Tiberius in Dragon Blade

Power is a conceit which reveals our limitations. A real hero remains accountable to the end

Lee Kuan Yew

The Asiatics were supposed to panic when the firing started, yet they were the stoical ones who took the casualties and died without hysteria. It was the British civilian bosses who ducked under tables when the bombs and shells fell. It was the British civilians and bureaucrats in Penang who, on 16 December 1941, in the quiet of the night, fled the island for the ‘safety’ of Singapore, abandoning the Asiatics to their fate. The British had proved as frightened and at a loss as to what to do as the Asiatics, if not more so

An Indian Soldier over the Japanese Invasion of Malaya

When the Japanese attacked, the British ran away. They were very clever. They had a wonderful life with bungalows and butlers and cooks and all that, but as soon as the Japanese came, they ran away. And once they got back to India, they sent Gurkhas, Sikhs, Marathas and other Indians to fight the Japanese. They knew it was too dangerous for them. That is how we got independence in Malaya

Rajagopalachari on Hyderabad Problem

If it is cancer, it has to be removed, even if it is painful

Nehru to Field Marshal Kariappa introspecting over the 1948 Kashmir War

You see, U.N. Security Council felt that if we go any further it may precipitate a war. So, in response to their request we agreed to a ceasefire, Quite frankly, looking back, we should have given you ten-fifteen days more. Things would have been different then.

General Shankar Roy Chowdhary over Gen VK Singh’s Comments over OROP

Gen VK Singh was the Chief of Army Staff like me so I won’t comment on what he said

Senge Hasnan Sering from Gilgit Baltistan to Pakistan envoy Mushahid Hussain Syed

You talked about US failures in Pakistan and repeatedly said that Pakistan has done much better than the US. Maybe, one of the reasons is that Pakistan is helping the Taliban which is killing the US soldiers. Next time, since you are on the defence committee, maybe you want to sit with the mothers and wives who have lost their sons and husbands’ and explain to them that why you take money from the US and then give to Taliban to kill the US soldiers.
Now coming to Kashmir since I am from Gilgit-Baltistan, I see you as a proxy of Pakistani Military and not representing Kashmir. Pakistan has proxies in Jammu and Kashmir. They have weapons and explosives. You come here as a proxy with sweet talk. Everytime the money dries up, you show up here with blackmail, Russia talk, China talk, Iran. I request the US to get out of this vicious cycle. Pakistan is not good for any country and it has done no good to the United States. It is not good for the people of Kashmir. You occupy one-third of Kashmir and an occupier cannot be a friend of Kashmir on the other side. You have been exploiting resources in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Without paying royalty or compensation, a single penny for the last 70 years, I call you a thief in Gilgit-Baltistan. And a thief in Gilgit-Baltistan cannot be a friend in Jammu and Kashmir.
The only thing that is good is that Pakistani Army wants to maintain a status quo because that is a money making machine. UN resolution wants you to withdraw, that’s the first prerequisite. It’s a one-page document. The first prerequisite is, you get out of Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir and then the people of Kashmir, United Nation and the Indian Government will sit down to form a mechanism to hold the plebiscite and this double talk that you have been doing in Afghanistan, Kashmir and US, it needs to be exposed and I tell you wherever you go, there would be someone from Gilgit-Baltistan exposing Pakistan.

Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha

Our foreign policy was enshrined in the charter of the UN, charter of the Non-Alignment Movement as well as Panchseel doctrine…We have been governed by high ideals and we really did not follow a very pragmatic approach, to my mind, to security needs. To that extent, we did ignore the role of the military power to maintain conducive environment…(over Kashmir in 1948) And when a military solution was in sight, taking moral high ground, I think we went to UN for a peaceful solution to this problem. The problem still continues. PoK remains a thorn in our flesh today

Garnet Wolseley on the Battle of Isandlwana

I don’t like the idea of officers escaping on horseback when their men on foot are being killed

Holly Martins in The Third Man

I never knew the old Vienna before the war with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm. Constantinople suited me better. I really got to know it in the classic period of the black market. We’d run anything if people wanted it enough and had the money to pay. Of course, a situation like that does tempt amateurs but, well, they-you know, they can’t stay the course like a professional. Now the city, it’s divided into four zones, you know…each occupied by a power: the American, the British, the Russian and the French. But the center of the city, that’s international policed by an international patrol, one member of each of the four powers. Wonderful! What a hope they had, all strangers to the place and none of them could speak the same language except a sort of smattering of German. Good fellows, on the whole. Did their best, you know.

Tony Benn in British Parliament

In all fairness—this is an important point—we did not fight Hitler because of his persecution of the Jews; we fought because he challenged the power of the west. When Hitler died in 1945, the obituary in The Times did not mention the holocaust. I contributed in a minor way to the war, but that war was not about human rights—it was a bit more than that.

Muhammad Ali on Vietnam War Conscription

Man, I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger

Najib-ud-Daulah before Panipat

I am the bride-groom of this battle field. Everything rests on my head; the other are mere guests accompanying the marriage procession. What is done here will be done by me and to me.

General Hoffmann on Operation Faustschlag – German Invasion of Soviet Russia in First World War

It is the most comical war I have ever known. We put a handful of infantrymen with machine guns and one gun onto a train and rush them off to the next station; they take it, make prisoners of the Bolsheviks, pick up few more troops, and so on. This proceeding has, at any rate, the charm of novelty

Paulus’s Chief of Staff Arthur Schmidt on the Soviets searching Paulus’s luggage to find anything with which he can commit suicide

A German Field Marshal does not commit suicide with a pair of scissors

Indira Gandhi on 1971 Bangladesh Issue

Most of the action is not taking place near the Indian border, it is taking place in the centre, in the most heavily fortified places where there are most concentration of West Pakistani forces. That is where the guerilla action is taking place—that is where the local people are giving full support although they know that every time there is guerilla action the whole villages are razed to the ground. Even then they give that help. There must be something which is moving them. And when a man is moved by this sort of spirit there is nothing on earth that can crush it.

Indira Gandhi on 1971 Bangladesh Issue

They(Bangladeshi guerrillas) may sometimes come on Indian soil and I have no doubt that they do because we have no control over the border-it is far too big a border. If we could have sealed it we would have sealed it off and not allowed all these refugees to come. But when I took up this question with our military people they said even if we put the whole army there we will not be able to do it. The only way you can stop them coming is to shoot on the first sight and obviously this is not something which we do.

Indira Gandhi on 1971 Bangladesh Issue

We have news from Kashmir that there has been some infiltration and we are perfectly capable of dealing with it. So the war does not necessarily mean that the two armies stand opposite and shoot. It is just as much aggression when you send people across to disturb.

Indira Gandhi on 1971 Bangladesh Issue

The problem which has been deliberately created and it seems that one country, a neighbour country has very conveniently solved its own problem and just pushed all those people whom they did not like, who did not vote for them in elections, on to another country. So thereby they solved some of their problem by removing these people bodily and secondly making us much weaker because of enormous burden which has come on us.

Indira Gandhi

In 1962, we had a conflict on our borders with China and our attention was diverted from development to defence and a lot of money which should have been used for very essential roads, schools and other items, was used to strengthen our army because uptil then we had just not given a single thought to the defence of the country.

So, do we need a Henderson-Brooks Report to confirm what Madame Indira acknoledged in public?

Lal Bahadur Shastri at Tashkent Conference to Pakistan

Instead of fighting each other, let us start fighting poverty, disease and ignorance. The problems, the hopes and the aspirations of the common people of both the countries are the same. They want not conflict and war, but peace and progress. They do not need arms and ammunition, but food, clothing and shelter.

An Indian Intelligence Official over Technical Support Division Issue

Covert Capability is supposed to be covert and there is always the factor of deniability. But, if our own people start documenting the deeds of intelligence officers and start feeding it to the media, then we are destroying our present and future assets.

Henry Kissinger when told that America is cutting off military supplies(drying up the pipeline) to Pakistan as a consequence of the 1971 Conflict

You are trying to dry up the pipeline. That is where you stand. That is not where we stand. The President has ruled on this 500 times

Henry Kissinger to Chou En Lai before the 1971 War

We are totally opposed to Indian military action against Pakistan. I do not normally see ambassadors, but I have warned the Indian ambassador on behalf of the president that if there was an attack by India we will cut off all economic aid to India. We have told the Russians of our view, and they have told us they are trying to restrain the situation, but I am not sure that I believe them…Mrs Gandhi is supposed to come to the United States November 4 and 5, and if she comes and there is no war by then, the president will speak to her in the strongest possible terms. We would be very grateful for your views.

A Cabinet Minister on Nehru during the 1962 War

His will to resist will wear down. It is already worn down a long way. Hitherto, there was no opposition at all in India. Now, Nehru is relying on his opposition. He may hate it. He has been thrown into the company of people like me, people he does not like. We make strange bedfellows, but together we are going to win the war.”

Vijayalakshmi Pandit on 1962 War

“This attack was far more than just an attack on one border. India is completely and wholly dedicated to democracy and not to some kind of ‘Asian democracy.’ China’s motive was to humiliate India and to prove democracy is unworkable in Asia.”

An Indian Army Colonel over the Chinese sweeping their positions in the East

“We just haven’t been taught this kind of warfare.”

Assistant Secretary of State Phillips Talbot on American aid to India during the Chinese Invasion

“We are not seeking a new ally, We are helping a friend whose attic has been entered by a burglar. “What we want is to help get the burglar out.”

An Opposition MP during the 1962 War with China

“Are we nothing? Is the Prime Minister everything?”

General Arora on Bengali mood against Pakistanis after the War

You have to see the bitterness in Dacca to believe it.

A Pakistani Villager on the Bombing of Lahore

I saw planes in the sky, And suddenly they started throwing things with fire coming from them. Then one plane started to fall. It came down with a big noise.”

Julia Inglis on the life in the Lucknow Garrison during Siege

One officer, whose clothes had been torn in the jungle, cut the cloth off the Residency billiard-table, and donned a suit of Lincoln green. Our ladies were many of them put to sore straits as the siege continued; they had no servants, and had to cook their own food and wash their own clothes. Firewood was scarce, owing to the principal stock, as I have said, being turned into a rampart; and I have seen ladies going out, at the risk of being shot, to pick up sticks. The palings round the Residency garden disappeared in this way.

The full rations at first starting were a pound of meat and a pound of flour per man; this was reduced to twelve ounces, then to six, and after General Havelock’s arrival to four ounces. Women got three-quarter rations, children half. Except for hospital comforts, and here and there private stores, there was little else procurable in the garrison – no bread, butter, milk, eggs, vegetables, wines, beer or tobacco. The lack of vegetables was most sorely felt, and was the cause of much illness; and the want of sugar and milk was most trying to the children, amongst whom there was a great mortality. The men took to smoking green leaves instead of tobacco, and many had to go to hospital in consequence.’

Julia Inglis, After the end of siege of Lucknow

We found it difficult to sleep at night, owing to the noise going on amongst the Sikhs in the square next to us – a sound discordant to my ears, for it seemed a time for solemn thankfulness, and not for noisy revelry; still, one could not grudge the poor men their enjoyment: they had suffered and fought well, long, and nobly, and merited recreation and rest.

How condescending towards a lesser mortal…

John Inglis, the commander of the Lucknow garrison seeing the plight of Havelock’s forces trying to relieve them

We are not relieved yet

James Outram after the Relief of Lucknow

‘But the major-general, having at length received Brigadier Inglis’ reports, is relieved from the necessity of further silence, and he hastens to tender to the brigadier and to every individual member of the garrison the assurance of his confidence that their services will be regarded by the Government under which they are immediately serving, by the British nation, and by her gracious Majesty, with equal admiration to that with which he is himself impressed.

Bertrand Russell

Mankind is in danger owing to the fact that the Great Powers on either side, in practice, though not in theory, consider loss of prestige a greater evil than the destruction of the human race.

Omar Abdullah on Arnia Encounter

Some things will never change, SAARC summit is on, Ind & Pak PMs at the same venue and a fierce encounter breaks out in Jammu.

General Gracey to Prem Sahgal after his surrender

What did you mean, you people, by going on fighting? We had armour, artillery. You chaps had nothing. But instead of surrendering, you fought. It was madness.

Bose after the defeat in India

I have always said that the darkest hour precedes the dawn. We are now passing through the darkest hour; therefore, the dawn is not far off.

Bose after the defeat in India

It may be that we shall not go to Delhi via Imphal, but the roads to Delhi are many, like the roads to Rome. And along one of these many roads we shall travel and ultimately reach our destination, the metropolis of India

Pietro Badoglio before the Battle of Maychew

The Emperor has three choices. To attack, and be defeated; to wait for our attack, and we will win anyway; or to retreat, which is disastrous for an army that lacks means of transport and proper organization for food and munitions

Haile Selassie

“War is not the only means to stop War”

Ras Nasibu on the Mustard Gas Attacks during the Invasion of Ethiopia

The League of Nations! We fight and die while the League talks. … If only we could fight men in the manner of men! But we are facing an invader who uses the most fiendish methods known to warfare all because he is angered that we protect our homes and land. Our lands are being laid barren by gas; our mules, sheep, and cattle are dying in the fields

A Zambian over Second World War

Had German and Japan won the European tribal war, there would have been no Zambia. Africans would have been turned into slaves and fertilizer or annihilated all together.

Wavell to Churchill on Churchill’s charges that British Somaliland was abandoned without a fight

A bloody butcher’s bill is not the sign of a good tactician

Stalin on offer of exchanging von Paulus with his son who is in German Custody

I will not trade a Marshal for a Lieutenant

A battalion commander in the 68th Infantry Division of Germany during the Opening stages of the Vistula Oder Offensive

I began the operation with an understrength battalion (…) after the smoke of the Soviet preparation cleared (…) I had only a platoon of combat effective soldiers left

Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokullu to the Venetian Ambassador Marcantonio Barbaro after the Battle of Lepanto

You come to see how we bear our misfortune. But I would have you know the difference between your loss and ours. In wresting Cyprus from you, we deprived you of an arm; in defeating our fleet, you have only shaved our beard. An arm when cut off cannot grow again; but a shorn beard will grow all the better for the razor

Hirohito

The fruits of victory are tumbling into our mouth too quickly

Tsar Alexander after the Battle of Austerlitz

We are babies in the hands of a giant

Karl Doenitz

The betrayer of military secrets is a pariah, despised by every man and every nation. Even the enemy whom he serves has no respect for him, but merely uses him. Any nation which is not uncompromisingly unanimous in its condemnation of this type of treachery is undermining the very foundations of its own state, whatever its form of government may be

New York Times Reporter W. H. Lawrence on the conclusion of the Battle of Okinawa

Stated in its simplest terms we were able to announce the victory of Okinawa because the enemy had run out of caves and boulders from which to fight and we were nearly out of Japanese to kill.

Tadamichi Kuribayashi’s last message to Tokyo

The battle is entering its final chapter. Since the enemy’s landing, the gallant fighting of the men under my command has been such that even the gods would weep. In particular, I humbly rejoice in the fact that they have continued to fight bravely though utterly empty-handed and ill-equipped against a land, sea, and air attack of a material superiority such as surpasses the imagination. One after another they are falling in the ceaseless and ferocious attacks of the enemy. For this reason, the situation has arisen whereby I must disappoint your expectations and yield this important place to the hands of the enemy. With humility and sincerity, I offer my repeated apologies. Our ammunition is gone and our water dried up. Now is the time for us to make the final counterattack and fight gallantly, conscious of the Emperor’s favor, not begrudging our efforts though they turn our bones to powder and pulverize our bodies. I believe that until the island is recaptured, the Emperor’s domain will be eternally insecure. I therefore swear that even when I have become a ghost I shall look forward to turning the defeat of the Imperial Army to victory. I stand now at the beginning of the end. At the same time as revealing my inmost feelings, I pray earnestly for the unfailing victory and security of the Empire. Farewell for all eternity

General Holland Smith on the overall Japanese commander during the Battle of Iwo Jima Tadamichi Kuribayashi

“I don’t know who he is, but the Japanese General running this show is one smart bastard

General Alexander Patch confirming the victory at Guadalcanal

Tokyo Express no longer has terminus on Guadalcanal

Yoshitsugu Saitō ordering the Banzai Charge at Saipan

Whether we attack or whether we stay where we are, there is only death. However, in death there is life. I will advance with you to deliver another blow to the American devils and leave my bones on Saipan as a fortress of the Pacific

Franz von Papen on his arrest

I don’t know what the Americans would want with an old man of 65 like me!

James Bond on the Lienz Cossack Betrayal

Not exactly our finest hour

Henning von Tresckow

The Allies must be stupid if they don’t see that the German military is stronger without Hitler than with him

German Ambassador Schulenberg to Molotov on the morning of the Operation Barbarossa

“For the last six years I’ve personally tried to do everything I could to encourage friendship between the Soviet Union and Germany. But you can’t stand in the way of destiny.”

Lydia Hillersdon, wife of the Collector of Kanpur when the siege began

What a humiliating state of things…Governors of the country obliged to shelter ourselves behind guns…

A standard bearer to Abu Junayd during the Battle of Defile

If we win, it will be for your benefit; if we perish, you will not weep over us. By my life, if we win and I survive, I will never speak a word to you.

Dr. Kokintz when asked if being drunk will reduce the effects of nuclear radiation in The Mouse that Roared

With the weapons we have at the present time, neither sobriety nor intoxication will make any difference. There are no chances of survival.”

Conversation between a Mughal General laying siege to Ahmednagar fort and Afzal Khan, the ambassador from Ahmednagar

Mughal General –
What nonsense is this? You, like a eunuch, are keeping n woman in the fort in the hope that she will come to your aid… This man is the son of his Majesty the Emperor, Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar, at whose court many kings do service. Do you imagine that the crows and kites of the Deccan, who squat like ants or locusts over a few spiders, can cope with the descendant of Timur and his famous amirs- the Khan-i Khanan and Shahbaz Khan, for example – each of whom has conquered countries ten times as large as the Deccan? … You, who are men of the same race as ourselves, should not throw yourselves away for no purpose.
Afzal Khan –
For forty years I have eaten the salt of the sultans of the Deccan…There is no better way to die than to be slain for one’s benefactor. thereby obtaining an everlasting good name…Moreover, it should bc evident to you that the people of this country are hostile toward Westerners. I myself am a Westerner and a well-wisher of the emperor, and I consider it to be in his interest to withdraw the Prince’s great amirs from the neighbourhood of this fort.

K. Godage over India’s National Security Advisor asking Sri Lanka to buy weapons only from India and that no offensive weapons wil be provided in ‘Daily Mirror’ and ‘The Island’(2nd June 2007)

Does this man want us to ask them for catapults?

Mother of Capt David Baird who was captured by Tipu Sultan in the Battle of Pollilur where the British force was completely annihilated

pity the poor man who is chained to Oor Davie

Captain Bayley on Tipu’s Rockets

Every illumination of blue lights was accompanied by a shower of rockets, some of which entered the head of the column, passing through to its rear, causing death, wounds, and dreadful lacerations from the long bamboos of twenty or thirty feet, which are invariably attached to them. The instant a rocket passes through a man’s body it resumes its original impetus of force, and will thus destroy ten or twenty until the combustible matter with which it is charged becomes expended. The shrieks of our men from these unusual weapons was terrific; thighs, legs, and arms left fleshless with bones protruding in a shattered state from every part of the body, were the sad effects of these diabolical engines of destruction

And this is from one of the best armies of the world. What a fate…Incidentally, Tipu is the only opponent to British who broke their famed infantry square whenever he wanted.

An American General over Iraq Crisis

Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail

Henry Kissinger during the Iran-Iraq war

“It’s a pity both can’t lose.”

Jac Weller on Gawilghur

three reasonably effective troops of Boy Scouts armed with rocks could have kept out several times their number of professional soldiers

A Maratha Chief after the fall of Ahmednagar Pettah

The English, are a strange people, and their general an extraordinary man. They arrive here in the morning, examine the walls, carry them, have killed all the garrison in the place, and have now gone back to breakfast. Who can resist such men as these?

Ibrahim Gardi before the War to Bhausaheb

You have often been offended with me for insisting on regular pay to my men; you shall now see that we have not earned it in vain

Bhau to Tukoji Holkar when Tukoji asked him to flee

Where can we go, Tukoba? How can one show one’s face to Nanasaheb?

An American Scientist sent to survey the after attacks of Hiroshima Bomb

There was just one enormous, flat, rust-red scar, and no green or grey, because there were no roofs or vegetation left. I was pretty sure then that nothing I was going to see later would give me as much of a jolt

Gen Roy Bucher-Patel Conversation for Operation Polo

Gen. Bucher “Gentlemen, you have taken a decision in a difficult matter. I must give you my warning. We are also committed in Kashmir. We cannot say how long it will take so we will end up having two operations on our hands. This is not advisable, so as your C-in-C I ask you not to start the operations.”

Patel “You may resign General Bucher, but the police action will start tomorrow.”

Chenghiz Khan to his sons on the Khwarezmian Jalal-ud-din crossing the Indus

This is one whom you may indeed call a man!

Over the Battle of Dharmatpur where the Rajputs under the Mughal Imperial banner stood against Aurangzeb

Ten thousand Muslims fell in the onset, which cost seventeen hundred Rathor, besides Guhilotes, Haras, Gaurs, and some of every clan of Rajwarra. Aurangzeb and Murad only escaped because their days were not yet numbered. Notwithstanding the immense superiority of the imperial princes, aided by numerous artillery pieces served by Frenchmen, night alone put a stop to the contest of science, numbers, and artillery, against Rajput courage.

By the way, Raja Jaswanth Singh(the head of the Rajputs)’s wife didnot allow him home for running away from the battlefield.

Anna Brigadere, Latvian poet on the Russo-German Menace

We are as if between gates,
Between gates we have built our home
For other peoples to trample over.

Osmanabad DSP Bedekar to the last Hyderabadi Collector of Osmanabad Muhammed Haider

To investigate you is the government policy. Unless the policy changes, you’ll have to be in custody

General Slim, the Governor General of Australia during a parade to a motorcycle police brigade

“When I saw your uniforms, I thought you had been cleaning your machines with them. Looking at your machines, I know I was wrong.”

General Slim to his soldiers

‘Take a good look at my mug, It’s no oil painting. But I’m the Army Commander and you had better recognise me.

Union commander Joseph Hooker when asked why he had ordered a halt to his advance on May 1 during the Battle of Chancellorsville

For the first time, I lost faith in Hooker.

Repulse to Prince of Wales during sinking of Force Z when asked if it is hit

We have avoided 19 torpedoes till now, thanks to Providence.

The famous eyewitness description of this encounter by the Russian partisan leader Denis Davidov and the Old Guard of Napoleon

…after midday, we sighted the Old Guard, with Napoleon riding in their midst… the enemy troops, sighting our unruly force, got their muskets at the ready and proudly continued on their way without hurrying their step… Like blocks of granite, they remained invulnerable… I shall never forget the unhurried step and awesome resolution of these soldiers, for whom the threat of death was a daily and familiar experience. With their tall bearskin caps, blue uniforms, white belts, red plumes, and epaulettes, they looked like poppies on the snow-covered battlefield… Column followed upon column, dispersing us with musket fire and ridiculing our useless display of chivalry… the Imperial Guard with Napoleon ploughed through our Cossacks like a 100-gun ship through fishing skiffs.

Putin on Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi’s comments on Arab Spring

Indeed, as you said those arrogant world powers supported the old regimes in North Africa but, curiously, they also supported the revolutions that toppled those regimes(…)This world is a strange place, but interesting

Flight Lieutenant Tim Vigors on the sinking of Force Z

I reckon this must have been the last battle in which the Navy reckoned they could get along without the RAF. A pretty damned costly way of learning. Phillips had known that he was being shadowed the night before, and also at dawn that day. He did not call for air support. He was attacked and still did not call for help

The eyewitness description of this encounter by the Russian partisan leader Denis Davidov, of the Old Guard and Napoleon

…after midday, we sighted the Old Guard, with Napoleon riding in their midst… the enemy troops, sighting our unruly force, got their muskets at the ready and proudly continued on their way without hurrying their step… Like blocks of granite, they remained invulnerable… I shall never forget the unhurried step and awesome resolution of these soldiers, for whom the threat of death was a daily and familiar experience. With their tall bearskin caps, blue uniforms, white belts, red plumes, and epaulettes, they looked like poppies on the snow-covered battlefield… Column followed upon column, dispersing us with musket fire and ridiculing our useless display of chivalry… the Imperial Guard with Napoleon ploughed through our Cossacks like a 100-gun ship through fishing skiffs.

Patel to Nehru when Nehru was talking over morals and legalities to support Kashmir

Jawaharlal, do you want Kashmir, or do you want to give it away?

Sam Manekshaw’s retort when Maharaja hari Singh of Kashmir said, “Alright, if India doesn’t help, I will go and join my troops and fight out”

That will raise their morale Sir

Col. Nathan Jessup in A Few Good Men

You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives! You don’t want the truth, because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like “honor”, “code”, “loyalty”. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said “thank you”, and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to!

An Airforce official on the chopper crash which took place during rescue operations in Kedar Valley

Why are the Gods so angry that they are even killing the saviours who are rescuing the sea of humanity in Uttarakhand?

Goebbels on the death of FDR

The Czarina is dead

Walter Scott’s father

‘A good appointment in civil service’ or ‘the Company’s military’ would be infinitely preferable to the post of ‘an officer in the King’s service by which you can get neither experience in your profession: nor credit nor wealth nor anything but an obscure death in storming the hill for of some Rajah with an unpronounceable name.’

Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saitō before the Banzai charge at Saipan

“There is no longer any distinction between civilians and troops. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured.”

This clearly depicts the cultural difference between America and Japan and Americans didn’t understand the Japanese way of fighting, be it Banzai or Kamikaze

General Dorsenne when cannonballs killed his third horse and third time he picked himself up and mounted his 4th horse at the Battle of Wargram.

Bunglers !

Marshal Francois Lefebvre when the Russo-Prussian Army came for a sortie during the siege of Danzig. He is not acquainted with sieges

Come on my lads ! This I understand !”

Suvorov on Napoleon

“That man had stolen my secret, the speed of my marches !” The young Bonaparte, how he moves ! He is a hero, a giant, a magician. He overcomes nature and he overcomes men. He turned the Alps as if they did not exist … My conclusion is this. That as long as General Bonaparte keeps his wits about him he will be victorious; he possesses the higher elements of the military art in a happy balance. But if, unfortunately for him, he throws himself into the whirlpool of politics, he will lose the coherence of his thoughts and he will be lost.”

Field Marshal Suvorov

Russians have always beaten Prussians, so what would we want to borrow from them?”

Suvorov when he received wooden rulers to measure soldiers’ queues and side curls

Hair powder is not gunpowder, curls are not cannons, a queue is not a sword, and I am not a German…

Field Marshal Suvorov

One minute decides the outcome of a battle, one hour – the success of a campaign, one day – the fate of an empire.”