Historical Quotes

[s.c.dude]

put in some good quotes all are appreciated. and include at least one quote in each post please

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those who cast the votes decide nothing those who count the votes decide everything-joseph stalin

i havent failed ive just found 10000 ways that dont work-thomas edison

great minds discuss ideas.average minds discuss events. small minds discuss people -eleanor roosevelt

our lives teach us who we are-salman rushdie

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Feel free to put in sigs

 

[ParkCungHee]

"Laws are like Sausages, in order to maintain your respect for them, its best not to see them being made." -- Otto Von Bismark

 

[FriendlyFire]

"Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read you book!!!" - Patton

 

[Adler17]

"How many times I have to conquer this damn horse town, until I am allowed to destroy that bloody bridge?!?"
Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher Fürst von Wahlstatt after conquering Paris for the second time in 1815, as he wasn't allowed to destroy the Pont de Jéna.

Adler

 

[Orthodox Warior]

"Tomorow in Kosovo I will slay sultan Murat!"

1389, knight Milos Obilic, night before battle. And he did.

"Appeaser is the man who feed the crocodile hopin he would be last to be eaten"

Winston Churchill

 

[Lotus49]

Something Bush should take to heart:

"Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events."

-Sir Winston Churchill

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

"Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read you book!!!" - Patton

Hehe, that's currently being used as my MSN name

I've been using some quotes for my stories - here's a couple:

"Casualties many; Percentage of dead not known; Combat efficiency; we are winning "
~Colonel David M. Shoup

"There are no atheists in foxholes" isn't an argument against atheism, it's an argument against foxholes.
~James Morrow

 

[mrtn]

"Jazz ain't dead, it just smells funny." /Frank Zappa

 

[DAv2003]

"I am the scourge of God. You know you have committed great sins otherwise God would have not sent me to punish you." - Ghengis Khan (Probably not 100% right but still pretty damn good)

"We burnt the first one." - Winston Churchill, in response to Charles De Gaulle claiming he was considered to be the new Joan of Arc by the French people.

 

[Adler17]

An officer, who shot unallowed a deer in Frederic's forests was condamned to pay 100 Thaler. He sent a letter of apology to the king. The reply:

"No problem! For THAT price there are many other deers availabel to be shot."

Frederic the Great

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

I am bored with it all
~Winston Churchill's last words.

 

[Adler17]

More light!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's last words

Adler

 

[thetrooper]

^ "Mehr Licht!"

But why?

 

[Israelite9191]

A doubly history related quote:

"A nation must ... believe in the capacity of its people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgement for the creation of the future." -President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1941

 

[Adler17]

"There will be no more lies like before elections, in wars and after huntings."

Otto von Bismarck

Adler

 

[Lotus49]

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."
-Sir Winston Churchill

"If the tanks succeed, then victory follows."
-Heinz Guderian

"Der Kampf gegen die eigenen Oberen macht manchmal mehr Arbeit als gegen die Franzosen". (It is sometimes tougher to fight my superiors than the French)
-Heinz Guderian, when he got orders to stop and wait for the following infantry and tried to persuade his superiors that this would mean to throw away victory.

"The future battle on the ground will be preceded by battle in the air. This will determine which of the contestants has to suffer operational and tactical disadvantages and be forced throughout the battle into adoption compromise solutions."
-Erwin Rommel

"Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps and with the same chances of success."
-Erwin Rommel

"It's madness; every shot we fire in the west will simply bounce back at us."
-Erwin Rommel, while on leave shortly before his death in Oct. '44, when speaking to a staff officer from his old unit, who mentioned to him about the planned winter offensive.

 

[Verbose]

"We burnt the first one." - Winston Churchill, in response to Charles De Gaulle claiming he was considered to be the new Joan of Arc by the French people.

Otoh there's the incident from one of these times (the Churchill-de Gaulle relationship kind of see-sawed back and forth) when Churchill and Roosevelt were really pissed with de Gaulle (we can get back to who was in the right in some other thread.)
Churchill goes off in a rant about what a British-hating, inflexible piece of scum de Gaulle it. But when he's in full froth one of his senior aides (not Eden, who always backed de Gaulle) finds reason to remind Churchill that:

"Well, we have to make allowances, sir. Don't forget that after all de Gaulle is a great man."

"A great man!? That puffed up, self-centered, egotisitical...
...You're right! He is a great man."

And it was actually Churchill who first had to tell de Gaulle that de Gaulle seemed to think he was Joan of Arc, and that the British had to burn the first one. De Gaulle would never claim anything as ridiculous as that.

"One must not insult the future." — Charles de Gaulle

 

[DAv2003]

"A great man!? That puffed up, self-centered, egotisitical...
...You're right! He is a great man."

Gotta love Winnie's sense of humour if nothing else.

 

[privatehudson]

Interesting claim Verbose however from what I've seen there are numerous versions of that story and I suspect the truth will never be dug up on that one.

I must say though that the idea of an Englishman thinking of De Gaulle as a great man amuses me

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

"Those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it. The same goes for calculus or English class as well."