Battlefield Quotes

One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society… shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.

The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the angels of our nature.

The fantastic thing about the memorial to the Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel is that it’s one of the rare examples where they’ve preserved a battlefield more or less as it was. You can see all the trenches, where the British were, where the Germans lined up.

I think that we, as a civilization, need to sit down and figure out how to solve political problems over a table, not over a battlefield.

I am not going to second-guess my old battlefield comrades from Iraq and Afghanistan; each has his own reason for what he has done.

One of the questions I face when working on a book about a historical event is whether I should visit the actual place that I’m writing about. No matter how scrupulously maintained a historic house or battlefield may be, it is nothing like it was in the long-ago past.

Philosophy is not just about talking or lecturing or even reading long, dense books. In fact, it is something men and women of action use – and have used throughout history – to solve their problems and achieve their greatest triumphs. Not in the classroom but on the battlefield, in the forum, and at court.

The new age of terrorism isn’t on the battlefield: it’s in your own backyard. Whether it’s at a concert in France or a restaurant in the United States, terrorism doesn’t have to happen in a military installation by any stretch of the imagination.

The use of drones is rapidly transforming the way we go to war. On the battlefield, a squad leader can receive real-time data from a drone that enables him to view the landscape for miles in every direction, dramatically expanding the capabilities of what would normally have been a small and isolated unit.

In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are: if you cannot create harmony – even vicious harmony – on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete.

Developments in information technology and globalised media mean that the most powerful military in the history of the world can lose a war, not on the battlefield of dust and blood, but on the battlefield of world opinion.

Many of the vicious criminals held there have been caught on the battlefield fighting against American troops and shutting down Guantanamo Bay would just require the military to move them elsewhere.

It was the courts, of course, that took away prayer from our schools, that took away Bible reading from our schools. It’s the courts that gave us same-sex marriage. So it is quite a battlefield, and the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land.

The recession of the late 1980s was a very visible humiliation. Cities across Britain had become the victims of botched battlefield surgery – surgery that involved the ripping up of factories, the flattening of buildings, and the razing of the Victorian heritage of heavy labour.

In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.

Do you know what would hold me together on a battlefield? The sense that I was perpetuating the language in which Keats and the rest of them wrote!

What’s been largely forgotten is that Washington was highly passionate and aggressive, and it was only after losing Philadelphia to the British after a string of disastrous battlefield performances that he finally resigned himself to the more conservative approach with which he has since become associated.

When you treat yourself with the kindness and high regard that you would give to one of your spiritual heroes, your body becomes the epicenter of quiet joy rather than a battlefield for the ego.

We have amazing stunt performers and in Miguel Sapochnik, a director who’s so good at spending hours and hours and hours on every shot beforehand, so that he knows exactly what he wants when he gets to the battlefield on the day. We only shoot ten-hour days, so you have to pack a lot into those ten hours.

There is no God-given right to victory on the battlefield. You win that through the skill and the devotion, the valor and the ferocity of your troops.

We have to defeat them on the battlefield and in the marketplace of ideals. And PBS, I believe, owed the nation the chance to hear the moderate Muslim voices who decry terrorism and Jihadism, and they didn’t give them that chance, and that’s a terrible thing.

As you move up a traditional, sort of bureaucratic structure, there’s a certain point at which you realize, ‘Well, I’m not really on the implementation or execution side – I’m not on the battlefield. I’m an operations person who’s overseeing multiple units that are out on the ground doing the job.’

The most terrible job in warfare is to be a second lieutenant leading a platoon when you are on the battlefield.

‘Man is an endangered species,’ announces one of the titles at the beginning of the sci-fi lump ‘Battlefield Earth.’ And after about 20 minutes of this amateurish picture, extinction doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

Ayman Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy, as well as Abu Musab Zarqawi, have made it quite clear in their internal propaganda that they cannot win unless they can drive the Americans out. And they know that they can’t do that there, so they’ve brought the battlefield to the halls of Congress.

Although combat operations unseated the Taliban and the Saddam Hussein regime, a poor understanding of the recent histories of the Afghan and Iraqi peoples undermined efforts to consolidate early battlefield gains into lasting security.

‘Plan Nine From Outer Space’ for a new generation, ‘Battlefield Earth’ is set in the year 3000, after the beings from the planet Psychlo have conquered our planet in only nine minutes.

I got active in this business of politics and self-government in 1958 when my father, who was serving in the U.S. Army, took us to the battlefield of Verdun.

When I got to write for the ‘Battlefield’ record, it was almost therapeutic. I had gone through a few things in the two years prior and it was really nice to take those thoughts and emotions and get them out. I definitely want to hone that side of my artistry.

Every soldier I’ve ever met knows that you’ve got to do more than just run out onto the battlefield screaming, ‘We’re going to win!’

The challenge in my life really is keeping the balance between feeling creatively energized and fulfilled without feeling overwhelmed and like I’m in the middle of a battlefield.

The Cold War had become a battlefield marked by doublespeak. Disguise, distortion, and deception were accepted as reality. Truth was promised in a serum.

Our beautiful homeland is enough for us, Arabs and Jews. If we turn her into a battlefield, she will spit us out.

Throughout my career, I learned plenty about war on the battlefield, but I learned even more about the importance of finding peace. And that is what the State Department and U.S.A.I.D. do: prevent the wars that we can avoid so that we fight only the ones we must.

When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.

With the winding down of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States now has an opportunity to implement real defense reforms without having a serious impact on immediate battlefield needs.

Al Qaeda has dominated the battlefield of the soul among the disaffected, disenfranchised, and dissatisfied. It promises action instead of discussion.

Identifying terrorists on the battlefield is relatively simple.

I would have rather been dead and laying on the battlefield dead than to find out later on that one of my men were killed and didn’t have me, their medic, to somehow get them out of the danger and into the safety of the perimeter.

I’ve had lots of friends who’ve gone through ‘Battlefield’ situations in their relationships, so when I was singing the song I put myself in their position and tried to imagine what they were going through. I got so, so into it and I think you can tell.

I think the acquisition of consumers might be on the verge of being mapped. The battlefield is going to be retention and lifetime value.

Shakespeare’s plays were a great Teutonic Valhalla with brilliant sunshine at times and violent tempests at others. The world to him was a battlefield, but his sense of poetic justice, his sublime faith in life and its infinite resources, guided the battles.

Beaumont-Hamel sits within a thousand acres of French agriculture. The trenches are under this blanket of grass. In the 1920s, a park was established here and trees from Newfoundland imported to encircle the battlefield so you get the feeling of being within a copse of woods.

I promised each and every Hulkamaniac when I went to that great battlefield in the sky I would bring the WWF title with me.

The British deployed the men of their Indian army on the European battlefield from October 1914; the decision being made within days of the outbreak of hostilities.

There is still the feeling that women’s writing is a lesser class of writing, that what goes on in the nursery or the bedroom is not as important as what goes on in the battlefield, that what women know about is a less category of knowledge.

The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.

When you’re on a battlefield, you should know how to fight your way to victory, and you’ve to be very well-prepared for it. You’ve to be ever ready like the fire-fighters. The moment you get a call, you have to reach wherever you are required.

America’s fighting men and women sacrifice much to ensure that our great nation stays free. We owe a debt of gratitude to the soldiers that have paid the ultimate price for this cause, as well as for those who are blessed enough to return from the battlefield unscathed.

I would have thought that if you’re going to try to punish the Syrians and prevent them from using chemical weapons again, the thing to do is a one-time strike. Maybe a cruise missile strike at one or two of their air bases just so they know what they’re going to gain from using chemical weapons on the battlefield.

If a person is a U.S. citizen, and he is on the battlefield in Afghanistan or Iraq trying to attack our troops, he will face the full brunt of the U.S. military response.

Violent ideologies can proliferate and spread; threats are no longer contained by borders and oceans; and adversaries are as likely to be found in cyberspace as on the battlefield.

Guantanamo Bay is a first-rate detention facility that’s kept terrorists off the battlefield and kept America safe. It’s critical role in our national security cannot be overstated.

I think that some of our soldiers die in the battlefield and some come home to bad health and die prematurely, just by the nature of the kind of business they’re in.

For more than a quarter of a century on active duty, my house has been my tent, and my home the battlefield.

History tells us that a general can move and feed an army as efficiently as he likes, but the real litmus test is the battlefield.

The greatest heroes of the Normandy battlefield were the unarmed medics, whom snipers often shot at despite their Red Cross armbands.

With digital attacks becoming rampant, the computer nerds who work for the good guys to thwart such incursions have become the new Navy SEALs – elite commandos who can carry out sophisticated operations on the battlefield of cyberspace.

The sniper is like a highly skilled surgeon, practicing his craft on the battlefield.

We had the best food any battlefield ever had.

Braddock looks every bit the deserted battlefield it truly is: 90 percent of our town’s people, buildings, businesses, and homes are gone and what remains, bears witness to the torment.

Let us not return to the old battlefield where so many shed blood and tears for the right to vote. Instead let us move forward to an era where all eligible Americans have equal access to the ballot box and have the freedom to vote for the candidate of their choosing.

Fighting is like champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as of heroes. Any fool can be brave on a battlefield when it’s be brave or else be killed.

More has been screwed up on the battlefield and misunderstood in the Pentagon because of a lack of understanding of the English language than any other single factor.

I am a veteran of the War on Christmas. I am just emerging from a battlefield strewn with dead trees and torn shreds of brightly colored wrapping paper.

Vietnam was a terrible mistake for the United States. But like Iraq, Vietnam was a badly chosen battlefield in a larger conflict with totalitarianism that America had no choice but to pursue.

I have traveled a long road from the battlefield to the peace table.

If I died on the battlefield, then that was the way it was supposed to be.

American soldiers had to guard prisoners on the inside while receiving mortar and weapons fire from the outside. Guantanamo is distant from any battlefield, making it far more secure.

Business is a battlefield. You need to be able to go to battle with your team members. Like the military. Know them, trust them, and know who you’re working with.

While I don’t know if I exist in the land of the elite, I’m definitely on the battlefield with restlessness.

You think of the rainforest as this incredibly abundant place of fauna and animals and flora. This great, rich wilderness. And yet it is such a biological battlefield in which everything is competing.

Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war.

Western medicine was developed for crisis and war, such as if you got shot or wounded, to put the soldier back on the battlefield. It works well for catastrophic situations, but it is absolutely ignorant about prevention and lifestyle.

It might not be pretty, but the A-10 is our most capable close air-support aircraft, and its arrival on the battlefield signals survival for our troops and annihilation for our enemies.

We have defeated Gaddafi on the battlefield; now we must defeat him in our imagination. We must not allow his legacy to corrupt our dream. Let’s keep focused on the true prize: unity, democracy, and the rule of law. Let’s not seek revenge; that would diminish our future.

We are disciples of Krishna, and we look at ourselves like Arjun in the battlefield.

Having too many layers of approval in a dynamic battlefield environment delays our ability to fight and win, especially when troops are engaged in combat.

It is no secret that New York City has an affordable housing shortage. For those who’ve returned from the battlefield, the problem is even more pronounced.

The most extremist power any political leader can assert is the power to target his own citizens for execution without any charges or due process, far from any battlefield. The Obama administration has not only asserted exactly that power in theory, but has exercised it in practice.

The message of Passover remains as powerful as ever. Freedom is won not on the battlefield but in the classroom and the home. Teach your children the history of freedom if you want them never to lose it.

The most important 6 inches on the battlefield is between your ears.

The GRU is used for both tactical intelligence collection in the battlefield in support of Russian military operations and also strategic active measures or psychological warfare overseas.

Not all of the Islamic State killers are going to die on the battlefield.

No doubt bias exists everywhere, but Wall Street is a ferocious battlefield with everyone in search of the next rainmaker or best strategy. It shouldn’t matter who delivers it.

I think artificial intelligence will likely change the character of warfare, and I believe whoever masters it first will dominate on the battlefield for many, many, many years.

Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.

There’s no such thing as a crowded battlefield. Battlefields are lonely places.

I joined the People’s Armed Forces in 1961 to 1984, and I was also a soldier in the southern battle of Vietnam during the resistance against the Americans. I went to the battlefield in order to regain national independence.

My father was stationed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, which had a hospital where they brought casualties straight from the battlefield. My mother was kind of a sophisticated bohemian, and my father was in the military to make a living.

It’s one thing to say don’t commit atrocities on the battlefield. It’s another thing to say don’t get caught doing atrocities.

Being a good mother is really so hard and so important, and it’s this thing that all people long for. Think of all the soldiers who cry out for their mothers on the battlefield as they die. It’s a primal relationship.

As a veteran, I know firsthand the satisfaction there is in defending the democracy you so strongly believe in, but I can also attest to the trauma encountered from combat on the battlefield.

Liberty is never fully paid off, and to be deserving of it, one must be willing to fight for it on the battlefield, in the halls of Congress, by involving yourselves in your communities. Such a struggle is not a burden, it is a privilege.

When you’re in the battlefield, survival is all there is. Death is the only great emotion.