Selected Quotations, Authors with names starting R

"My fellow Americans: I am pleased to tell you today that I have signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes." During a microphone test, 11.08.1984

"I cannot claim we had a meeting of minds on such fundamentals as ideology or national purpose, but we understand each other better." On Gorbachev, 21.11.1985 Geneva.

"I have a picture that after ten years you and I come to Iceland and bring the last two missiles in the world and have the biggest damn party in celebration of it!" [To Gorbachev at Rekjavik summit]

"The soldier is on friendlier terms than other men with his stomach and intestines. Three-quarters of his vocabulary is derived from these regions, and they give an intimate flavour to expressions of his greatest joy as well as of his deepest indignation. It is impossible to express oneself in any other way so clearly and pithily." p.13

"At first astonished, then embittered, and finally indifferent, we recognised that what matters is not the mind but the boot brush, not intelligence but the system, not freedom but drill. We became soldiers with eagerness and enthusiasm, but they have done everything to knock that out of us .. We had fancied out task would be different, only to find we were trained for heroism as though we were circus-ponies. But we soon accustomed ouselves to it. We learned in fact that some of these things were necessary, but the rest merely show. Soldiers have a find nose for such distinctions." p. 25.

"Let a man be whatever you like in peace-time, what occupation is there in which he can behave like that without getting a crack on the nose? He can only do that in the army .. And the more insignificant a man has been in civil life the worse it takes him." p. 44.

"We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers – we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals." p. 55.

"We sit opposite one another, Kat and I, two soldiers in shabby coats, cooking a goose in the middle of the night. We don't talk much, but I believe we have a more complete communion with one another than even lovers have.
We are two men, two minute sparks of life; outside is the night and the circle of death. We sit in the edge of it crouching in danger, the grease drips from our hands, in our hearts we are close to one another, and the hour is like the room: flecked over with the lights and shadows of our feelings cast by a quiet fire. What does he know of me or I of him? formerly we should not have had a single thought in common – now we sit with a goose between us and feel in unison, are so intimate that we do not even speak." p. 85.

"The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen. We lie under the network of arching shells and live in a suspense of uncertainty. Over us Chance hovers. If a shot comes, we can duck, that is all, we neither know nor can determine where it will fall." p. 89.

"But most beautiful are the woods with their line of birch trees. Their colour changes with every minute. Now the stems gleam purest white, and between them airy and silken, hangs the pastel-green of the leaves; the next moment all changes to an opalescent blue, as the shivering breezes pass down from the heights and touch the green lightly away; and again in one place it deepens almost to black as a cloud passes over the sun. And this shadow moves like a ghost through the dim trunks and rides far out over the moor to the sky – then the birches stand out again like gay banners on white poles, with their red and gold patches of autumn-tinted leaves." p. 162.

"A word of command has made these silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transform them into our friends. At some table a document is signed by some persons whom none of us knows, and then for years together that very crime on which formerly the world's condemnation and severest penalty fall, becomes our highest aim." p. 166.

Erich Maria Remarque

"Problems can become opportunities when the right people come together."

"Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life."

"What I know is that if you ask a person who is really mad if he is indeed mad, he will almost certainly say that he is not. I don't think that I am crazy, but then again, who am I to judge? All I can tell you is what I think. And I think that there is only one crazy thing in life and that is not to pursue your dream."

"I have a love for this Province which wouldn't allow me to walk away from it. I happened to live in Northern Ireland probably for 15 or 16 years before violence occurred and I can remember the kind of lifestyle that I was able to enjoy in those days and the happiness I had at that time. But the fact that I have been on death lists of the Provisional IRA, the fact that I have to have certain security measures myself won't change my outlook, nor will it change the desire I have to work towards peace and stability.

"The art of concentrating strength at one point, forcing a breakthrough, rolling up and securing the flanks on either side, and then penetrating like lightning deep into his rear, before the enemy has time to react." (Blitzkrieg)

"The future battle on the ground will be preceded by battle in the air. This will determine which of the contestants has to suffer operational and tactical disadvantages and be forced throughout the battle into adoption compromise solutions."

"A risk is a chance you take; if it fails you can recover. A gamble is a chance taken; if it fails, recovery is impossible."

"Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps and with the same chances of success."

"What difference does it make if you have two tanks to my one, when you spread them out and let me smash them in detail?" (to captured British officer in Libya)

"The best form of welfare for the troops is first-class training, for this saves unnecessary casualties."

“The commander must try, above all, to establish personal and comradely contact with his men, but without giving away an inch of his authority.”

"In a man-to-man fight, the winner is he who has one more round in his magazine."

"Courage which goes against military expediency is stupidity, or, if it is insisted upon by a commander, irresponsibility."

"So long as one isn't carrying one's head under one's arm, things aren't too bad."

"There is one unalterable difference between a soldier and a civilian: the civilian never does more than he is paid to do."

"What difference does it make if you have two tanks to my one, when you spread them out and let me smash them in detail?"

"The officers of a panzer division must learn to think and act independently within the framework of the general plan and not wait until they receive orders."

"Men are basically smart or dumb and lazy or ambitious. The dumb and ambitious ones are dangerous and I get rid of them. The dumb and lazy ones I give mundane duties. The smart ambitious ones I put on my staff. The smart and lazy ones I make my commanders."

"Be an example to your men, in your duty and in private life. Never spare yourself, and let the troops see that you don't in your endurance of fatigue and privation. Always be tactful and well-mannered and teach your subordinates to do the same. Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice, which usually indicates the man who has shortcomings of his own to hide."

"One must not judge everyone in the world by his qualities as a soldier: otherwise we should have no civilization."

"What was really amazing was the speed with which the Americans adapted themselves to modern warfare. Starting from scratch an army has been crafted in the very minimum of time, which, in equipment, armament and organization of all arms, surpasses anything the world has yet seen."

"I would rather he had given me one more division." of Hitler when promoted Field Marshall

"Yesterday, December 7 1941 - a date that will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan ... Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger ... With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God." 08.12.1941

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who knows great enthusiasm, great devotion, and the triumph of achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails at least fails whilst daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those odd and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. You've never lived until you've almost died. For those who have had to fight for it life has truly a flavour the protected shall never know." Argus

"The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly, who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who, at the best, know the triumph of high achievement and who, at the worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. "

"In the Western hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power." Roosevelt’s message to Congress, 06.12.1904, now known as the Roosevelt Corollary. This ended the isolationism of the Monroe Doctrine in place since 1823.

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives."

"We journalists are almost wilfully keen to see the worst because there isn't much of a story otherwise."

"Interviews are becoming defensive because of the demand by us journalists for simplistic clarification."

"Ein Mensch erblickt das Licht der Welt - Doch oft hat sich herausgestellt nach manchen trüb verbrachten Jahr, daß dies der einzige Lichtblick war."

Discours sur l'inégalité, Part II : "The first, who fenced in a piece of land and boldly said: 'This is mine' and found such simple people as to believe him, was the true founder of the bourgeois society. How many crimes, wars, murders, sorrows and horrors could the Human Race have been spared, had someone pulled the stake out of the ground and called out to his equals 'Do not pay attention to this deceiver. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all, and the earth belongs to no one.'"

"I shall make a disclosure. As well as trying to read the mind of the enemy, we have been reading its telegrams for many years." 03.04.1982 during a debate on the Falklands

Jacques Rueff

" The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Autumn 2001

Donald Rumsfeld