Commanders Quotes - Page 6

• If the regulars are to be put together, I believe they would prefer me to the other Cavalry Commanders.

  John Buford

  Believe, Together, Cavalry

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• I sailed a bit as a child, but it wasn't until I was around 40, when I was halfway through Patrick O'Brian's 'Master and Commander' novels, that I had the sudden epiphany that I had to go sail on a square-rig ship.

  Billy Campbell

  Children, Squares, Ships

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Our three big emergencies are fire, loss of pressurization or contaminated atmosphere. Any of those things in a spaceship are very deadly and time critical. Everybody's trained, but I'm the commander of the ship, and it's up to me to decide.

  Chris Hadfield

  Loss, Fire, Atmosphere

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• I am more willing to come out when I get my message from my commander.

  David Koresh

  Messages, Willing

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• I thought I'd join the RAF and become a wing commander. I realised this wasn't possible, although I do have a pilot's licence.

  Mike Oldfield

  Wings, Raf, Pilots

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• A commander-in-chief cannot take as an excuse for his mistakes in warfare an order given by his sovereign or his minister when the person giving the order is absent from the field of operations and is imperfectly aware or wholly unaware of the latest state of affairs. It follows that any commander-in-chief who undertakes to carry out a plan which he considers defective is at fault; he must put forward his reasons, insist on the plan being changed, and finally tender his resignation rather than be the instrument of his army's downfall.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Faults, Reason, Instruments

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• There are but few commanders who properly appreciate the value of celerity.

  Stonewall Jackson

  Appreciate, Values

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• The commander must decide how he will fight the battle before it begins. He must then decide who he will use the military effort at his disposal to force the battle to swing the way he wishes it to go; he must make the enemy dance to his tune from the beginning and not vice versa.

  Bernard Law Montgomery

  Military, Fighting, Swings

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• Eisenhower had run the Army; he knew all the ways decision making can go off the rails, and insisted on collective debate precisely to prevent senior officials from freelancing, or putting their departmental interests first. For all the formal machinery, Eisenhower was very literally the commander in chief, making the key decisions himself and monitoring closely how they were carried out. Even years after D-Day, when critics needled him for not being on the front lines with the invading forces, he retorted, “I planned it and took responsibility for it. Did you want me to unload a truck?

  Nancy Gibbs

  Senior, Running, Responsibility

  Nancy Gibbs, Michael Duffy (2012). “The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity”, p.118, Simon and Schuster

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• In the World War [WW1] nothing was more dreadful to witness than a chain of men starting with a battalion commander and ending with an army commander sitting in telephone boxes, improvised or actual, talking, talking, talking, in place of leading, leading, leading.

  J. F. C. Fuller

  War, Army, Men

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• Egotism is not a good quality. It's not something to be admired or even tolerated. It wouldn't be tolerated in a field commander and it shouldn't be tolerated in a movie director.

  John Milius

  Quality, Directors, Fields

  Interview with Ken P., www.ign.com. May 7, 2003.

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• I had always enjoyed the title of Commander-in-Chief until I was informed ... that the only forces that cannot be transferred from Washington without my express permission are the members of the Marine Corps Band. Those are the only forces I have. I want it announced that we propose to hold the White House against all odds at least for some time to come.

  John F. Kennedy

  Marine, White, Odds

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• A skillful commander is not overbearing. A skillful fighter does not become angry. A skillful conqueror does not compete with people. One who is skillful in using men puts himself below them. This is called the strength to use men. This is called matching Heaven, The highest principle of old.

  Laozi

  Character, Men, People

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• Azerbaijan unleashed the war, and was defeated in that war; Azerbaijan asked for truce (including from the Commander of Karabakh's forces) and later started to sob about the dire repercussions of that war. As if wars ever bring pleasant repercussions. And on top of that, Azerbaijan adopted conceited stance and started to make demands as if anywhere in the world defeated aggressors are ever allowed to make demands.

  Serzh Sargsyan

  War, Conceited, Azerbaijan

  Remarks by President Serzh Sargsyan at the meeting with journalists from Diaspora, October 16, 2010.

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• The nature of encounter operations required of the commanders limitless initiative and constant readiness to take the responsibility for military actions.

  Georgy Zhukov

  Military, Responsibility, Encounters

  "The Military Quotation Book" by James Charlton, (p. 49), 2002.

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• Zhukov was the most successful commander of World War II, who fell from grace under Khrushchev, but never lost his place in the pantheon of Soviet heroes.

  Georgy Zhukov

  War, Hero, Successful

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• One of the great things about being commander in chief is getting to know our men and women in uniform in a very intimate way, whether it's visiting Walter Reed and seeing our wounded soldiers, or being on a base and talking to families, or interacting with them on missions. They're the best of the best: always thinking about the mission, not thinking about credit, not thinking about who's up front.

  Barack Obama

  Men, Thinking, Talking

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• I am myself my own commander.
  [Lat., Egomet sum mihi imperator.]

  Plautus

  Soul, My Own

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• To be a good soldier, you must love the army. To be a good commander, you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love.

  Robert E. Lee

  Army, Order, Soldier

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• I believe my arrival was most welcome, not only to the
  Commander of the Fleet but almost to every individual in it.

  Horatio Nelson

  Believe, Welcome, Fame

  Horatio Nelson, Nicholas Harris Nicolas (2011). “The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson”, p.60, Cambridge University Press

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• [Oliver North is a] document-shredding, Constitution-trashing, Commander in Chief-bashing, Congress-thrashing, uniform-shaming, Ayatollah-loving, arms-dealing, criminal-protecting, résumé-enhancing, Noriega-coddling, Social
  Security-threatening, public school-denigrating, Swiss-banking-law-breaking, letter-faking, self-serving, election-losing, snake-oil salesman who can't tell the difference between the truth and a lie.

  Chuck Robb

  Funny, Lying, School

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• Commanders and senior officers should die with troops. The honour of the British Empire and the British Army is at stake.

  Lord Randolph Churchill

  Senior, Army, Troops

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• There is required for the composition of a great commander not only massive common sense and reasoning power, not only imagination, but also an element of legerdemain, an original and sinister touch, which leaves the enemy puzzled as well as beaten.

  Winston Churchill

  Common Sense, Imagination, Enemy

  Winston Churchill (2005). “The World Crisis, 1911-1918”, p.293, Simon and Schuster

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• If I get an order to evacuate a Jew from his home, to expel him, me, personally, my conscience would not let me do it. I'll ask my commander to excuse me, but I won't publicly call on others to refuse an order. I personally can't.

  Naftali Bennett

  Home, Order, Excuse

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• Winning the men's confidence requires much of a commander. He must exercise care and caution, look after his men, live under the same hardships, and-above all- apply self discipline. But once he has their confidence, his men will follow him through hell and high water.

  Erwin Rommel

  Exercise, Winning, Men

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