Franz Grillparzer Quotes

You want to make me the best soldier possible. Go down and look at the standings. Look at the all-time standings. So far you're doing an excellent job with me. Congratulations. Now when are you going to put me up against a good army?

The army is under orders to defend every place.

Anyone that goes to battle goes to battle knowing the mindset and tactics of their enemies.

Of your own indefatigable labor from early dawn and of your explicit instructions, that the batteries should reserve their ammunition, until the grand charge should commence, for which the enemy were undoubtedly preparing.

You do have to change things as warfare changes.

There has never been a military commander in history who didn’t want more men for a longer time …

Our military sons and daughters that are placed in harm's way deserve the right equipment, the right training, and the right rules of engagement to win decisively on any field of battle.

Strategy is the most important department of the art of war, and strategical skill is the highest and rarest function of military genius.

In all their wars against the French they [the Americans] never showed such conduct, attention and perseverance as they do now.

I am going to Spain to fight an army without a general, and thence to the East to fight a general without an army.

In the army we are drilled into execution and then supervision, to make sure everything goes the way you planned it. But there is another thing that we do in the military, that I think perhaps isn't done enough in corporate life: As soon as you have made that decision, you start on the contingency planning. Because there is, as we like to say, a thinking, breathing enemy out there, who is not going to let you do just what you want.

A certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy.

This policy cannot succeed through speeches, and shooting-matches, and songs; it can only be carried out through blood and iron.

Every decision in government is so important, especially when it comes to the military where thousands of people can lose their lives.

I would let the military commanders give the commander in chief options rather than tell them what you want to hear. Not having gotten those options, I can't tell you if we are going to have boots on the ground but certainly, a more expanded role for the special operators would be essential. And being more effective in strikes as it is relates to the air.

An army should always be so distributed that its parts can aid each other and combine to produce the maximum possible concentration of force at one place, while the minimum force necessary is used elsewhere to prepare the success of the concentration.

If we read history with an open mind, we cannot fail to conclude that, among all the military virtues, the energetic conduct of war has always contributed most to glory and success.

For Americans war is almost all of the time a nuisance, and military skill is a luxury like Mah-Jongg. But when the issue is brought home to them, war becomes as important, for the necessary period, as business or sport. And it is hard to decide which is likely to be the more ominous for the Axis -- an American decision that this is sport, or that it is business.

I'm not a military man. I wish I were, then maybe I could give some advice.

The military weapon is but one of the means that serve the purposes of war: one out of the assortment which grand strategy can employ.

There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time.

When our new armies are ready it seems folly to send them to Flanders, where they will chew barbed wire, or be wasted in futile frontal attacks.

Free supplies and open retreat are two essentials to the safety of an army or a fleet.

Do not neglect the principles of foresight and know that often, puffed up with success, armies have lost the fruit of their heroism through a feeling of false security.

To make war all you need is intelligence. But to win you need talent and material.