Military Quotes: Timeless Wisdom from Warriors and Leaders

"Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value"

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom"

Martin Luther King Jr., Minister

"Developments in information technology and globalised media mean that the most powerful military in the history of the world can lose a war, not on the battlefield of dust and blood, but on the battlefield of world opinion"

Timothy Garton Ash, Author

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded"

Barack Obama, President

"After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military"

William S. Burroughs, Writer

"We shall listen, not lecture; learn, not threaten. We will enhance our safety by earning the respect of others and showing respect for them. In short, our foreign policy will rest on the traditional American values of restraint and empathy, not on military might"

Theodore C. Sorensen, Lawyer

"The later it gets the more disturbed the city becomes. I go with Albert through the streets. Men are standing in groups at every corner. Rumours are flying. It is said that the military have already fired on a procession of demonstrating workers"

Erich Maria Remarque, Writer

"The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"Fiji had experienced the ordeal of two military coups"

Kamisese Mara, Statesman

"As costly as it was in the lives of our men and women in uniform, in military assets, and in esteem and pride, Pearl Harbor was a watershed moment for America"

Joe Baca, Politician

"Of course, there is no question that Libya - and the world - will be better off with Gaddafi out of power. I, along with many other world leaders, have embraced that goal, and will actively pursue it through non-military means. But broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake"

Barack Obama, President

"Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism have reduced the pace of military transformation and have revealed our lack of preparation for defensive and stability operations. This Administration has overextended our military"

Barack Obama, President

"War is much too serious a thing to be left to military men"

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Diplomat

"How many Catholic schools do you think teach the students to question the authority of the Pope? Do you believe Christian schools teach students to question or challenge the authority of Jesus Christ? Do military schools teach the cadets to challenge the authority"

Neal Boortz, Journalist

"I support allowing homosexuals to serve openly in our military and eliminating the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy"

Ed Case, Politician

"The law increasing and organizing the military establishment of the United States has been nearly carried into effect, and the Army has been extensively and usefully employed during the past season"

Martin Van Buren, President

"Half a world away nations that once lived under oppression and tyranny are now budding democracies due in large part to America 's leadership and the sacrifices of our military"

Bob Riley, Politician

"And from a military school which taught me that to fit into society, you can't just do anything you damn well please because it will suit you. And that it's much better to be with the winners than it is with the losers"

Sam Donaldson, Journalist

"The military lead turbulent lives, but they are people like everybody else"

William Westmoreland, Soldier

"Also a great part of Polish industry proved to have existed only to support the Soviet military industry, and it became superfluous and incapable of being transformed into anything else. We did not foresee that or the magnitude of these phenomena"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"In view of China's growing military strength and intentions, the best way to safeguard Asia's permanent peace and prosperity is to have all Asian countries join forces with other democratic countries in the world to form a global community of democracies"

Jim Costa, Politician

"We've built the largest empire in the history of the world. It's been done over the last 50 years since World War II with very little military might, actually. It's only in rare instances like Iraq where the military comes in as a last resort"

John Perkins, Economist

"On the battlefield, the military pledges to leave no soldier behind. As a nation, let it be our pledge that when they return home, we leave no veteran behind"

Dan Lipinski, Politician

"The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Government"

James K. Polk, President

"The real peril of war lies not in military defeat. It lies in war itself, whether we win or lose"

John T. Flynn, Critic

"George Bush, Dick Cheney, every one of the speakers praised John Kerry's war record. No one said he was unfit. They said he has terrible judgment, and that's his record as a senator. Nobody questioned his military record"

Peter King, Politician

"I think most Americans believe that although it's better not to use military force if you can avoid it, that the world simply doesn't provide us the luxury of giving away military force as an important tool of foreign policy"

Robert Kagan, Writer

"What Canada has to do is to have a government connected to the priorities of the people of which it is elected to serve. Those priorities include ensuring medicare is sustainable, support for the military, and tax and justice systems that work"

Peter MacKay, Politician

"We can all be proud of our men and women in the military who are following their orders, carrying out their missions and sacrificing so much to give the Iraqi people a chance for a more peaceful and prosperous future"

Ron Kind, Politician

"I never thought about becoming a politician. But during the military dictatorship, my grandfather was put in prison six times and my father twice. If my family and my country didn't have this history, I might be a professor somewhere today"

Georgios A. Papandreou, Politician

"Military officers from different countries, when they meet each other, tend to sort of fall in love, become mutual admiration societies, at the expense of realities"

William Odom, Soldier

"Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with"

Rachel Corrie, Activist

"All persons harboring or secreting the conspirators or aiding their concealment or escape, will be treated as accomplices in the murder of the President and shall be subject to trial before a military commission, and the punishment of death"

Edwin M. Stanton, Lawyer

"Also in the new constitution, we want to lower the voting age from 20 years to 18 years and also gradually implement a voluntary military service in replacement of the current compulsory military service"

Chen Shui-bian, Statesman

"Our nation must manage significant national security challenges over the next several years. We are already facing a potential conflict with Iraq, new challenges on the Korean peninsula, and key decisions in the president's plans to transform the military"

Duncan Hunter, Politician

"Our neighbor Canada has 2,200 troops serving in Afghanistan. Canada has also assumed responsibility for the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, which was originally established by our own military"

Tom Lantos, Diplomat

"Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilized and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti"

Thor Heyerdahl, Explorer

"We're in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country"

Ronald Reagan, President

"For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank"

Winston Churchill, Statesman

"Military justice is to justice what military music is to music"

Groucho Marx, Comedian

Page 1 of 12