Adolf Galland Quotes

As in the war of 1941-45, our victory and our survival depend on how and where we attack.

Fighting in the air is not a sport. It is scientific murder.

The experienced fighting pilot does not take unnecessary risks. His business is to shoot down enemy planes, not to get shot down.

It seems to me the worst possible concept, militarily, that we would simply stay there, resisting aggression, so-called...it seems to me that the way to "resist aggression" is to destroy the potentialities of the aggressor to continually hit you...When you say, merely, "we are going to continue to fight aggression," that is not what the enemy is fighting for. The enemy is fighting for a very definite purpose-to destroy our forces.

If you take a shot at someone, you keep firing until they can no longer return fire. Wound them, and you have an angry enemy who knows your position.

An excellent weapon and luck had been on my side. To be successful, the best fighter pilot needs both.

War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war there is no substitute for victory.

I don't want to be lofty when I say this, but I don't know what a success is any more. I know how we define it, but that was a moment where I went, "Wait, who am I?" You could feel the business, in particular, kind of go "He's all right, let's go over here." I started to go, "Wait, I know why I love to do this." I think I got off track in why I love to do it.

Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction that is inconceivable unless one has experienced war. ... Countless minor incidents - the kind you can never really foresee - combine to lower the general level of performance, so that one always falls short of the intended goal.

Warfare is the father of all good things, it is also the father of good prose!

Dig trenches? With our men being killed off like flies? There isn't time to dig trenches. We'll have to buy them ready made.

Gods, I wish the world was full of passive women.He thougt for a moment longer, then scowled. On second thoughts, what a nightmare that'd be. It's the job of a man to fan the spark into flames, not quench it.

In war, men are nothing, one man is everything.

I never let track define me. That's something that's really important to me. That's what I do and it's what I love, but I think by having other things I'm passionate about and interested in, it helped me to come back. It helped me to have renewed love for the sport by being able to step away and then come back.

I belong to a group of men who fly alone. There is only one seat in the cockpit of a fighter airplane. There is no space alotted for another pilot to tune the radios in the weather or make the calls to air traffic control centers or to help with the emergency procedures or to call off the airspeed down final approach. There is no one else to break the solitude of a long cross-country flight. There is no one else to make decisions.

War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts.

The warrior is different in that studying the Way of strategy is based on overcoming men

The task [in Afghanistan] is to reduce civilian casualties while still not hesitating to respond to enemies who are trying to kill our soldiers.

Therefore a victorious army first wins and then seeks battle; a defeated army first battles and then seeks victory.

If you spot an opportunity and are really excited by it, throw yourself into it with everything you've got.

I fairly sizzle with zeal, energy, and enthusiasm; eager to do that which ought to be done by me today.

Why are some people born with a fire in the belly, while others need something to get their pilot light lit?

I've always been intrigued by fighter pilots and strategy because it occurs in like, milliseconds, you know.

To conquer the command in the air means victory; to be beaten in the air means defeat.