
Federalist No. 10
1780s, Federalist Papers (1787–1788)
Source: Precepts and Judgments (1919), p. 108
Context: Against what should fire be opened? Against the obstacles which may delay the march of infantry.
The first obstacle is the enemy gun. It will be the first objective assigned to artillery masses.
Federalist No. 10
1780s, Federalist Papers (1787–1788)
“Your heaviest artillery will be your will to live. Keep that big gun going.”
Anatomy of an Illness (1979)
“Thou first, best friend that Heav'n assigns below
To sooth and sweeten all the cares we know.”
I, l. 85-6.
The Pleasures of Memory (1792)
“No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. Not when the enemy is me.”
This includes a common paraphrase of a statement which originates with military strategist Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke: "No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force."
Vorkosigan Saga, Cetaganda (1996)
“The first thing that you lose on a diet is brain mass.”
From Her Tours and CDs, I'm The One That I Want Tour
Source: 1960s, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 142
Source: The Autobiography of Wilhelm Stekel (1950), p. 52
“One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.”
Source: Sir William Osler : Aphorisms (1961), p. 105.