[electrci RAIN] Military Axiom

These Observations are intended as guidance for the future - since it is the duty of a friend to offer advance warning against things that can still be avoided.

Cicero, Philippies I

An Army Raised without proper regard to the choice of its recruits has never yet been made good by length of time.

Vegetus, On Things Military

What can be more terrible than a battle at sea, in which both fire and water unite for the destruction of the combatants.

Vegetus, On Things Military

The Roman soldiers, bred in wars alarms, bending with unjust loads and heavy arms, cheerful their toilsome marches undergo, and pitched their sudden camps before the foe.

Virgil

In battle nothing is done without plan or on the spur of the moment, careful thought precedes action of any kind, and to the decisions reached all actions must conform. As a result the Romans meet very few setbacks, and if anything does go wrong, the setbacks are easily cancelled out. They regard success due to luck less desirable than a plans, but unsuccessful stoke, because victories that come of themselves tempt men to leave things to chance, but forethought, in spite of occasional failures, is good practice in avoiding the same mistakes.

Josephus, The Jewish War III

During the Civil War, Caesar always strove to fight pitched battles, knowing that the enemy had only raw recruits while he had an army of veterans.

Frontius, Stratagems, I,iii

The sinews of war are infinite money.

Cicero, Philippies, V

Thus, the provinces echoed with the bustle of preparing fleets, armies, and the implements of war.

Tactics, Histories 2, 82

War is too important to be left to the Generals

Georges Clemenceau

The next dreadful thing to a battle lost is a batthe won.

Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington

Peace is an armistice in a war that is continuously going on

Thucydides

Always keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

Lazarus Long (Robert A. Heinlein)

Weapons are the tools of violence; all decent men detest them. Weapons are the tools of fear; a decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity and, if compelled, will use them only with the utmost restraint. Peace is his highest value. If the peace has been shattered, how can he be content? His enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself. He doesn't wish them personal harm. Nor does he rejoice in victory. How could he rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?

He enters a battle gravely, with sorrow and with great compassion, as if he were attending a funeral.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
(Mitchell translation)

The soldiers no longer served the interest of the state but only those that recruited them and they gave their support to these people not because of the force law but because of personal advancements. And they fought not against enemies of the Rome but against private foes; not against foreign invaders but against fellow citizens.

Appian, The Civil War V, 17

We've had the devil's own day, haven't we, Grant?
Yes, lick 'em tomorrow, though.
Sherman & Grant, at Shiloh

There are also a lot of nice buildings in Haiphong. What their contributions are to the war effort I don't know, but the desire to bomb a virgin building is terrific.
Commander Henry Urban Jr.

When you appeal to force, there's one thing you must never do - lose.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

It is impossible to withhold our admiration for this mans leadership, his courage and his ability in the field ... But it was, since he turned first to those whom he should have dealt with last, his career began and ended with them.
on Hannibal

The soldiers job is not to die for his country, but its to make the other guy die for his.
the eccentric Gen. Patton

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..."
General Sedgewick, killed at the Spotsylvania battle, 1864, imprudently looking over the parapet at the enemy lines.

The Roman emperor Augustus had the tomb of Alexander opened so that he can view the embalmed body. Asked if he would like to see the remains of Ptolemy, he replies: "I came to see a king, not a corpse"

Persia belongs to the man who has the courage to attack it.
Xenophen,
The March Of The 10,000

The Greek disdain for archery was best expressed at Thermopylae (480BC) by Dieneces the Spartan - when he was told that the Persian arrows flew so thick that they blocked out the sun, he replied "So much the better, then we will fight in the shade"

When, on his death bed, Alexander's Generals asked him who would rule his empire, he mumbled "the Strongest"

When Alexander looked at the length and breadth of his empire, he wept, because there were no more lands for him to conquer.

"Heaven has promised me victory"

Genghis Kahn before his
first campaign, 1211

"Only a fool learns from his mistakes. I prefer to learn from other people's mistakes!"

O. von Bismarck

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.
Ambassador Moliere

"Ceterum censeo delenim est Carthgo"
Cato the Elder

Victory needs no explanation. Defeat allows none.
anon.

I against my brother, I and my brother against our cousin, I, my brother and our cousin against the neighbors, All of us against the foreigner.
Bedouin proverb

On the Plains of Hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the dawn of victory, sat down to wait and waiting died.
G.W Cecil/Adlai Stevenson.

"join the army they said.. see the world they said"
Asterix

More sweat in training, less blood in war.
Roman Axiom

"If you can do nothing, say nothing!"
Napoleon Bonaprte

Ability is nothing without opportunity
Napoleon Bonaprte

I will lose a man but not a moment
Napoleon Bonaprte

A generals principle talent is to know his soldiers mentality and gaining his confidence
Napoleon Bonaprte

It is with baubles that battles are won
Napoleon Bonaprte

He who dares wins. He who hesitates is lost.
S.A.S motto

A truce in war is like a tie in football - nobody wins.
anon.

Victory requires decisiveness in leaders, ruthlessness in discipline, and willingness to fight until the battle is over and complete victory is won.
anon.

There is only real peace after total victory, and little or none from a negotiated compromise.
anon.

The second rate soldier lives a life of mediocrity and dies with regret. The first rate soldier lives a life of glory and dies with honor.
anon.

Half measures in the face of revolution leads to a failed revolution.
anon.

No such thing as an atheist on the battlefield.\
anon.

An Imperial Chinese General commenting on the usefulness of sending a force to fight a demon "It is as useless as sending an army of moths against a flame."
Monkey Magic

You can not find victory unless you first understand defeat
Richard Motta

Sweet is victory, but bitter the cost.
anon

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
Winston Churchill

"The DEFENSE of anything is UNTENABLE. The only way to defend anything is to ATTACK, and if you ever forget that, then you will lose every battle you are ever engaged in, whether it is in terms of personal conversation, public debate, or a court of law. NEVER BE INTERESTED IN CHARGES. DO, yourself, much MORE CHARGING, and you will WIN."
L. Ron Hubbard.