John McCain Quotes

It is an approved maxim in war, never to do what the enemy wishes you to do, for this reason alone, that he desires it.

In war, practice dissimulation and you will succeed.

Know your enemy - and learn about his favorite sport.

The Navy can lose us the war, but only the Air Force can win it. The fighters are our salvation, but the bombers alone provide the means of victory.

The first law of war is to preserve ourselves and destroy the enemy.

When the enemy is driven back, we have failed, and when he is cut off, encircled and dispersed, we have succeeded.

Although deceit is detestable in all other things, yet in the conduct of war it is laudable and honorable; and a commander who vanquishes an enemy by stratagem is equally praised with one who gains victory by force.

Before America entered the war [WW2] I knew we could not win it, but after she entered I knew we could not lose

Attack the enemy's strategy.

Never destroy without thought your enemy's pretences; they are usually your best weapon against him.

The true lesson of the Vietnam War is: certainty of purpose and ruthlessness of execution win wars.

If the enemy has occupied them before you, do not follow him, but retreat and try to entice him away.

One who has few must prepare against the enemy; one who has many makes the enemy prepare against him.

The aggressive spirit, the offensive, is the chief thing everywhere in war, and the air is no exception.

With regard to narrow passes, if you can occupy them first, let them be strongly garrisoned and await the advent of the enemy.

Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars.

Sometimes it has been of great moment while the fight is going on, to disseminate words that pronounce the enemies' captain to be dead, or to have been conquered by another part of the army. Many times this has given victory to him who used it.

According to U.S. strategy, if you never see the other, his destruction will be more acceptableso that when Iraqi soldiers surrendered, sooner than expected, it was as if they emerged from a dream, a flash-back, a lost epoch--an epoch when the enemy still had a body and was still "like us.

It is imperative to master the principles of the art of war and learn to be unmoved in mind even in the heat of the battle.

Both candidates in this election [2004] pledge to end this war and bring our troops home. The great difference - the great difference is that I intend to win it first.

It is a principle of the art of war that one should simply lay down his life and strike. If one's opponent also does the same, it is a even match. Defeating one's opponent is then a matter of faith and destiny.

It is like when you go to war: we have to know how our enemies attack and defend.

My knowledge of pain, learned with the sabre, taught me not to be afraid. And just as in dueling when you must concentrate on your enemy's cheek, so, too, in war. You cannot waste time on feinting and sidestepping. You must decide on your target and go in.

To win a war is as disasterous as to lose one.

Air Power is, above all, a psychological weapon - and only short-sighted soldiers, too battle-minded, underrate the importance of psychological factors in war.