Edward Gibbon Quotes

No state, without being soon exhausted, can maintain above the hundredth part of its members in arms and idleness.

An army is a diversion of energy from the productive life of a nation.

In this kind of war a natural gap exists between the expectations of the of the politicians, of the public opinion, of the press and the real capacity of the armed forces to deliver. The gap is a characteristic of this kind of war. The gap is related the four dimensions: To the duration of the war; to the number of casualties; to the damage to the innocent civilians on the other side; and, what is more important, is the solution to the problem of the question of whether or not a decisive victory can or cannot be achieved.

A Constitutional provision limiting the size of our army is a good idea, but we must also include a provision that no enemy may attack us with a larger army

… war is a matter not so much of arms as of money

The repose of nations cannot be secure without arms, armies cannot be maintained without pay, nor can the pay be produced without taxes

Pakistan will never be able to match the Indian militarily and the effort to do so is taking an immense toll on the society. It's also extremely dangerous with all the weapons development.

You cannot stop me; I spend thirty thousand men a month.

Iran's military hardware is less than a fraction of that of any of the countries in this region.

A lot has been said about politics; some of it complimentary, but most of it accurate

Our troops are the best in the world. I have absolute confidence in the ability of the troops who are here, or additional troops, to do their part.

Where the army is, prices are high; when prices rise the wealth of the people is exhausted.

It's pretty clear we have enough Guard people in the United States, but are they capable of handling our oversees commitments as well? We need to figure out how that impacts our ability in Iraq.

The world spends two trillion dollars a year on military, and of that two trillion the United States spends one trillion. We have a bigger military than the rest of the world put together. We have 150 foreign military bases.

Fanaticism displays itself in the masses; but the masses were rarely fanaticised; and the crimes ascribed to it were commonly due to the calculations of dispassionate politicians.

I generally think that Hillary Clinton is a good egg and a good politician.

We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents.

If we need women in our defense forces, we must not need much defense.

There are not enough chinamen in the world to stop a fully armed Marine regiment from going where ever they want to go.

Global military spending levels constitute an unconscionable use of resources and remain at an all-time high, reaching a total of USD 1.75 trillion in 2012, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

ISIS has a caliphate the size of Indiana! Also, US military has been totally gutted. Can't even project power anymore.

As far as Japan is concerned, I want to help all of our allies, but we are losing billions and billions of dollars. We cannot be the policemen of the world. We cannot protect countries all over the world.

Accusing a politician of being politically expedient is like accusing water of being wet or circles for being round.

All the Armes of England will not arme feare.

Nobody respects a country with a poor army, but everybody respects a country with a good army. I raise my toast to the Finnish army