “There was a loud shuffling above. A line of redcoats took their position at the edge of the ravine and aimed down at the rebels. "Present!" the British officer screamed to his men. "Present!" yelled the American officer. His men brought the butts of their muskets up to their shoulders and sighted down the long barrels, ready to shoot and kill. I pressed my face into the earth, unable to plan a course of escape. My mind would not be mastered and thought only of the wretched, lying, foul, silly girl who was the cause of everything. I thought of Isabel and I missed her. "FIRE!” - Laurie Halse Anderson