Famous quotes......

[bigjarofwasps]

They don`t make `em like this any more.........

[buellmeister]

I guess there was no pun intended when they called him, "Old Blood and Guts."

Edited April 4, 2007 by buellmeister

[Bear]

Hello,

This is the earliest quote that I've found on urban/siege warfare.

Napoleonic Marshal Jean Lannes(1769-1809) during the second Siege of Saragossa(1809).

I'd rather fight ten pitched battles in one day than this bloody war against houses!

-Marshal Lannes

thanks,

barry

[Eric K.]

I'm surprised this one hasn't come up before.

"In the absence of orders, go find something and kill it."

- Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

And this is my all time favorite, It's a bit modern, When I was a young paratrooper in Panama my first Squad Leader used to say

" If your looking for sympathy, look in the dictionary, It's between syphlus and suicide"

For those of you who are going to check sympathy really isn't between syphlus and suicide

Eric

[Ed_Haynes]

"Fighting for peace is like f*****g for virginity."

-- The 1960s

[Brian Wolfe]

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so".

-Douglas Adams

Keeps Generals and Divorce Lawyers in business!

Cheers

Brian

[Bear]

I heard this one on a documentary the other day.

I have been to the front lines and seen the boys. The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marines Corps!

Eleanor Roosevelt

[peter monahan]

"You can tell when the [fill in military unit of yr choice] have been through: your garbage has been picked over and the dogs are pregnant"

Anonymous senior officer -speaking about his own men!

[joe campbell]

"NUTS!!"

wish i coulda' been there to see:

-the americans laughing

-the germans scratching their heads.

joe

[peter monahan]

"NUTS!!"

wish i coulda' been there to see:

-the americans laughing

-the germans scratching their heads.

joe

But did he really say "Nuts!" ? I have read suggestions that the actual answer was two words, the first of which has some of the same letters as "FiretrUCK" and the second of which rhymes with "toff". The suggestion, plus the notion that the history had to be cleaned up for public consumption in 1945, struck me as very plausible. Also quite in character for a hard-charging yank officer in the circumstances and a little more forceful, shall we say, than "Nuts."

Has anyone else heard this suggestion? Of course, having read it 20+ years ago I have no recollection of the source, though I believe the author of the book had spoken to survivors of Bastogne, possibly even the author of the famed remark. Comments?

Peter

[Ed_Haynes]

But did he really say "Nuts!" ? I have read suggestions that the actual answer was two words, the first of which has some of the same letters as "FiretrUCK" and the second of which rhymes with "toff". The suggestion, plus the notion that the history had to be cleaned up for public consumption in 1945, struck me as very plausible. Also quite in character for a hard-charging yank officer in the circumstances and a little more forceful, shall we say, than "Nuts."

Has anyone else heard this suggestion? Of course, having read it 20+ years ago I have no recollection of the source, though I believe the author of the book had spoken to survivors of Bastogne, possibly even the author of the famed remark. Comments?

Peter

I have heard the same thing, including in stories recounted by a family friend who was there. But once a myth gets established, especially a "clean" myth, . . . .

[Bear]

I know not with what weapons WW III will be fought, but WW IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

Albert Einstein

[Obergefreiter]

But did he really say "Nuts!" ? I have read suggestions that the actual answer was two words, the first of which has some of the same letters as "FiretrUCK" and the second of which rhymes with "toff". The suggestion, plus the notion that the history had to be cleaned up for public consumption in 1945, struck me as very plausible. Also quite in character for a hard-charging yank officer in the circumstances and a little more forceful, shall we say, than "Nuts."

Has anyone else heard this suggestion? Of course, having read it 20+ years ago I have no recollection of the source, though I believe the author of the book had spoken to survivors of Bastogne, possibly even the author of the famed remark. Comments?

Peter

I have never heard, one way or the other. But even as a kid I suspected that "nuts" was BS.

[Paul L Murphy]

My favourite is the Duke of Wellington after reviewing a group of his own men in the Peninsular War when he said "I do not know what these men will do to the enemy but by God sir they frighten me".

[peter monahan]

My favourite is the Duke of Wellington after reviewing a group of his own men in the Peninsular War when he said "I do not know what these men will do to the enemy but by God sir they frighten me".

Also by "Old Nosey": "The scum of the earth, enlisted for drink and officered by gentlemen."

And, somewhat less favourite, in response to be twitted about having been born in Ireland: "Not everything that comes out of a stable is a horse."

No, ya pompous ould spalpeen, some av it is horse s**t! (Sorry, my Fenian side peeking through there. )

[Michael Johnson]

You'll have to pardon Peter, he has had these lapses ever since a Martini Mk IV fell off the wall in his residence at University and sort of scattered his type. :banger:

[Bear]

I came across this one today. HaHa!!!

"They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me."

-- Nathaniel Lee, on being consigned to a mental institution, circa 17th century.

[peter monahan]

I came across this one today. HaHa!!!

"They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me."

-- Nathaniel Lee, on being consigned to a mental institution, circa 17th century.

It may have been Lee, then, who in later years, while running for public office, made much of the fact that he had a certificate that said he was sane, while his opponent did not!

[gerardkenny]

My favourite is the Duke of Wellington after reviewing a group of his own men in the Peninsular War when he said "I do not know what these men will do to the enemy but by God sir they frighten me".

I think this was the Connaught Rangers ?

Re the Wellington quote about being born in a stable, I had read that it was the other way around that it was not Wellington denying his Irishness but Daniel O'Connell denying it to him ;

"The poor old Duke [of Wellington]! What shall I say of him? To be sure he was born in Ireland, but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse."

http://books.google.com/books?id=dpKbWonMghwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Edited November 11, 2009 by gerardkenny

[gerardkenny]

Another one many Irish people would be aware of was from General Michael Collins from the treaty negotiations

"When you have sweated, toiled, had mad dreams, hopeless nightmares, you find yourself in London's streets, cold and dank in the night air. Think - what have I got for Ireland? Something which she has wanted these past 700 years. Will anyone be satisfied with the bargain? Will anyone? I tell you this -early this morning I signed my own death warrant. I though at the time how odd, how ridiculous -a bullet might just as well have done the job 5 years ago." - Michael Collins in a letter to John O'Kane after the Treaty.

[supnut]

Back to the Wellington quote about his troops, "I don't know what..."

I read somewhere he was was actually commenting on Congreave's Rockets; but having a g.grandfather and a g.g.grandfather in the Connaught Rangers, I prefer the first version!