Top 100 Quotes About Generals
#1. Generals do not always run wars the way they would like to, nor the troops under them.
Christopher Vokes
#3. Health, money. That's what people worried about in the 14th century as much as today. I find it so much more interesting than the supposed activities of kings, queens, generals.
Peter Ackroyd
#4. I have the impression that if the "armchair generals" arguers got their way and asked only war veterans what to do about Saddam Hussein, there would have been a rather abrupt "regime change" in Iraq long before now.
Christopher Hitchens
#5. To study the laws of history we must completely change the subject of our observation, must leave aside kings, ministers, and generals, and study the common, infinitesimally small elements by which the masses are moved.
Leo Tolstoy
#6. What enables the enlightened rulers and good generals to conquer the enemy at every move and achieve extraordinary success is foreknowledge.
Sun Tzu
#7. It is not possible for a single person to be working outstanding miracles, signs and wonders which millions of other Nigerians cannot do and for such a person to be an agent of Satan. They - the God's generals - should combine forces and deliver such a satanic person or get rid of him.
T. B. Joshua
#8. I've interviewed presidents and royalty, rock stars and movie stars, famous generals and captains of industry; I've had front row seats at Super Bowls, World Series, and Olympic Games; my books have been on best-seller lists, and my marriage is a long-running success.
Tom Brokaw
#9. I caddied for Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley long before they became generals or president, for that matter. Just between you and me, Bradley tipped better than Eisenhower did.
John Henrik Clarke
#10. My advice for the next commander in chief: Listen to your military advisers. Listen to your generals. They are the experts. Even if you have a commander in chief who has served in the military, that person still isn't engaged on a daily basis. The generals will know best.
Ralph Abraham
#11. I started by studying Kiswahili to learn the dialect. Then, I studied tapes, documentaries, footage, and audio cassettes of Idi Amin's speeches. And I met with his brothers, his sisters, his ministers, his generals' all kinds of people, in order to try to understand him.
Forest Whitaker
#12. War is treachery and hatred, the muddling of incompetent generals, the torture and killing and sickness and tiredness, until at last it is over and nothing has changed except for new weariness and new hatreds.
John Steinbeck
#13. We had generals who were admirals and admirals who wanted to be generals. Generals acting as admirals are bad enough, but it was the admirals who wanted to be generals who imperiled victory among the coral islands.
Holland Smith
#14. We have not all had the good fortune to be ladies. We have not all been generals, or poets, or statesmen; but when the toast works down to the babies, we stand on common ground - for we have all been babies.
Mark Twain
#15. Man does not have the right to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must electrically control the brain. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electrical stimulation of the brain.
Jose Manuel Rodriguez Delgado
#16. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the 'Momentary' masters of a 'Fraction' of a 'Dot'
Carl Sagan
#17. In the history of modern warfare, it is doubtful if there are any generals at the top of a command pyramid who have displayed such collective incompetence as these two officers.
Shiv Kunal Verma
#19. Directors are like generals, political dictators, aggressive people ... And everyone in the film is always grateful if you can tell them what to do.
Abraham Polonsky
#20. Generals aren't in the business of commenting on the correctness or incorrectness of the President's decisions. Anybody who thinks he should be able to do that ought to be fired on the spot.
Norman Schwarzkopf
#21. Official Washington cannot tell the American people that the real purpose of its gargantuan military expenditures and belligerent interventions is to make the world safe for General Motors, General Electric, General Dynamics, and all the other generals.
Michael Parenti
#22. I'm actually writing history. It isn't what you'd call big history. I don't write about presidents and generals ... I write about the man who was ranching, the man who was mining, the man who was opening up the country.
Louis L'Amour
#23. (Asked to explain the defeat, Adams put it succinctly: "In general, our Generals were out generalled.") Washington
Joseph J. Ellis
#24. When Lincoln ran into trouble during the Civil War, he got new generals. He brought in Grant. I hope that President Obama will bring in some new generals on the financial front.
Marcy Kaptur
#25. Here's the latest from the Pentagon
the generals are worried that the White House is spreading itself thin by trying to fight a war on two fronts; Afghanistan and Fox News.
Jay Leno
#27. Our generals talk a good game about taking care of their grunts, and the majority of our Beltway politicians bay with moralistic fervor about how they, too, support the troops.
David Hackworth
#28. Never get a reputation for a small perfection if you are trying for fame in a loftier area. The world can only judge by generals, and it sees that those who pay considerable attention to minutiae seldom have their minds occupied with great things.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
#29. Good general differ from bad generals only in the degree to which they resist the psychopathology of the very organization they serve. Norman Dixon
Patrick Hennessey
#30. All great sages are as despotic as generals, and as ungracious and indelicate as generals, because they are confident of their impunity.
Anton Chekhov
#31. As the First World War made painfully clear, when politicians and generals lead nations into war, they almost invariably assume swift victory, and have a remarkably enduring tendency not to foresee problems that, in hindsight, seem obvious.
Adam Hochschild
#32. It [the Mexican War] was a training ground for generals, so that when the sad self-murders settled on us, the leaders knew the techniques for making it properly horrible.
John Steinbeck
#34. Duty is a concept created by emperors and generals to deceive us into performing their will. Be wary when duty speaks, for it often masks the voice of others.
Tan Twan Eng
#36. All of the promises of politicians, generals, madmen, and crusaders that war can create peace have yet to be borne out.
Barbara Kingsolver
#37. There are in Europe many good generals, but they see too many things at once. I see one thing, namely the enemy's main body. I try to crush it, confident that secondary matters will then settle themselves.
Napoleon Bonaparte
#39. For those of you who were critical that nobody paid enough attention to the generals at the beginning of the war, has it occurred to you that you don't want to make that mistake at the end of the war?
Secretary Robert Gates
Bob Woodward
#40. In view of my services in Africa, I have the chance of dying by poison. Two generals have brought it with them. It is fatal in three seconds. If I take the poison, none of the usual steps will be taken against my family; that is, against you. They will also leave my staff alone.
Erwin Rommel
#41. It is over, the Reich walls have collapsed, my generals have betrayed me and my army refuses to fight, this is the herr Doernitz! I only hope you can turn this around.
Adolf Hitler
#42. The politicians, who once stated that war was too complex to be left to the generals, now act as though peace were too complex to be left to themselves.
Pierre Trudeau
#43. The Continental army got more generals than they got private soldiers, these days. An officer lives through more 'n two battles, they make him some kind of general on the spot. Now, gettin' any pay for it, that's a different kettle of fish.
Diana Gabaldon
#44. It's always the generals with the bloodiest records who are the first to shout what a hell it is. And it's always the war widows who lead the Memorial Day parades.
Paddy Chayefsky
#45. Coiled and personal, Laurent's gift was a Veretian whip, made of gold.
Damen recognized it.
[ ... ]
His gaze flung to Laurent. He knew he had flushed, he could feel the heat in his own cheeks. In front of the gathered generals, he couldn't say, What have you done?
C.S. Pacat
#46. We poor tellers of tales have our moments too, it seems. Like great generals sitting upon horses upon the tops of hills and throwing troops into the arena, we throw the little soldier words into our battles.
Sherwood Anderson
#47. Mad, is he? Then I hope he will bite some of my other generals.
King George II
#48. New Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that he is open to letting transgender people serve in the military. He said there's no reason to prevent people from being generals just because of their privates.
Jimmy Fallon
#49. Generals, admirals, kings, and presidents make history; words change history. In more than two centuries of watching, at least that has not changed. -- Joshua Augustus Johnson. "Appomattox
Lloyd Vancil
#50. My generals should be like bull terriers on chains, and they should want war, war, war ... But what happens now? I want to go ahead with my aggressive politics and the generals try to stop me. That's a false situation.
Adolf Hitler
#51. In any case, decisions on troop levels in the American system of government are not made by any general or set of generals but by the civilian leadership of the war effort.
Bill Kristol
#53. Generals think war should be waged like the tourneys of the Middle Ages. I have no use for knights; I need revolutionaries.
Adolf Hitler
#54. Americans have seen fit to elect twelve generals to the U.S. presidency, but even before there was a United States of America generals ruled the earth. Take
Winston Groom
#55. When Myst had been in a Horde prison, the Forbearer rebels took the castle, and one of their generals had freed her to make love to her. Before the Valkyrie could rescue her, things had gotten out of hand in a dank cell.
Kresley Cole
#56. I think you'd make a wonderful teacher. You have a strong personality. The women I know with strong personalities, the ones who might have become generals or the heads of companies if they were men, become teachers.
Jeannette Walls
#57. Hullo, commandant,' I said, 'how's the General?'
'Which general?' he asked with a shy grin.
'Surely in the Caodaist faith,' I said, 'all generals are reconciled.
Graham Greene
#58. If General Haig is so smart, why did he finish 214th (out of 310) in his graduating class at West Point? Does that mean there are 213 generals his age who are smarter than he is?
Calvin Trillin
#60. The home front is always underrated by Generals in the field. And yet that is where the Great War was won and lost. The Russian, Bulgarian, Austrian and German home fronts fell to pieces before their armies collapsed.
David Lloyd George
#61. We have good corporals and good sergeants and some good lieutenants and captains, and those are far more important than good generals.
William Tecumseh Sherman
#62. At the age of four with paper hats and wooden swords we're all Generals. Only some of us never grow out of it.
Peter Ustinov
#63. Dead battles, like dead generals, hold the military mind in their dead grip.
Barbara Tuchman
#64. Well, I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.
Abraham Lincoln
#65. No, I don't think you understand just how stupid goblins are. Let me give you an example. One of the B'wa Kell generals, and this is their top fairy, was caught caught trying to pass off forged credit slips by signing his own name.
Eoin Colfer
#66. She was not light, but she was not as heavy as she should be. Her bones should be made of iron, for what else was fit to support her bravado? It would shame generals. Emperors. Professional pirates.
Meredith Duran
#67. Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.
Napoleon Bonaparte
#68. Those renowned generals [Alexander and Caesar] received more faithful service, and performed greater actions by means of the love their soldiers bore them, than they could possibly have done, if instead of being beloved and respected they had been hated and feared by those they commanded.
Benjamin Franklin
#69. War coverage should be more than a parade of retired generals and retired government flacks posing as reporters.
Amy Goodman
#70. But Pavlov purely for a good purpose. Pavlov for friendliness and trust and compassion. Whereas you prefer to use Pavlov for brainwashing, Pavlov for selling cigarettes and vodka and patriotism. Pavlov for the benefit of dictators, generals and tycoons.
Aldous Huxley
#71. Military commanders choose to overlook the Kenyan proverb that proclaims the power of the flea--"A flea can trouble a lion more than the lion can harm a flea." Most generals would rather be lions than fleas.
William R. Polk
#72. John Adams commented after one disastrous defeat, In general, our Generals were outgeneralled.
Anonymous
#73. The English soldier was probably the worst-treated soldier in Europe, and judging from the English casualty rates during the Napoleonic wars, English generals were more lavish with their soldiers' lives than were their French and German colleagues.
J. Christopher Herold
#74. All through history it's the nations that have given most to generals and the least to the people that have been the first to fall
Harry S. Truman
#75. As we will see in the following pages, peacetime is not always kind to generals and they do not necessarily do well outside their task of generaling. Perhaps that is because during war they become as close to gods on earth as we are ever likely to see. Patton
Winston Groom
#76. I have some strategical vision, I could calculate some few moves ahead and I have an intellect that is badly missed in the country which is run by generals and colonels.
Garry Kasparov
#77. Those who have accomplished great things in the world have been, as a rule, bold, aggressive, and self-confident. They dared to step out from the crowd and act in an original way. They were not afraid to be generals.
Orison Swett Marden
#79. It's not the generals, it's the civilians who authorise and organise the worst war crimes.
Noam Chomsky
#80. The women I know with strong personalities, the ones who might have become generals or the heads of companies if they were men, become teachers. Teaching is a calling, too. And I've always thought that teachers in their way are holy
angles leading their flocks out of the darkness.
Jeannette Walls
#81. Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.
Edward Abbey
#82. Then, again, the ability to organize and conduct industrial, commercial, or financial enterprises is rare; the great captains of industry are as rare as great generals.
William Graham Sumner
#83. Lincoln discovered Generals Grant and Sherman. Roosevelt had Eisenhower and Bradley. I found David Petraeus and Ray Odierno.
George W. Bush
#84. read the brilliant compilation of testimonies in Leslie Kean's book: "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record." The
John DeSouza
#86. I have not time to say any more, but to beg you will give my duty to the Queen, and let her know her army has had a glorious victory. MonsieurTallard and two other generals are in my coach, and I am following the rest.
John Churchill, 1st Duke Of Marlborough
#87. The only people who believe in straight roads are generals & mail coach drivers.
Richard Flanagan
#88. When other Generals make mistakes their armies are beaten; when I get into a hole, my men pull me out of it.
Duke Of Wellington
#89. Midnight has many children; the offspring of Independence were not all human. Violence, corruption, poverty, generals, chaos, greed and pepperpot ... I had to go into exile to learn that the children of midnight were more varied that I - even I - had dreamed.
Salman Rushdie
#90. Women's roles are diminished for obvious reasons. It's the men whose names are on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and who were generals and soldiers.
Cokie Roberts
#91. British generals often gave away in stupidity what they had gained in ignorance.
Scott Anderson
#92. Right from the start most German generals knew that Hitler was psychotic. But as long as he was winning the war, almost all of them were happy to overlook that detail
Charles Kaiser
#93. If everyone could see the image of God in his neighbor, do you think we should still need tanks and generals?
Mother Teresa
#94. Many generals believe that they have done everything as soon as they have issued orders, and they order a great deal because they find many abuses. This is a false principle; proceeding in this fashion, they will never reestablish discipline
Maurice De Saxe
#96. Even if you must have regard to wealth, in order to secure leisure, yet it is surely a bad thing that the greatest offices, such as those of kings and generals, should be bought. The law which allows this abuse makes wealth of more account than virtue, and the whole state becomes avaricious.
Aristotle.
#97. American soldiers were dying in frigid Korea. One of our greatest generals told us that the president and his team were not trying to win. And some strident voices were saying that that was because they didn't want to win,
William J. Bennett
#98. If we were able to see God's image in our neighbor, do you think weapons and generals would be needed?
Mother Teresa
#99. Generals are fascinating cases of arrested development - after all, at five all of us wanted to be generals.
Peter Ustinov
#100. Napoleon was asked, "Who do you consider to be the greatest generals?" He responded saying, "The victors.
Donald Rumsfeld
