War Time Quotes

[Smoogles]

Greetings all, I am highly intrigued by the WW1 era and have been looking up some awesome war quotes recently. Here's a quote I find quite truthful, feel free to post comments or your own favorite war time quote...

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

-Albert Einstein

[Maximilianus]

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

-Albert Einstein

That's a very famous one.

Another one, quite older but equally famous, is (in Latin) "Si vis pacem para bellum" (If you wish for peace, prepare for war), universally believed to be based on a quotation from Roman military writer Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus: "Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum". The saying is one of many from or based on his work, "Epitoma rei militaris", possibly written around the year 390 AD.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Smoogles,

If you are interested in war time quotes, then it is essential that you study Winston S. Churchill ! You will find a plethora of quotes from this man through wartime and beyond.

My grandfather served in WW I via the AEF. He was in the 72nd Brigade; 143rd Infantry Regiment (formerly the 5th Calvary out of Texas)
Here is a link that you may be interested in regarding the :
http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/bm2.htm

Here is a portion from the above document:

"In the meanwhile, the remainder of the [Thirty-Sixth] division moved from the Pocancy area to the front and on the night of October 9 these units completed the relief of the infantry of the Second Division, the artillery of the latter division remaining in support of the Thirty-Sixth Division at 10 a. m., October 10. An Attack of the 142nd Infantry north of St. Etienne failed that afternoon; however, the 141st succeeded in advancing its lines some 500 yards.

Between 5 and 6 p.m., the 72nd Brigade (143rd and 144th Infantry Regiments) passed through the 71st and attacked in the direction of Machault and Cauroy. The attack resulted in a slight advance. The following morning, the enemy began his retreat to the north in the direction of Dricourt and Attigny. The 72nd Brigade took up pursuit and lively rear guard actions followed between St. Etienne and Machault, which resulted in the encircling of the latter town and the establishment of lines to the north of it. The following day, the brigade pushed forward to Hill 167 northwest of Vaux Champagne, overlooking the valley of the Aisne from Attigny to Givry, from which positions patrols were pushed out t the canal. The enemy was strongly entrenched on the northern bank of the Aisne and had taken every precaution to prevent a crossing. The 71st Brigade went into line on the 13th, taking over the front of the 73rd French Division to the east of the 72nd Brigade. The division's line at this time ran along the slope of Hill 167 approximately four kilometers from the Aisne. "

Finally, I will leave you with perhaps the most recognized quote from Churchill:

"If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour!”

Gilliatt

[Smoogles]

Max your quote is ancient! Haha, but it still holds true today. Very nice.

Gilliatt, your grandfather was awesome and a hero. I'm in Texas :) I have studied Churchill in my Philosophy class if I can remember correctly. He has too many quotes, but, he was doing something right if so many were remembered. Our "finest hour" has been used many a times.

I like the information, or stories you guys put in with your quotes. It's interesting to know what inspiring, and truthful things people have said during the worst or best of times.

[pagebypage]

You looking just for WWI quotes? I have tons of books on the Great War and can scrounge around.

In case you're just looking for general ones, here are a few:

“Committing suicide—out of fear of death.” Bismarck’s definition of preventive war

"Only the dead have seen the end of war".--George Santayana

“You will kill 10 of our men, and we will kill 1 of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it.”--Ho Chi Minh

And one of my favorite WWI quotes:

"If the iron dice roll, may God help us."--Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg

[They did. He didn't.]

Great link, Gilliatt Gurgle. When I was a kid an old timer down the street was a doughboy. He was almost deaf and semi-senile but he was able to tell me a few things. I wish I would have had the good sense to interview him but when you're eleven, you're only living in the moment.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Smoogles, Pagebypage,

A few more WW I odds and ends:

I forgot to add one other link from my favorites. The link below deals primariy on the Texas contribution to the 36th Division.
I need to make a correction to my last post. I mentioned “the 5th Texas Calvary” it should read as the 5th Texas Infantry. The 5th Texas Infantry became the 143rd Infantry Regiment as the 36th was being assembled.
Training was carried out at Camp Bowie in Fort Worth Texas.

http://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/gallery/ww1/cope.htm

Another quote:
"Du doch nicht" - "Definitely not you” (Wiki translation). - Painted on the stabilizer of Ernst Udet’s Fokker D VII fighter plane.
Udet was a member of Richtofen’s Flying Circus.
I’m sure you are familiar with Richtofen, aka “The Red Baron”, who is popularly associated with flying the Fokker D VIII (Triplane) more so than the D VII.

Finally, I have attached a few vintage WW I era post cards that have been in the family.

http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/ae114/tabuka1/Paris01.jpg
http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/ae114/tabuka1/Paris02.jpg

This post card was sent from my Grandfather, while in Paris, back to his brother in Texas. You can see from the post mark that it was February of 1919. The war had ended and they were making their way back to the port of Brest. Note the lack of a stamp. Soldiers did not have to pay postage. It was termed “Soldier Mail”

http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/ae114/tabuka1/PostCards01.jpg
http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/ae114/tabuka1/PostCards03.jpg

Gilliatt

[FalseReality]

-But even when we had the books on hand, a long time ago, we didn't use what we got out of them. We went right on insulting the dead. We went right on spitting in the graves of all the poor ones who died before us. We're going to meet a lot of lonely people in the next week and the next month and the next year. And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering. That's where we'll win out in the long run. And some day we'll remember so much that we'll build the biggest goddamn steam-shovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up. Come on now, we're going to go build a mirror-factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them
Ray Bradbury

In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.
Jose Narosky

Politics is the womb in which war develops.
Karl Von Clausewitz

In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.
Croesus

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his
Patton

No one was thinking of war; they were all arming just in case, because rich people like to see iron walls around their money.
Hermann Hesse

In war, truth is the first casualty.
Aeschylus

The only way to abolish war is to make peace heroic.
John Dewey

It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.
Alfred Adler

The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one. Wilhelm Stekle

-There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for
-If you have a sword in your breast take it out and use it like a man.
-Truth never damages a cause that is just.
-There is no way to peace; peace is the way.
-The cause of liberty becomes a mockery if the price to be paid is the wholesale destruction of those who are to enjoy liberty.
Buddha

If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Kipling

[Maximilianus]

Gilliatt: great story and postcards. Very interesting :thumbs_up


Max your quote is ancient! Haha, but it still holds true today. Very nice.
Thank you!
A more recent variation can be the phrase "To secure peace is to prepare for war", used by Metallica in their song "Don't Tread on Me".


I have studied Churchill in my Philosophy class if I can remember correctly. He has too many quotes, but, he was doing something right if so many were remembered. Our "finest hour" has been used many a times.

I like the information, or stories you guys put in with your quotes. It's interesting to know what inspiring, and truthful things people have said during the worst or best of times.

Another famous quote by Churchill says something like "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few". He was talking about the pilots of the RAF and how they bravely fought the Luftwaffe during the time when the Nazis intended to carry out the operation Sea Lion to invade England, which first stage was precisely to destroy the best defense of the British Isles, that is, the RAF.

[Pryderi Agni]

Very, very real quote:

"Come on, you sons of *****es! You wanna live forever!"

This is a sergeant-major in Iwo Jima ordering his platoon to follow him out of a trench. It always brings home the horror of the Pacific War.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

The battle of Iwo Jima alone could produce a novel of quotes.
I recently finished reading "Flags of Our Fathers" by James Bradley w/ Ron Powers. (recommended reading)
James Bradley is the son of Jack "Doc" Bradley who served as a Navy Corpsman in the battle and found himself among the six that raised the flag atop Mt. Suribachi; a scene that has been immortalized in photographs, sculpture and print.

A couple of quotes found in the book:
"So every son of a b____ can see it" in reference to the flag"

"I saw some guys struggling with a pole and I just jumped in to lend them a hand. It's as simple as that" - Jack Bradely.

[Hurricane]

"Come on, you sons of *****es! You wanna live forever!"

This is a sergeant-major in Iwo Jima ordering his platoon to follow him out of a trench. It always brings home the horror of the Pacific War.

Actually, the Marine in question, SgtMaj Dan Daly, said this at the Battle of Belleau Wood during WWI. SgtMaj Daly was a pretty amazing Marine: he was awarded the Medal of Honor twice in addition to the Navy Cross, the highest award for valor awarded by the Navy/Marine Corps.

For the more Naval side:

There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today

Personally, in addition to that, I always liked On ne passe pas!:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/On_Ne_Passe_Pas_1918.jpg/180px-On_Ne_Passe_Pas_1918.jpg

Great-granddad fought in France in WWI and I've been fascinated with it since I was a little girl. The clash of old tactics and new technology is never pretty, and it's tragic that the carnage had to be so great for us to learn that.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Great-granddad fought in France in WWI and I've been fascinated with it since I was a little girl. The clash of old tactics and new technology is never pretty, and it's tragic that the carnage had to be so great for us to learn that.

I/we would enjoy hearing more about your Great Grandfather if you care to share. No names obviously, but do you know any details about his time in France?

Gilliatt

[Hurricane]

I/we would enjoy hearing more about your Great Grandfather if you care to share. No names obviously, but do you know any details about his time in France?

Honestly, I don't know a huge amount aside from anecdotal family stuff, but I wish I did. He was gassed and served in combat. He was part of the first generation born in the US from that side of the family, which immigrated from Germany. He still had close family (cousins, etc.) in Germany, and I can't imagine what it must have been like to know that the people you were shooting at could have been your relatives.

[MarkC]

“Shall Life renew these bodies? Of a truth
All death will he annul, all tears assuage?
Or fill these void veins full again with youth
And wash with an immortal water age?”
-Wilfred Owen

[Dr Jekyll]

Here's what the famous philosopher Bertrand Russell said that concerned the Great War (World War I):

"And all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country`s pride."

"Against the vast majority of my countrymen, even at this moment, in the name of humanity and civilization, I protest against our share in the destruction of Germany. A month ago Europe was a peaceful comity of nations; if an Englishman killed a German, he was hanged. Now, if an Englishman kills a German, or if a German kills an Englishman, he is a patriot, who has deserved well of his country."

[Lumiere]

One that stands out in my mind:

"Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns."
- Kurt Vonnegut (Cat's Cradle)

[magzarelli]

Great thread, learned alot today! :)

[Pryderi Agni]

Here's more:

Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace. ~Charles Sumner

I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?" ~Eve Merriam

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon. ~Napoleon

A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves. ~German Proverb

The most persistent sound which reverberates through men's history is the beating of war drums. ~Arthur Koestler

[MANICHAEAN]

A few from the Battle of Waterloo:

Lord Uxbridge: "Er-herm Sir."
Duke of Wellington (waking): "Ah, Uxbridge."
Uxbridge: "As I am second in command and in case anything should happen to you, what are your plans?"
Wellington: "To beat the French." (Goes back to sleep)

Wellington: "Next to a battle lost, the saddest thing is a battle won."

Napoleon Bonaparte: "Never interrupt your enemy while he's making a mistake. Thats bad manners."

Lord Uxbridge: "By God , Sir. I've lost my leg." (Shot off by cannon).
Wellington: "By God, Sir. So you have."

Wellington: (referring to the British Army) "I don't know what they'll do to the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me."

Banaparte: (Observing the advance of the Gordan Highlanders). "Has Wellington nothing to offer me but these Amazons?"

(Before the battle starts, the British troops are singing a mocking song about Napoleon)
William De Lancey: "Shall I shut them up Sir?"
Wellington: "No, no, indulge it. Anything that wastes time is good. Normally I don't like cheering but there's always a time to cut cards with the Devil."

(The French artillery begins firing on the English positions)
Wellington: "Well, that opens the ball."

Duchess of Richmond: (referring to the English troops). "They're the salt of the earth Arthur."
Wellington: "Scum. Nothing but beggers and scoundrels all of them."
Duchess: "Yet you expect them to die for you?"
Wellington: "Um-hum."
Duchess: "Out of duty?"
Wellinton: "Um-hum."
Duchess: "I doubt if even Bonaparte could draw men to him by duty."
Wellington: "Oh. Boney's not a gentleman."

Duchess of Richmond: "This year soldiers are the fashion."
Wellington: "Where would society be without my boys?"

[Feddie]

A great quote from Churchhill:

We are all worms, but I do believe I'm a glowworm.

[rosenoir]

My favorite war quote, and one of my favorite personal quotes is: "Never fired unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." ~ Captain John Parker

[scotta.clark]

"The League of Nations is still strong enough by its collective actions to avert or arrest aggression... There is no room for bargaining or compromise."
Foreign Commissar Litvinoff - 21st September 1938