Wenn ich deutsch bin, so trage ich mein Deutschland in mir."

 "Der, der von Schweinerei spricht, begeht Ferkeleien" - on Solidarpakt and Kürzungen, 20/1/93

"We are now co-masters in this land." celebrating an agreement with the government on 20.08.1980 on the release of political prisoners, easing of censorship, right to strike and recognition of Solidarnosc.

 "There's no place for democracy when you are driving a bus. Imagine being in a bus where everyone wants to grab the steering wheel. The first tree will finish you off." (11/91)

"Hopes are turning in the direction of a man who has devoted all his life to the struggle for Poland." On Tadeusz Mazowiecki after his 24.8.89 appointment as PM

"Bosnia is not a million miles from Vietnam. The first Americans dispatched were 64 advisors. They pulled out with 539 000. Bosnia crept up on us. There was a complete lack of national strategy, and largely because of that there's been a spillage beyond the conflict. It has driven a coach and horses through any idea of a new German 'Bismarckian' foreign policy, badly damaged the chances of any European security policy, driven a wedge between Europe and the US over policy, and damaged perceptions of us in the Islamic world."

Air Marshal Walker

"Intelligence is never too dear." Elizabeth 1st's spymaster general

"If there is ever another major war, it will begin because one side has obtained (or believes it has obtained) such a complete knowledge of the enemy’s intentions and capabilities that it is sure that with its own resources victory is possible and easy."

"Politicians can forgive almost anything in the way of abuse; they can forgive subversion, revolution, being contradicted, exposed as liars, even ridiculed, but they can never forgive being ignored."

Auberon Waugh

 "Remember that the Patriots are in the right and are going to win. A few sharp victories, some conspicuous acts of personal bravery on the Patriot side and a colourful entry into the capital. That is The Beast policy for the war." Lord Copper's instructions to his correspondent in Scoop.

 "Lichterketten sind kein Ersatz für Politik. Aber Lichterketten sind ein Zeichen des Engagements." (30/1/93, 60th Anniversary of Hitler's naming as Reichskanzler)

"Sie mögen Einzeltäter sein, aber sie kommen nicht aus dem Nichts." Comment in June '93 on individuals attacking foreigners.

"Im ersten Paragraf unserer Verfassung steht nicht 'Die Würde des Deutschen ist unantastbar,' sondern 'des Menschen.'"

"Being born in a stable does not make you a horse."

"There is only one sight worse than a battle lost, and that is a battle won." [after Waterloo]

"All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don't know from what you do."

"My Lord, if I attempted to answer the mass of futile correspondence which surrounds me, I should be debarred from the serious business of campaigning. So long as I retain an independent position, I shall see no officer under my command is debarred by attending to the futile drivelling of mere quill-driving from attending to his first duty, which is and always has been to train the private men under his command that they may without question beat any force opposed to them in the field."
(To the Secretary of State for War during the Peninsular Campaign)

MESSAGE FROM THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TO THE BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE IN LONDON -- written from Central Spain, August 1812

Gentlemen,

Whilst marching from Portugal to a position which commands the approach to Madrid and the French forces, my officers have been diligently complying with your requests which have been sent by H.M. ship from London to Lisbon and thence by dispatch to our headquarters.

We have enumerated our saddles, bridles, tents and tent poles, and all manner of sundry items for which His Majesty's Government holds me accountable. I have dispatched reports on the character, wit, and spleen of every officer. Each item and every farthing has been accounted for, with two regrettable exceptions for which I beg your indulgence.

Unfortunately the sum of one shilling and ninepence remains unaccounted for in one infantry battalion's petty cash and there has been a hideous confusion as to the number of jars of raspberry jam issued to one cavalry regiment during a sandstorm in western Spain. This reprehensible carelessness may be related to the pressure of circumstance, since we are at war with France, a fact which may come as a bit of a surprise to you gentlemen in Whitehall.

This brings me to my present purpose, which is to request elucidation of my instructions from His Majesty's Government so that I may better understand why I am dragging an army over these barren plains. I construe that perforce it must be one of two alternative duties, as given below. I shall pursue either one with the best of my ability, but I cannot do both:

1. To train an army of uniformed British clerks in Spain for the benefit of the accountants and copy-boys in London or perchance,

2. To see to it that the forces of Napoleon are driven out of Spain.

Your most obedient servant Wellington

"So long as I retain an independent position, I shall see no officer under my command is debarred by attending to the futile drivelling of mere quill-driving from attending to his first duty, which is and always has been to train the private men under his command that they may without question beat any force opposed to them in the field."

"In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed. They produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock." (The Third Man)

Orson Welles

"We want to get rid of the militarist not simply because he hurts and kills, but because he is an intolerant thick-voiced blockhead who stand hectoring and blustering in our way of achievement." The Outline of History, 1920.

"In England we have come to rely upon a comfortable time lag of fifty years or century between the perception that something ought to be done and a serious attempt to do it." The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind, 1932

H G Wells