Top 100 Force Military Quotes
#1. Any communitys arm of force - military, police, security - needs people in it who can do necessary evil, and yet not be made evil by it. To do only the necessary and no more. To constantly question the assumptions, to stop the slide into atrocity.
Lois McMaster Bujold
#2. To say that a social order is maintained by military force immediately raises the question: what maintains the military order? It is impossible to organise an army solely by coercion. At least some of the commanders and soldiers must truly believe in something, be
Yuval Noah Harari
#3. My advice is: 1. Be judicious in the use of military force. 2. When military force is required, use overwhelming force. 3. Do not micromanage military leaders. 4. Ensure your battle plans will win the conflict and win the peace.
Steve Stivers
#4. The world dominion of western thought, forms of organisation, technology and military force is not God-given, nor eternal, nor greatly appreciated by the rest of the world.
James Buchan
#5. I believe that when we overdo our military aggressiveness, it actually weakens our national defense. I mean, we stood up to the Soviets. They had 40,000 nuclear weapons. Now we're fretting day in and day and night about third-world countries that have no army, navy or air force.
Ron Paul
#6. If there are threats to the United States, then I would of course go back to the president and make a recommendation that may include the use of U.S. military ground force.
Martin Dempsey
#7. Judge candidly what a wretched figure the American empire will exhibit in the eye of other nations, without a power to array and support a military force for its own protection.
Oliver Ellsworth
#8. Desert Storm was a war which involved the massive use of air power and a victory achieved by the U.S. and multinational air force units. It was also the first war in history in which air power was used to defeat ground forces.
Merrill McPeak
#9. America stood at the summit of power, emerging from the Cold War as an economic, cultural and military force without equal.
Lincoln Chafee
#10. Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.
Jimmy Carter
#11. At the same time I think it is absolutely necessary that there be no confusion, no misunderstanding that if the Iraqis.. do not comply, then there will be consequences and those consequences will involve the use of military force to disarm them through changing the regime.
Colin Powell
#12. As a son of an airman who was stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, it is my honor to nominate young people to our military academies.
Ron Barber
#13. The military has been tremendously important in the past during catastrophes and in protecting the population. But it shouldn't become an auxiliary police force.
Otto Schily
#14. America has the strongest, best-trained, best-led military force in the world, and we have failed them. Our military today is struggling in virtually every category that measures preparedness.
John McCain
#15. We will fight with full force and might of the United States military.
George W. Bush
#16. Obama behaves like a centrist who leans tentatively left on certain social programs but boldly right on military force and civil liberties.
David K. Shipler
#17. It appears that with the deadline for exile come and gone, Saddam Hussein has chosen to make military force the ultimate weapons inspections enforcement mechanism. If so, the only exit strategy is victory, this is our common mission and the world's cause.
John F. Kerry
#18. The more usual reason for adopting a strategy of limited aim is that of awaiting a change in the balance of force ... The essential condition of such a strategy is that the drain on him should be disproportionately greater than on oneself.
B.H. Liddell Hart
#19. Training a reliable military force that adheres to Western norms and standards is the work of a generation, not a few months.
David Ignatius
#20. The Americans called theirs the Officers Club but the Canadians called ours the Officers Mess. The American term was the more honest; ours the more accurate. Drunken officers at play are messy.
R.J. Childerhose
#21. Therefore, if one were to consider that there was virtually no possibility of success through the US-Japan negotiations, the military and economic pressures would only force Japan into further crisis if time were allowed to pass in vain.
Hideki Tojo
#22. We should never allow computers to make inherently governmental decisions in terms of the application of military force, even if that's happening on the internet.
Edward Snowden
#23. Our warriors are no longer limited to the people who fly the airplanes ... Our entire force is a warrior force. Being a warrior is not an AFSC, ... it's a condition of the heart.
John P. Jumper
#24. No one will remember that President Obama supported the Arab Spring if it eventually fails and the region collapses back into the political Dark Ages. If we actively engage these movements with advice, with money, and, when necessary, with military force, then we get a vote in how it all turns out.
Sebastian Junger
#25. [A] military force was collected in Europe, formidable by their arms and numbers, if the generals had understood the science of command, and the soldiers the duty of obedience.
Edward Gibbon
#26. This cannot be the United States being the air force for Shia militias, or a Shia on Sunni Arab fight.
David Petraeus
#27. The whole military power of the State is at the disposal of the Governor. He is the commander of the militia, and head of the armed force.
Alexis De Tocqueville
#28. General Otis is proclaimed American Military Governor of the Philippines and I protest a thousand times and with all the force in my soul against such pretension.
Emilio Aguinaldo
#29. We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.
Barack Obama
#30. You can't solve a dignity problem with military force.
Rand Paul
#31. We have an authorization to use military force against terrorists. We passed it after 9/11.
Hillary Clinton
#32. I love writing about the military, as I live near an air force base and am inspired by the sacrifices our soldiers make for us. I like to give them a lot of challenges to beat, and show how they live with intrigue and danger.
Franny Armstrong
#33. My husband is a former Air Force pilot and my son is an active duty Army surgeon, recently returned from Iraq, so my pride in our military is passionate ... and personal.
Robyn Carr
#34. 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.
Smedley Butler
#35. The application of military force, or the prospect of such application, inhibits terrorist violence.
Benjamin Netanyahu
#36. The first duty of the sovereign [is] that of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies, [which] can be performed only by means of a military force
Adam Smith
#37. I will not wage war against women and children! I have instructed my air force to limit their attacks to military objectives. However, if the enemy should conclude from this that he might get away with waging war in a different manner he will receive an answer that he'll be knocked out of his wits!
Adolf Hitler
#38. Air power is the most difficult of military force to measure or even express in precise terms.
Winston Churchill
#39. The coke bugs were out in force, doing military manoeuvres, all jazzed up on their Bolivian marching powder.
Mark D. Diehl
#40. Germany is too big to sit on the sidelines on world issues. Military force is not the ultima ratio it used to be, but it can be used, with care.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier
#41. Clearly the American military has been a force for good for the United States. There's a reason we have a standing military. But there's something to be said for having a much smaller military because then we wouldn't be tempted to get involved in things we shouldn't be getting involved in.
Michael Hastings
#42. We can no longer apply the classic criteria to clearly determine whether and when we should use military force. We are waging war in Afghanistan, for example, but it's an asymmetrical war where the enemies are criminals instead of soldiers.
Otto Schily
#43. Air Force interceptors still pursue Unidentified Flying Objects as a matter of national security to this country and to determine technical aspects involved.
Joe W. Kelly
#44. I think that our American people will welcome a Russian military force for peace-keeping purposes.
Sam Nunn
#45. If we have reason to believe someone is preparing an attack against the U.S., has developed that capability, harbours those aspirations, then I think the U.S. is justified in dealing with that, if necessary, by military force.
Dick Cheney
#46. United States has comparative advantage in military force. It tends to react to anything at first with military force, that's what it's good at. And I think they overdid it. There was more military force than was necessary.
Noam Chomsky
#47. Yes. The all-volunteer force is comprised of a very small percentage of the population. Therefore, fewer citizens have a personal interest in military matters and are not personally impacted.
Sanford Bishop
#48. If you find your opponent in a strong position costly to force, you should leave him a line of retreat as the quickest way of loosening his resistance. It should, equally, be a principle of policy, especially in war, to provide your opponent with a ladder by which he can climb down.
B.H. Liddell Hart
#49. The mail service has been excellent out here, and in my opinion this is all that the Air Force has accomplished during the war.
Chesty Puller
#50. I am an Air Force brat - that's the terminology they use for military kids who are traveling constantly.
Vanessa Minnillo
#51. We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, Our Flag will be recognized throughout the World as a symbol of Freedom on the one hand and of overwhelming force on the other.
George C. Marshall
#52. America's finest - our men and women in uniform, are a force for good throughout the world, and that is nothing to apologize for.
Sarah Palin
#53. The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The Soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one's country
George S. Patton Jr.
#55. The use of large-scale military force in volatile regions of underdeveloped countries is difficult to do right, has major unintended consequences and rarely turns out to be quick, effective, controlled and short lived.
Dennis C. Blair
#56. it was the power of the military, and in particular that of the Air Force, which was the hidden hand that allowed universalist ideas to matter so much more than terrain and the historical experience of people living on it.
Robert D. Kaplan
#57. Nine years ago on September 14, 2001, I placed the lone vote against the 'Authorization for Use of Military Force' - an authorization that I knew would provide a blank check to wage war anywhere, at any time, and for any length.
Barbara Lee
#58. At Lackland Air Force Base, they make an effort to retrain military dogs that suffer from PTSD. It's a lengthy, long process. The treatment is much the same as it would be for people, but it's a difficult road back.
Robert Crais
#59. Putting women in military combat is the cutting edge of the feminist goal to force us into an androgynous society.
Phyllis Schlafly
#60. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.
Noah Webster
#61. We believe half-instinctively that evil always defeats itself in the long run. Pacifism is founded largely on this belief. Don't resist evil, and it will somehow destroy itself. But why should it? What evidence is there that it does ... unless conquered from the outside by military force?
George Orwell
#62. You've got to hae ground forces that are capable of going after them and rooting them out.
Raymond T. Odierno
#63. No commander was ever privileged to lead a finer force; no commander ever derived greater inspiration from the performance of his troops.
John J. Pershing
#64. In the name of "force protection," the military often rolls up windows, builds walls, and points rifles at the outside world. The best force protection, however, is to be surrounded by friends and allies.
Eric Greitens
#65. With amazement and disappointment, we discovered in late October and early November that the beaten Russians seemed quite unaware that as a military force they had almost ceased to exist.
Gunther Blumentritt
#66. I think most Americans believe that although it's better not to use military force if you can avoid it, that the world simply doesn't provide us the luxury of giving away military force as an important tool of foreign policy.
Robert Kagan
#67. San Antonio is like a military town. It's like literally - when I was growing up there, there were five Air Force bases, plus Fort Sam Houston. I was always sort of near the military.
Steve Earle
#68. I always wanted to go into the military or something like that - my whole family, all my friends are either Air Force, Navy, or Marines.
RJ Mitte
#69. Airpower has become predominant, both as a deterrent to war, and-in the eventuality of war-as the devastating force to destroy an enemy's potential and fatally undermine his will to wage war.
Omar N. Bradley
#70. We need to destroy ISIS in the caliphate. That's - that should be our objective. The refugee issue will be solved if we destroy ISIS there, which means we need to have a no-fly zone, safe zones there for refugees and to build a military force.
Jeb Bush
#71. When they arrived, they arrived in force- a dozen military ships surrounding the safe house, guns drawn.
Marissa Meyer
#72. An army should always be so distributed that its parts can aid each other and combine to produce the maximum possible concentration of force at one place, while the minimum force necessary is used elsewhere to prepare the success of the concentration.
B.H. Liddell Hart
#73. Military force is irrelevant to many of the most urgent threats we face. If we are to solve our myriad domestic problems and revitalize our economy we need to be more selective about our involvement in foreign crises large and small.
William Hartung
#74. Four or five frigates will do the business without any military force.
Lord North
#75. The commander must decide how he will fight the battle before it begins. He must then decide who he will use the military effort at his disposal to force the battle to swing the way he wishes it to go; he must make the enemy dance to his tune from the beginning and not vice versa.
Bernard Law Montgomery
#76. You have no idea how much it contributes to the general politeness and pleasantness of diplomacy when you have a little quiet armed force in the background
George F. Kennan
#77. Any military force should be dictated by the vital national security interests of the United States. And if and when we use force, we should use overwhelming force for a clearly stated objective. And then when we're done, we should get the heck out.
Ted Cruz
#78. Overwhelmingly, Israel's political and military establishment want the rest of the world to act diplomatically or otherwise to stop Iran. But if that doesn't happen, then the impulse toward the use of force will become quite strong.
Dennis Ross
#79. Our country regularly uses military force, but only a fraction of Americans serve in the military. This means fewer and fewer people have a direct link to the military, and yet it remains as important as ever that we have a rich understanding of what we are doing as a country.
Phil Klay
#80. Before statehood was achieved, Syria and Egypt had their tanks and military equipment lined up to invade Tel Aviv and destroy it; but the Israelis scrambled together an air force, some of it from old Second World War Messerschmidts, and the invasion was halted.
Steven Spielberg
#81. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.
George Washington
#83. The big issue is whether the United States will succeed in its venture of reshaping the Middle East. It is not clear to me that using military force is the way to do it. We should not have gone into Iraq. But we have.
Milton Friedman
#84. Strategy is the bridge that connects political goals with military force (and vice versa).
Peter D. Haynes
#85. I went to Ft Bragg and learned that Delta was indeed gearing up for the rescue. Still I was concerned the Reagan staff would not be willing to take the risk of sending an official military force into Laos.
Bo Gritz
#86. Nothing matures a military force quicker than actual military operations.
Duncan Hunter
#87. The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.
Thomas Jefferson
#88. A force engaged is out of the hand of its commander.
Ardant Du Picq
#89. So a military force has no constant formation, water has no constant shape: the ability to gain victory by changing and adapting according to the opponent is called genius.
Sun Tzu
#90. The Air Force is pulling nine cargo aircraft from military operations to support President Obama's stepped-up visits to campaign events. Good, now he can carry his entire ego with him on the trail.
Fred Thompson
#91. If you don't have a good idea of what to do next after using military force, then don't use it in the first place.
Ted Lieu
#92. The day after the prison was transferred to the military intelligence command, they had an entire battalion - 1,200, 1,500 soldiers - arrive at Abu Ghraib just for force protection alone.
Janis Karpinski
#93. My experience is that if the military didn't want to use force and was confronted with a president that did, the military would come back with what I would call the 'bomb Moscow' scenario. They would say it had to be done with conditions that were so extreme, you obviously wouldn't do it.
George P. Shultz
#94. In view of the result of attained at the Washington Treaty which, my advisors believe, guarantee peace in the Pacific for some time to come, it is proposed to reduce the establishment of the navy and army, and postpone the expansion of the air force.
Henry Forster, 1st Baron Forster
#95. To subdue and crush the masses of a nation by military force, when all are unanimous in the determination to be free, is to attempt the imprisonment of a whole people; all such projects must be temporary and transient, and terminate in a catastrophe...
William Dalrymple
#96. Once you get them running, you stay right on top of them, and that way a small force can defeat a large one every time ... Only thus can a weaker country cope with a stronger; it must make up in activity what it lacks in strength.
Stonewall Jackson
#97. I considered myself engaged in a war from Day One. And my objective was to force the federal government - the Kennedy administration at that time - into a position where they would have to use the United States military force to enforce my rights as a citizen.
James Meredith
#98. And after September the 11th, the United States Congress also granted me additional authority to use military force against al Qaeda ...
George W. Bush
#99. People in uniform are not sacrosanct. They don't have all the answers. The use of force is a political decision at its core, in terms of its objectives; then the military, as the experts, must be brought in to tell you how to do it.
Richard Holbrooke
#100. The amount of military force necessary to provide reassurance depends on how dangerous people think the world is. And that I think ultimately depends upon the kinds of government that hold sway in major countries.
Michael Mandelbaum
