"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget ye were our countrymen"
-Samuel Adams, US statesman, writer, and political theorist
"The British Army should be a projectile to be fired by the British Navy"
-Sir Edward Grey, British MP, speaking to the House of Commons
"All war is deception"
-Sun Tzu, Chinese general and author of The Art of War
"The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities...It is best to win without fighting"
-Sun Tzu
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win"
-Sun Tzu
"One need not destroy one's enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage"
-Sun Tzu
"Know the enemy and know yourself; (and after) in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.
-Sun Tzu
"To capture the enemy's entire army is better than to destroy it; to take intact a regiment, a company, or a squad is better than to destroy them. For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the supreme of excellence. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence"
-Sun Tzu
"This does not mean that the enemy is to be allowed to escape. The object is to make him believe that there is a road to safety, and thus prevent his fighting with the courage of despair. After that, you may crush him"
-Sun Tzu
"I see that you have made three spelling mistakes"
-Thomas de Mahay, Marquis de Favras, French aristocrat, his last words upon reading his death sentence before being guillotined
"War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading"
-Thomas Hardy, British novelist
-Ben Battle was a soldier bold, and used to war's alarms, But a cannon-ball took off his legs, so he laid down his arms"
-Thomas Hood, British poet and humourist, "Faithless Nelly Gray", 1826
"For here I leave my second leg, And the Forty-Second Foot"
-Thomas Hood
"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself"
-Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President
"It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice"
-Thomas Jefferson
"From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots"
-Thomas Jefferson
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance"
-Thomas Jefferson
"In matters of style swim with the current, in matters of principle stand like a rock"
-Thomas Jefferson
"War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of(getting rid of) indemnifying losses"
-Thomas Jefferson
"If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence"
-Thomas Jefferson
"We prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form and to any people whatever(the circumstance)"
-Thomas Jefferson
"The greatest [calamity] which could befall [us would be] submission to a government of unlimited powers"
-Thomas Jefferson
"This is the fourth?"(asking for the day)
-Thomas Jefferson, his last words
"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph"
-Thomas Paine, British radical, pamphleteer, and intellectual
"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one"
-Thomas Paine
"Character is much easier kept than recovered"
-Thomas Paine
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it"
-Thomas Paine
"Lead, follow, or get out of the way"
-Thomas Paine
"The cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf"
-Thomas Paine
"Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum. "(Let him who desires peace, prepare for war.)
-Vegetius, Roman writer
"No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking"
-Voltaire, French author, wit, and philosopher
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
"God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best"
-Voltaire
"Where some states possess an army, the Prussian Army possesses a state"
-Voltaire
"In this country we find it pays to shoot an admiral from time to time to encourage the others"
-Voltaire
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
-Voltaire
"Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear"
-William Congreve, English dramatist
"There is one certain means by which I can be sure never to see my country's ruin: I will die in the last ditch"
-William III, King of England
"The air of England is too pure for a slave to breathe, and so everyone who breathes it becomes free. Everyone who comes to this island is entitled to the protection of English law, whatever oppression he may have suffered and whatever may be the colour of his skin"
-William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, British judge, speaking on slavery, 1772
"Where a goat can go, a man can go, where a man can go, he can drag a gun"
-William Phillips, British artillery general
"Where laws end, tyranny begins"
-William Pitt the Elder, British Prime Minister
"Not without hope we suffer and we mourn"
-William Wordsworth, British poet
"(The)Strongest minds are often those whom the noisy world hears least.)"
-William Wordsworth, British poet
"The good die first, and they whose hearts are dry as summer burn to the socket"
-William Wordsworth, British poet
Louis XVI of France: "Is it a revolt?" A Duke of France: "No, Sir, it's a revolution."
-Louis XVI, King of France, upon hearing of the revolution
"There are so few who can grow old with a good grace"
-Sir Richard Steele, Irish writer and publisher
YOU ARE READING
Ponderings for fun
RandomQuotes, sayings, memes, and vids from me and other people (including fictional people)contradictions are to be expected. I so love making them all.
