Wilhelm II, German Emperor Quotes

Our neighbors the Hollanders may be our example in this case; who whilst we have been driving a private trade from port to port, of which we are likely now to be deprived, have conquered so much land in the East and West Indies that it may be said of them, as of the Spaniards, That the sun never sets upon their dominions.

Whoever commands the sea, commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.

We cannot menace the peace of a single continental hamlet no matter how great our supreme navy may become but the … whole fortunes of our race and empire … would perish and be utterly swept away if our naval supremacy were to be impaired. It is the British navy which makes Great Britain a great power.

Without sea-power Germany's position in the world resembled a mollusk without a shell

From knowledge, sea power. Ex Scientia Tridens

Let us build a navy as big as hers and do as we please.

The best way to contain China and make it the peaceful rise of China is for us to have an enormously robust navy that is the greatest navy in the world, that can patrol two oceans, that can fight two or three wars, and China will not challenge us because the Chinese are practical.

It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.

Providence has given to the French the empire of the land, to the English that of the sea, to the Germans that of--the air!

Anyone who has seen the auto factories in Detroit and the oil fields in Texas knows that Japan lacks the national power for a naval race with America.

In the long run sea power will be no match for air power.

I look with satisfaction, sympathy and joy upon the extension of Germany in these desert places of the Earth.

England shall not be driven from the proud pre-eminence which the blood and treasure of her sons have attained for her among nations, by a piece of striped bunting [the American flag] flying at the mastheads of a few fir-built frigates, manned by a handful of bastards and outlaws.

Germany is a young and growing empire. She has a worldwide commerce which is rapidly expanding, and to which the legitimate ambition of patriotic Germans refuses to assign any bounds. Germany must have a powerful fleet to protect that commerce and her manifold interests in even the most distant seas. She expects those interests to go on growing, and she must be able to champion them manfully in any quarter of the globe. Her horizons stretch far away.

The culminating manifestation of naval force in the history of the world.

It was, and is, an illusion, however, to think that the English would have treated us any better, and have allowed our economic growth to have proceeded unchecked if we had had no fleet.

The maintenance of naval supremacy is our foundation not only of the empire but of our freedom and our lives.

The United States Navy has kept the sea lanes open for the entire world.

Let America add Mexico to Texas, and pile Cuba upon Canada; let the English overswarm all India, and hang out their blazing banner from the sun; two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer's. For the sea is his; he owns it.

All wars will be settled by sea power.

From the very beginning, Americans have exhibited a taste for expansion, an appetite for empire. One of the fundamental reasons for this is very clear. Like every other western empire that has ever existed, Americans may claim to have inherited the mantle of ancient Rome.

When the enemies' land force is once conquered and expelled from the continent, our Marine will rise as if by enchantment and become, within the memory of persons now living, the wonder and envy of the world.

The United States has the largest and best navy in the world.

On the wisdom with which we bring science to bear in the war against disease, in the creation of new industries, and in the strengthening of our Armed Forces depends in large measure our future as a nation.

In fact, Clinton-era publications of the US Space Command describe control over space as a parallel to control over the oceans a century ago. Then, countries built navies to protect and enhance their power in commercial and strategic interests. Today, the militarization of space is intended to protect US investments and commercial interest and US hegemony around the world.