"Never surrender to those b@$t@rd$!" -General George S. Patton

Good thread idea TC makes me glad I never muted you.

"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

"The point of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bugger die for his."

"He who controls the spice, controls the universe."

"Nab him, jab him, tab him, grab him, stop that pigeon now"

"There is no such thing as friendly fire."

"Never trust a private with a loaded weapon, or an officer with a map and compass."

"WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"

There is a phrase in the US navy: "The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little while longer".

In the unit I served in, we had a slightly different saying: "The impossible we do immediately. Miracles take a little while longer".

Battle, n., A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would not yield to the tongue.

-Ambrose Bierce

"There are no bad regiments, only bad colonels"

-Napoleon

Nuke 'em 'til they glow, then shoot them in the dark!

Drop your pencil, lose a week's work. - Korean (pre-Laptop) War era Officer training motto

This is a dialog and not a quote, but still my favorite. During the Battle of Manzikert, the Byzantine emperor was defeated and captured by the Turkish Sultan - in large part because many of the emperor's lieutenants (one or two of them rival claimants) deserted him on the field of battle. Supposedly, this is what was said:

Turkish Sultan: "What would you have done with me, had I been your captive?"

Byzantine Emperor: "Oh, I don't know. I probably would've had you beaten, whipped, stripped naked, and marched through the streets of Constantinople as an angry crowd threw rotten vegetables at you before you were quartered in the main square, your body parts left for the dogs."

Turkish Sultan: "My punishment is far greater. I forgive you, and set you free."

The emperor was assassinated (by his own people) a short time later.

And from the Greatest Movie Ever Made:

"Swordsmanship untested in battle is like mastering swimming on dry land."

I may lose a battle, but I always win the war
-Myself

The British army should be a projectile to be fired by the British navy.

~Lord Edward Grey

I've seen this credited to different people with slightly different wordings:
No battle plan survives [first] contact with the enemy.

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."- Voltaire

A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Si vis pacem, para bellum
- Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus

dulce et decorum est pro patria mori
- Horace

Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft
- Theodore Roosevelt

The pen is mightier then the sword
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton

"Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"
- J. Robert Oppenheimer

Soldiers generally win the battles, and the generals get the credit for them
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Amateurs talk tactics, dilettantes talk strategy, professionals talk logistics.
- General Omar Bradley

It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls
- Aristophanes

You should hammer your iron when it is glowing hot
- Publius Syrus
Although this is less militaristic or significant then the others, Civ 4 fans will know this is the line is the cue for declaring war.

I must study politics and war so that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy
-John Adams

Victorious generals win first and then go to war, while defeated generals go to war first and then seek to win
- Sun Tzu

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill To subdue the enemy with fighting as the acme of skill
- Sun Tzu

more later

The pen is mightier than the sword only if the pen is very sharp and the sword in very short - Terry Pratchett.

Ah Fasces you are a Civ 4 fan? I love that game! Finally It came out for Mac!

it came out for mac about 7 years ago, you talking about civ 5?

“I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”

"When you can't run anymore you crawl, and when you can't crawl you find someone to carry you."

"In the ultimate battle ground of the sexes - the bedroom - a woman can best any 10 men." - Mark Twain.

"We poison our air and water to weed out the weak! We set off fission bombs in our only biosphere! We nailed our God to a stick! Don't fuck with the human race!"
- Unknown poster, 4chan

"Some oxygen molecules help fires burn while others help make water, so sometimes it's brother against brother."
- A 6th grade science student

If God put the English on an island, it's because he had his reasons.
- an old Frenchwoman living near the Channel

I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted.
- Brandon Sanderson: Mistborn (and yes, it is a war quote, read the book)

Boss: Ya ever seen a purple army, ya git?
Ork: Er...no, boss.
Boss: 'Zactly! Dat's cos purple makes ya dead sneaky!

"if it moves, shoot it. if it doesn't move, paint it" -ah, how i do miss the Service :)

"whoever said 'the pen is mightier than the sword' obviously never ran into a machinegun" -i think this came from that madman MacArthur

“I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”

The first time I heard this it was Allah, not God on the quote. I wonder how legitimate you (TC) would consider it if you heard it that way as well.

'All war is deception' -Sun Tzu

Although I use to disagree with this, and never deceived my allies or enemies in diplomacy (and still frequently either drew or won), a political debate yesterday about the American war/foreign policies of the last few years as caused me to change my mind. This still doesn't change the way I play diplomacy though :P

"The first time I heard this it was Allah, not God on the quote."

Your bigotry misleads you. This is a Genghis Khan quote, not a Muslim quote. (not to mention that the word 'God' in Arabic is 'Allah' - if you really heard it that way, then somebody forgot to finish translating the whole quote for you)

It was Genghis Khan, but to the leader Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, a leader of an islamic empire.

The God he was referring to was not of the Mongol pagan beliefs but to Allah, the Islamic God. Some historians have argued that this suggest Genghis Khan did convert to Islam in later years of his life.

I am still wondering if TC (failing to provide a name for that quote) was aware of this.

As for the God=Islamic, I am not retarded. However generally when I say God most people would think of the Christian God, followed by the Jewish, however saying Allah can only mean one thing, the Islamic God.

Having never heard someone speaking in English say Allah refering to the islamic God shows naivety on your front Tolstoy.

"Having never heard someone speaking in English say Allah refering to the islamic God shows naivety on your front Tolstoy."

In Islamic theology, Muslims follow the same God of the Jews and Christians. There are no separate gods for different peoples in the Abrahamic faiths. For the most part, neither Jews, Christians, or Muslims believe the other two are worshiping a false god (criticisms of the trinity notwithstanding), aside from the absurdly wacky Christian fundamentalists who like to believe that Islam is some kind of evil demonic cult.

"Some historians have argued that this suggest Genghis Khan did convert to Islam in later years of his life. "

Really? Which historians? I've never heard this before.

I once read it in a book, the same book that I first heard this quote (so in your eyes its clearly bullshit)

Re:Catch-22. "People who haven't been in the military won't understand this book. They'll think it's fiction."

Allah is just the word God in arabic.
there are Christian Arabs who literally refer to their God as Allah, even though they are Christian
Its just a matter of language

tolstoy is right in the matter.

and as far as genghis khan goes, i believe you might be mistaking him for his descendents the Mughals who went on to rule persia/india later on, and who took islam as their religion

"War is not a game" -most parents

"War is fun!" -most boys

"Fuck war" -most soldiers, older boys

"War is not a game" -most fathers, now men

"War is fun!" -their sons

you guys are missing the point.

TC hates Islam, I was wondering if he knew the quote was referring to Islam not Christianity and if he didn't does he still consider it a legit quote.

"Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession."

Applies to the game of diplomacy as well.