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Favorite Historical Quotes
Everyone post some good ones but make sure they are from history and not from pop stars or actors and junk like that.
Here are some of my favorite:
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."
- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei
"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad."
- Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
"We have art to save ourselves from the truth."
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
- Voltaire (1694-1778)
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), Inaugural
Address, January 20, 1953
"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
"A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation."
- H. H. Munro (Saki) (1870-1916)
"University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small."
- Henry Kissinger (1923-)
"No Sane man will dance."
- Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
"Vote early and vote often."
- Al Capone (1899-1947)
"Men are not disturbed by things, but the view they take of things."
- Epictetus (55-135 A.D.)
"What about things like bullets?"
- Herb Kimmel, Behavioralist, Professor of Psychology, upon hearing the above quote (1981)
"Nothing is wrong with California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure."
- Ross MacDonald (1915-1983)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
"Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."
- last words of Pancho Villa (1877-1923)
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
-Sir Winston Churchill
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
-Sir Winston Churchill
Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
No poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making other bastards die for their country.
-Patton
The Neapolitans lost very little honor in this engagement, for they had but little honor to lose. But they did lose all that they had.
-Horatio Nelson, writing back home after watching the Army of naples routed by a French army a tenth its size
"We have nothing to hide... We have nothing. And we must hide it."
N. Khrushchev on Soviet foreign policy
"History teaches us that we learn nothing from history."
-Friedrich Hegel
"It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war."
-JFK
"We won't just shoot the bastard, but rip out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks."
- General George Patton
"Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Lets go inland and be killed."
- General Norman Cota: Omaha Beach, 1944
"We are outnumbered, there is only one thing to do. We must attack!"
- Admiral Andrew Cunningham, 11 November 1940.
Before attacking the Italian fleet at Taranto
"My fellow Americans. I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
-President Reagan, before a scheduled radio broadcast, unaware that the microphone was already on
"The Pope! how many divisions has he got?"
- Stalin
In 1935, a French visitor asked Soviet leader Josef Stalin if he thought Pope Pius XI might prove to be an ally.
"Tell my son Josef that he will meet my divisions in eternity."
- Reply from the Pope when he heard the story years later.
You tell me Grant is always drunk? fine. Find out what he drinks and send a case to all of my other generals!
Abraham Lincoln
"The ardennes are impenetrble... this sector is not dangerous." Petain, 1934
"There is no such thing as the arial battle. there is only the battle on the ground." Gamelin, 1936
We are not Poles, It could not happen here." Gamelin 1940, when warned that Germany may use blitzkrieg tactics in the west.
Nous vaincrons parce que nous sommes les plus forts.
We shall win because we are the stronger.
Edouard Daladier, 1939
Mon centre cède du terrain,ma droite se replie. Situation excellente. j'attaque!
My center is giving ground, my right is retreating. Situation excellent. To the attack!
Foch, September 6, 1914 at 1st Marne.
"Gentlemen, you have fought like lions and been led by donkeys."
--Erwin Rommel, to British prisoners after the fall of Tobruk
"Republicans believe every day is 4th of July, but Democrats believe every day is April 15."
Ronald Reagan
"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."
-Winston Churchill
"Most essential qualification for a politician: The ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next year- and to explain afterward why it did not happen. "
– Winston Churchill
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take everything you have."
– Winston Churchill
"To the meaningless French idealisms, of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, we present the German realities of Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery."
- Prince Bernhard von Bulow
I wanted a nation and they gave me the Belgians.
-Leopold I von Saxen-Coburg-Gotha, first king of Belgium
It's very bad. I will lose my job.
-East German border guard asked by the BBC for his thoughts on the bringing down of the Berlin wall...
If you see a white plane it´s American, if you see a black plane it´s RAF. If you see no planes at all it´s the Luftwaffe.
-German soldier on the Western Front, 1944
"Two kinds of people are staying on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die."
-US Army Colonel George Taylor urging his troops forward on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
"Out in the front every one is holding out, Herr Oberstleutnant. Every one. My grenadiers and my engineers and my tank crews-- they're all holding their ground. Not a single man is leaving his post. Not one! They're lying in their foxholes mute and silent, for they are dead. Dead! Do you understand? You may report to the field marshal that the Panzer Lehr Division is annihilated."
--Generalleutnant "Fritz" Bayerlein
"The Germans are staying in there just by the guts of their soldiers. We outnumber them 10 to 1 in infantry, 50 to 1 in artillery, and by an infinite number in the air."
--General Barton, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, Normandy
"It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army"
-Stalin
On the Tobruk front a large force of Italians attacked one enemy cyclist, causing him to dismount. After heavy and prolonged fighting they were able to puncture his tires. The front wheel was destroyed, while destruction of the rear wheel must also be considered probable. The handle bars are in our hands, but possession of the frame is still contested.
-German satire of an Italian war communique, reportedly captured by British troops in Libya
not an actual quote but its ok anyway
Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most
pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.
-Churchill
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
-Churchill Speech, 20 Aug. 1940, House of Commons, on the pilots who fought the Battle of Britain.
"Now the Italians have joined the war on the German side. But that is only fair since we had the the last time."
-Churchill
"The point of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his..."
-General Patton
All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us... they can't get away this time.
-Lieutenant General Lewis B."Chesty" Puller (when surrounded by 8 enemy divisions)
If you have sacrificed my nation to preserve the peace of the world, I will be the first to applaud you. But if not, gentlemen, God help your souls.
-Jan Masaryk, Czech Minister (1938)
"Deos fortioribus adesse." (The gods are on the side of the stronger.)
Tacitus c.56 - c.177 AD
"We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
July 1776 - At the Signing of the Declaration of Independence
"This is no time for making new enemies."
Voltaire On being asked to renounce the Devil, on his deathbed
Here are some of my favorite:
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."
- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei
"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad."
- Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
"We have art to save ourselves from the truth."
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
- Voltaire (1694-1778)
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), Inaugural
Address, January 20, 1953
"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
"A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation."
- H. H. Munro (Saki) (1870-1916)
"University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small."
- Henry Kissinger (1923-)
"No Sane man will dance."
- Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
"Vote early and vote often."
- Al Capone (1899-1947)
"Men are not disturbed by things, but the view they take of things."
- Epictetus (55-135 A.D.)
"What about things like bullets?"
- Herb Kimmel, Behavioralist, Professor of Psychology, upon hearing the above quote (1981)
"Nothing is wrong with California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure."
- Ross MacDonald (1915-1983)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
"Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."
- last words of Pancho Villa (1877-1923)
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
-Sir Winston Churchill
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
-Sir Winston Churchill
Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
No poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making other bastards die for their country.
-Patton
The Neapolitans lost very little honor in this engagement, for they had but little honor to lose. But they did lose all that they had.
-Horatio Nelson, writing back home after watching the Army of naples routed by a French army a tenth its size
"We have nothing to hide... We have nothing. And we must hide it."
N. Khrushchev on Soviet foreign policy
"History teaches us that we learn nothing from history."
-Friedrich Hegel
"It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war."
-JFK
"We won't just shoot the bastard, but rip out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks."
- General George Patton
"Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Lets go inland and be killed."
- General Norman Cota: Omaha Beach, 1944
"We are outnumbered, there is only one thing to do. We must attack!"
- Admiral Andrew Cunningham, 11 November 1940.
Before attacking the Italian fleet at Taranto
"My fellow Americans. I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
-President Reagan, before a scheduled radio broadcast, unaware that the microphone was already on
"The Pope! how many divisions has he got?"
- Stalin
In 1935, a French visitor asked Soviet leader Josef Stalin if he thought Pope Pius XI might prove to be an ally.
"Tell my son Josef that he will meet my divisions in eternity."
- Reply from the Pope when he heard the story years later.
You tell me Grant is always drunk? fine. Find out what he drinks and send a case to all of my other generals!
Abraham Lincoln
"The ardennes are impenetrble... this sector is not dangerous." Petain, 1934
"There is no such thing as the arial battle. there is only the battle on the ground." Gamelin, 1936
We are not Poles, It could not happen here." Gamelin 1940, when warned that Germany may use blitzkrieg tactics in the west.
Nous vaincrons parce que nous sommes les plus forts.
We shall win because we are the stronger.
Edouard Daladier, 1939
Mon centre cède du terrain,ma droite se replie. Situation excellente. j'attaque!
My center is giving ground, my right is retreating. Situation excellent. To the attack!
Foch, September 6, 1914 at 1st Marne.
"Gentlemen, you have fought like lions and been led by donkeys."
--Erwin Rommel, to British prisoners after the fall of Tobruk
"Republicans believe every day is 4th of July, but Democrats believe every day is April 15."
Ronald Reagan
"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."
-Winston Churchill
"Most essential qualification for a politician: The ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next year- and to explain afterward why it did not happen. "
– Winston Churchill
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take everything you have."
– Winston Churchill
"To the meaningless French idealisms, of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, we present the German realities of Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery."
- Prince Bernhard von Bulow
I wanted a nation and they gave me the Belgians.
-Leopold I von Saxen-Coburg-Gotha, first king of Belgium
It's very bad. I will lose my job.
-East German border guard asked by the BBC for his thoughts on the bringing down of the Berlin wall...
If you see a white plane it´s American, if you see a black plane it´s RAF. If you see no planes at all it´s the Luftwaffe.
-German soldier on the Western Front, 1944
"Two kinds of people are staying on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die."
-US Army Colonel George Taylor urging his troops forward on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
"Out in the front every one is holding out, Herr Oberstleutnant. Every one. My grenadiers and my engineers and my tank crews-- they're all holding their ground. Not a single man is leaving his post. Not one! They're lying in their foxholes mute and silent, for they are dead. Dead! Do you understand? You may report to the field marshal that the Panzer Lehr Division is annihilated."
--Generalleutnant "Fritz" Bayerlein
"The Germans are staying in there just by the guts of their soldiers. We outnumber them 10 to 1 in infantry, 50 to 1 in artillery, and by an infinite number in the air."
--General Barton, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, Normandy
"It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army"
-Stalin
On the Tobruk front a large force of Italians attacked one enemy cyclist, causing him to dismount. After heavy and prolonged fighting they were able to puncture his tires. The front wheel was destroyed, while destruction of the rear wheel must also be considered probable. The handle bars are in our hands, but possession of the frame is still contested.
-German satire of an Italian war communique, reportedly captured by British troops in Libya
not an actual quote but its ok anyway
Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most
pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.
-Churchill
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
-Churchill Speech, 20 Aug. 1940, House of Commons, on the pilots who fought the Battle of Britain.
"Now the Italians have joined the war on the German side. But that is only fair since we had the the last time."
-Churchill
"The point of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his..."
-General Patton
All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us... they can't get away this time.
-Lieutenant General Lewis B."Chesty" Puller (when surrounded by 8 enemy divisions)
If you have sacrificed my nation to preserve the peace of the world, I will be the first to applaud you. But if not, gentlemen, God help your souls.
-Jan Masaryk, Czech Minister (1938)
"Deos fortioribus adesse." (The gods are on the side of the stronger.)
Tacitus c.56 - c.177 AD
"We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
July 1776 - At the Signing of the Declaration of Independence
"This is no time for making new enemies."
Voltaire On being asked to renounce the Devil, on his deathbed
)
I've made a few text files to put good quotes in, but for some reason I keep deleting them. Seems I've deleted the most recent one, too. 
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