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"The great Chinese classics have always said that it's better not to fight; that the clever man achieves his ends without violence; that a battle delayed is better than a battle fought."
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Exlpore more Battle quotes
"The day my father came to claim me, my mother did not wish for me to go. 'She is a girl,' she said, 'and I do not think that she is yours. I had a thousand other men.' He tossed his spear at my feet and gave my mother the back of his hand across the face, so she began to weep. 'Girl or boy, we fight our battles,' he said, 'but the gods let us choose our weapons.' He pointed to the spear, then to my mother's tears, and I picked up the spear."
"Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle."
"Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything."
"A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win."
"Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there."
Explore more quotes by John Keegan
"If Wellington epitomizes the English gentleman, Eisenhower epitomizes the natural American gentleman."
"Well, if they are trying to kill you, on the whole they're the people you have to kill, aren't they?"
"I think Americans like the practical; they like the human. And I like both those things myself, and I try and put them into my books."
"The leader of men in warfare can show himself to his followers only through a mask, a mask that he must make for himself, but a mask made in such form as will mark him to men of his time and place as the leader they want and need."
"The great men of power who seek to change the nations they belong to usually are pretty terrible people."
"Men killing other men really is an extraordinary phenomenon. Why does it happen? And how long has it gone on? And have the motives changed?"
"I think that black Africa is extremely terrifying. Black Africa can become a maelstrom of warring tribes without the outside world needing to feel the need to do anything about it."
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