Ulysses S. Grant Quotes

Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together.

In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.

The idea that a war can be won by standing on the defensive and waiting for the enemy to attack is a dangerous fallacy, which owes its inception to the desire to evade the price of victory.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.

The whole art of war consists of guessing at what is on the other side of the hill.

Whenever we get involved in a war, the White House seems to have 3 priorities: We cannot appear to be losing; we must appear to be winning; we must look like we know what we are doing.

He that makes a good war makes a good peace.

Most wars are not won in a single battle.

I say when you get into a war, you should win as quick as you can, because your losses become a function of the duration of the war. I believe when you get in a war, get everything you need and win it.

I don't believe in deadlines, I don't believe in telling the enemy when we're going to withdraw.

Blunders are an inescapable feature of war, because choice in military affairs lies generally between the bad and the worse.

When we analyze this war in a materialistic way and ask when is it going to end and who will be the winner and the loser, it means that we do not see the endgame.

Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.

We all know that in war the political and military factors have to complement each other.

Men of sense often learn from their enemies. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war.

The power to wage war is the power to wage war successfully.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

We shouldn't have politicians micromanaging this war because it is complex and unconventional.

Imagine if these computer geeks who are running baseball now were allowed to run a war? They'd be telling our soldiers: 'That's enough. You've fired too many bullets from your rifle this week!'

From the point of the view of the nation's power, it was obvious that while we were fighting the Sino-Japanese war, every effort was to be made to avoid adding to our enemies and opening additional fronts.

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

In time of peace prepare for war.