Alfred Thayer Mahan Quotes

• Whether they will or not, Americans must now begin to look outward. The growing production of the country demands it.

  Alfred Thayer Mahan

  Country, Looks, Growing

  Alfred Thayer Mahan (1917). “The Interest of America in Sea Power: Present and Future”

  147 Copy quote

• Having therefore no foreign establishments, either colonial or military, the ships of war of the United States, in war, will be like land birds, unable to fly far from their own shores. To provide resting places for them, where they can coal and repair, would be one of the first duties of a government proposing to itself the development of the power of the nation at sea.

  Alfred Thayer Mahan

  Military, War, Government

  Alfred Thayer Mahan (2010). “Sea Power and World History: 1660-1783”, p.48, Fireship Press

  148 Copy quote

• War, once declared, must be waged offensively, aggressively. The enemy must not be fended off; but smitten down. You may then spare him every exaction, relinquish every gain, but „til then he must be struck incessantly and remorselessly.

  Alfred Thayer Mahan

  Military, War, Enemy

  Alfred Thayer Mahan (2012). “Mahan on Naval Warfare”, p.128, Courier Corporation

  118 Copy quote

• The study of history lies at the foundation of all sound military conclusions and practice.

  Alfred Thayer Mahan

  Military, Lying, Practice

  Alfred Thayer Mahan (1912). “Armaments and Arbitration, Or, The Place of Force in the International Relations of States”, p.206, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

  97 Copy quote

• Organized force alone enables the quiet and the weak to go about their business and to sleep securely in their beds, safe from the violent without or within.

  Alfred Thayer Mahan

  Sleep, Bed, Sea Power

  102 Copy quote

• Those far distant, storm-beaten ships, upon which the Grand Army never looked, stood between it and the dominion of the world.

  Alfred Thayer Mahan

  Military, Army, Storm

  Alfred Thayer Mahan (2016). “The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire 1793-1812 (Complete)”, p.427, Library of Alexandria

  72 Copy quote

• Force is never more operative than when it is known to exist but is not brandished.

  Alfred Thayer Mahan

  Power, Force, Known

  Alfred Thayer Mahan (1912). “Armaments and Arbitration, Or, The Place of Force in the International Relations of States”, p.105, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

  56 Copy quote

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

  Alfred Thayer Mahan

  Military, Army, Two

  Alfred Thayer Mahan (2012). “Mahan on Naval Warfare”, p.76, Courier Corporation

  53 Copy quote

• The surer of himself an admiral is, the finer the tactical development of his fleet, the better his captains, the more reluctant must he necessarily be to enter into a melee with equal forces, in which all these advantages will be thrown away, chance reign supreme, and his fleet be place on terms of equality with an assemblage of ships which have never before acted together.

  Alfred Thayer Mahan

  Together, Development, Sea Power

  Alfred Thayer Mahan (2010). “Sea Power and World History: 1660-1783”, p.7, Fireship Press

  47 Copy quote

• There has been a constant struggle on the part of the military element to keep the end- fighting, or readiness to fight-superior to mere administrative considerations. The military man, having to do the fighting, considers that the chief necessity; the administrator equally naturally tends to think the smooth running of the machine the most admirable quality.

  Alfred Thayer Mahan

  Running, Military, Struggle

  Alfred Thayer Mahan (1918). “Mahan on Naval Warfare: Selections from the Writing of Rear Admiral Alfred T. Mahan”

  50 Copy quote

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