Favorate Quotes . . .What Say You ?

[Long Rifle Tactical]

The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.

Sun Tzu

Art of War

[Pinnacle]

"Of every one hundred men, Ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are nothing but targets, Nine are real fighters...We are lucky to have them...They make the battle. Ah, but the ONE, ONE of them is a WARRIOR...and HE will bring the others back."--Hericletus (circa 500 BC)

This now goes out on most of my personal emails as a signature line. Great quote!

[nickdrak]

"One is no more armed because he has possession of a firearm than he is a musician because he owns a piano. There is no point in having a gun if you are not capable of using it skillfully." (LtCOL. Jeff Cooper U.S.M.C.)

[BravoCompanyUSA]

"War is an art and as such is not susceptible of explanation by fixed formula"
- General George Patton Jr

[BravoCompanyUSA]

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.
Ernest Hemmingway

[BravoCompanyUSA]

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
George Orwell

[BravoCompanyUSA]

"Hence that general is skilful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skilful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.”
Sun Tzu

[deadwood83]

George Bernard Shaw
You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"

Theodore Roosevelt
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

Dwight D. Eisenhower
There is no victory at bargain basement prices.

Dwight D. Eisenhower
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

Douglas McArthur
A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. -Anyone ever see an anti-gunner stand alone?

Voltaire
God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.

Orson Welles
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.

Winston Churchill
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

[BravoCompanyUSA]

The only condition that I have for building you a rifle, is that when you pick it up, you must be willing to drop it on the ground and kick it to your truck.
K.L. Davis

[Wayne Dobbs]

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams


A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear." Marcus Tullius Cicero 42 B.C.

[Submariner]

“War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

Smedley D. Butler, Maj. Gen, USMC (ret.)

Gen. Butler was twice awarded the Medal of Honor.

[Alpha Sierra]

Qui desiderat pacem, preparet bellum

Vegetius
De Rei Militari III

[DPB]

“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.”
-Thomas Sowell

“There are no substitutes for violence of action and volume of fire. Move forward and shoot, always forward and shooting. The enemy will choose to fight and die or live and run either way move forward and shoot and he will fear you absolutely.”
-Otto Skoernzy

"Sooner or later in life, we all sit down to a banquet of consequences."
-Robert Louis Stevenson

"Never start a fight that you can't win with everything you have right now."
-SSG Joe "Gladiator" Walker, 1-0, RT California

Some of my personal favorites.

DPB

[Alpha Sierra]

"Fight back! Whenever you are offered violence, fight back! The aggressor does not fear the law, so he must be taught to fear you. Whatever the risk, and at whatever the cost, fight back!"
- Col. Jeff Cooper

[BravoCompanyUSA]

"Everybody wants to get big, but nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weight."
Ronnie Coleman (Mr Olympia)

[BBossman]

My sig line -

[dimmak]

"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. If you put water in a cup it becomes the cup, if you put into a bottle it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
-Bruce Lee

[ArCane]

"Anything that is complex is not useful and anything that is useful is simple. This has been my whole life's motto."
- Mikhail T. Kalashnikov


"....but if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant; an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. " ---Romans 13:4

Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness - GT Member

You can mock the truth that threatens your need to believe that people everywhere act the same, until it's running down your street with a firebomb - GT Member


"Let he who hath no sword sell his cloak and buy one" Luke 22:36

"Blessed be the Lord, which teaches my fingers to fight and my hands to war." Psalm 144

Psalms 23:4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.


Matthew 10:34
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.


And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.

[Striker5]

Mr. Dobbs,

I love the Cicero quote.

The Smedley Butler quote irks me every time I read it. It is not totally off base, but if he felt strongly about it, he should have gotten out. As such I view this quotation as the precursor to the whiny "I was a tool of the imperialist state, formed into a killing machine against my will!" BS I hear today. Cry me a friggin' river, Major sir.

Speaking of Jack Slade, gunfighter and stagecoach station master:

"A high and efficient servant of the Overland, an outlaw among outlaws and yet their relentless scourge, Slade was at once the most bloody, the most dangerous, and the most valuable citizen that inhabited the savage fastness of the mountains."

"The outlaws soon found that the new agent was a man who did not fear anything that breathed the breath of life. He made short work of all offenders. The result was that delays ceased, the company's property was let alone, and no matter what happened or who suffered, Slade's coaches went through every time!"

-Mark Twain, "Roughing It"

The opposite of fear is not anger. The opposite of fear is courage.

-my wife

[Neville]

"The man whose profession is arms should calm his mind and look into the depths of others. Doing so is likely the best of the martial arts."
feudal lord Shiba Yoshimasa (1350-1410 AD), "The Chikubasho"

on the funny side, some eloquent insults:

"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others."
-- Samuel Johnson

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know."
-- Abraham Lincoln

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about."
-- Winston Churchill