Obstinacy is a fault of temperament. Stubbornness and intolerance of contradiction result from a special kind of egotism.
Carl von Clausewitz,
military leader
Ah, these diplomats! What chatterboxes! There’s only one way to shut them up – cut them down with machine guns. Bulganin, go and get me one!
Joseph Stalin – As reported by De Gaulle during a long meeting.
Shortly before World War I, the German Kaiser was the guest of the Swiss government to observe military maneuvers. The Kaiser asked a Swiss militiaman: “You are 500,000 and you shoot well, but if we attack with 1,000,000 men what will you do?” The soldier replied: “Shoot twice and go home.”
Dec. 23, 1944 – “Battle of the Bulge” – An entire U.S. armored division was retreating from the Germans in the Ardennes forest when a sergeant in a tank destroyer spotted an American digging a foxhole. The GI, PFC Martin, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, looked up and asked, “Are you looking for a safe place?” “Yeah” answered the tanker. “Well, buddy,” he drawled, “just pull your vehicle behind me…I’m the 82nd Airborne, and this is as far as the bastards are going.”
In 2000, Army specialist Jeff Lewis was sent to Fort Bragg on a parachute jump with no training save for a one day refresher course. Despite stepping out of the plane on the wrong foot and twisting his gear up, he managed to make the jump safely. When asked about it later, he replied “The US Army said I was airborne qualified, and I wasn’t going to question it.”
“I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you f**k with me, I’ll kill you all.”
General Mattis
“If there is a god, he’ll have to beg for my forgiveness”
Written on the walls of a concentration camp by an anonymous victim of the Nazis.
