Quotes about combat
page 16

George S. Patton photo
Susan Sontag photo
Horatio Nelson photo

“Something must be left to chance; nothing is sure in a sea fight above all.”

Horatio Nelson (1758–1805) Royal Navy Admiral

Before the battle of Trafalgar [citation needed]
The Battle of Trafalgar (1805)

Rutherford B. Hayes photo

“Fighting battles is like courting girls: those who make the most pretensions and are boldest usually win.”

Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) American politician, 19th President of the United States (in office from 1877 to 1881)

As quoted in The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents (1991) by William A. DeGregorio, p. 290

Charles James Fox photo

“[Napoleon has now] surpassed…Alexander & Caesar, not to mention the great advantage he has over them in the Cause he fights in.”

Charles James Fox (1749–1806) British Whig statesman

Letter to Denis O'Bryen (16 July 1800), quoted in L. G. Mitchell, Charles James Fox (London: Penguin, 1997), p. 167.
1800s

Pink (singer) photo
Emo Philips photo
Julius Streicher photo

“They are hated because they satisfy their greed according to Talmudic principles. In the Jewish lawbook "Talmud" the Jews are told that the possessions of gentiles were "ownerless property", which the Jew was allowed to obtain through deceit and cheating. Whatever the "profession" may be called where the Jew earns his money, everywhere he remains a Jew. Such criminal behavior must inevitably provoke the hatred of Jews (anti-Semitism) and fighting repulsion. The fight that the Nazarene led 2000 years ago against the Jewish usurers resulted in a gruesome way of suffering and his slaughter at Calvary. The judgement passed by Jesus on the Jews marks the Jewish people for all time:
"Ye are of your father the devil! He was a murderer from the beginning."”

Julius Streicher (1885–1946) German politician

John 8:44-45
Sie werden gehasst, weil sie ihre Gier nach Geld nach talmudischen Grundsätzen befriedigen. Im jüdischen Gesetzbuch "Talmud" wird den Juden gesagt, dass der Besitz der Nichtjuden "herrenloses Gut" sei, den der Jude durch Wucher, durch Betrug und Übervorteilung an sich bringen dürfe. Und wie der "Beruf" auch heißen mag, in dem der Jude sein Geld verdient, überall ist und bleibt er Jude. Solch verbrecherisches Verhalten muss zwangsläufig den Hass gegen die Juden (Antisemitismus) erzeugen und Abwehrkämpfe heraufbeschwören. Der Kampf, den der Nazarener vor 2000 Jahren gegen die jüdischen Zinseintreiber führte, endete mit einem grauenvollen Leidensweg und seiner Hinschlachtung auf Golgatha. Das Urteil, das Jesus Christus über die Juden fällte, kennzeichnet das Volk der Juden für alle Zeiten:
"Ich habt zum Vater nicht Gott, sondern den Teufel. Er war ein Verbrecher und Menschenmörder von Anfang an". (Joh. VIII | 44,45.)
Foreword to the book "Juden stellen sich vor", Stürmer publishing house, 1934

Mao Zedong photo

“A dangerous tendency has shown itself of late among many of our personnel -- an unwillingness to share weal and woe with the masses, a concern for personal fame and gain. This is very bad. One way of overcoming it is to streamline our organizations in the course of our campaign to increase production and practice economy, and to transfer cadres to lower levels so that a considerable number will return to productive work. We must see to it that all our cadres and all our people constantly bear in mind that ours is a large socialist country but an economically backward and poor one, and that this is a very big contradiction. To make China prosperous and strong needs several decades of hard struggle, which means, among other things, pursuing the policy of building up our country through diligence and thrift, that is, practicing strict economy and fighting waste.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Original: (zh-CN) 在我们的许多工作人员中间,现在滋长着一种不愿意和群众同甘苦,喜欢计较个人名利的危险倾向,这是很不好的。我们在增产节约运动中要求精简机关,下放干部,使相当大的一批干部回到生产中去,就是克服这种危险倾向的一个方法。要使全体干部和全体人民经常想到我国是一个社会主义的大国,但又是一个经济落后的穷国,这是一个很大的矛盾。要使我国富强起来,需要几十年艰苦奋斗的时间,其中包括执行厉行节约、反对浪费这样一个勤俭建国的方针。

John Milton photo

“Nehru’s daughter, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, carried her father’s game much farther. In her fight for a monopoly of power, she split the Congress Party, and made a common cause with the Communists. Well-known Communists and fellow-travellers were given positions of power in the ruling Congress Party, in the Government at the Centre as well in the States, and in prestigious institutions all over the country. The Muslim-Marxist combine of “historians” had already captured the Indian History Congress during the days of Pandit Nehru, and many honest historians had been hounded out of it. Now this combine was placed in control of the Indian Council of Historical Research and entrusted with extensive patronage. The combine took over the National Council of Educational Research and Training also, and laid down the guidelines for producing school textbooks on various subjects. The Jawaharlal Nehru University was created and financed on a fabulous scale in order to collect Communist professors from all over the country, and form them into a frontline brigade for launching all sorts of anti-Hindu campaigns. The smokescreen for this Stalinist operation was provided by the slogan of Secularism which nobody was supposed to question, or examine as to what it had come to mean. Its meaning had to be accepted ex-cathedra, and as laid down by the Muslim-Marxist combine. In the new political parlance that emerged, Hinduism and the nationalism it inspired, became blackned as “Communalism.””

Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist

Small wonder that the word “Hindu” started becoming a dirty word in the academia as well as the media.
Hindu Temples – What Happened to Them, Volume II (1993)

Elijah Wood photo

“In the absence of love, there is nothing worth fighting for.”

Elijah Wood (1981) American actor

Quoted in M. Kumar, Dictionary of Quotations Page 136 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=N0VKD37eY94C&pg=PA136&dq=%22In+the+absence+of+love,+there+is+nothing+worth+fighting+for%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7ns3T6XuNI6n8gOnpaWqAg&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22In%20the%20absence%20of%20love%2C%20there%20is%20nothing%20worth%20fighting%20for%22&f=false

Philippe Kahn photo

“We fight for programmer's right!”

Philippe Kahn (1952) Entrepreneur, camera phone creator

Regarding the Lotus litigation that Kahn won in the Supreme Court. Lotus maintained that the orders of the words in a menu were copyrightable and not just functional. For example "Cut, Copy, Paste" could be copyrighted. Kahn's point was that if it was so, soon all software development and innovation would cease.

Michelle Visage photo
John McCain photo
Kenneth Grahame photo
Anastacia photo
Li Hongzhi photo
Anita Dunn photo

“The third lesson and tip actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers - Mao Tse Tung and Mother Teresa, not often coupled with each other, but the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point, which is, you're going to make choices. You're going to challenge. You're going to say, "Why not?". You're going to figure out how to do things that have never been done before. But here's the deal: These are your choices, they are no one else's. In 1947, when Mao Zedong was being challenged within his own party on his plan to basically take China over. Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Chinese held the cities, they had the army, they had the air force, they had everything on their side. And people said, "How can you win? How can you do this? How can you do this, against all of the odds against you?" And Mao Zedong said, you know, "You fight your war, and I'll fight mine." And think about that for a second. You don't have to accept the definition of how to do things and you don't have to follow other peoples choices and paths. Ok? It is about your choices and your path. You fight your own war, you lay out your own path, you figure out what's right for you. You don't let external definition define how good you are internally, you fight your war, you let them fight theirs. Everybody has their own path.”

Anita Dunn (1958) American political strategist

Speech at the Washington National Cathedral for St. Andrews Episcopal High School's (of Bethesda Maryland) graduation on June 5, 2009. It was broadcast on the Glenn Beck Show, Oct 15, 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi1zg2NOCn8 http://www.saes.org/academics/lower_school/newsletter.aspx?StartDate=6/2/2009

John Ralston Saul photo
Linda McCartney photo
Stephen King photo
Kameron Hurley photo

““We have a war to fight. You don’t understand. We fight in God’s name.”
“I understand just fine,” Nyx said.”

Kameron Hurley (1980) American writer

Source: God’s War (2011), Chapter 32 (p. 235).

Natalie Merchant photo
Thomas R. Marshall photo

“Death had to take him in his sleep, for if he was awake there'd have been a fight.”

Thomas R. Marshall (1854–1925) American politician who served as the 28th Vice President of the United States

Upon hearing the death of President Teddy Roosevelt, as quoted in F.D.R. : 1905-1928‎ (1947) by Elliott Roosevelt, p. 449.

James Weldon Johnson photo
John C. Wright photo
Kelli Ward photo
Garry Kasparov photo
Johnny Nelson photo
Nathan Bedford Forrest photo

“War means fighting, and fighting means killing.”

Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821–1877) Confederate Army general

As quoted in May I Quote You, General Forrest? by Randall Bedwell.
1860s

E.M. Forster photo
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk photo

“I'll agree to fight [Mike] Tyson, if they'll allow to use tackles.”

Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (1979) Ukrainian footballer

http://www.timo4.com/rus/inter/308.html. (2007)

Robert Graves photo

“Hate is a fear, and fear is rot
That cankers root and fruit alike,
Fight cleanly then, hate not, fear not,
Strike with no madness when you strike.”

Robert Graves (1895–1985) English poet and novelist

"Hate Not, Fear Not".
Country Sentiment (1920)

Philip Pullman photo
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu photo
John Eatwell, Baron Eatwell photo
Ernesto Che Guevara photo
Ptahhotep photo
Ilana Mercer photo

“Wars are generally a rich man's affair and a poor man's fight.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

" Sanctuary City Mayor Trashes An AMERICAN Hero, Robert E. Lee, https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/sanctuary-city-mayor-trashes-an-american-hero-robert-e-lee/" The Abbeville Institute, May 25, 2017
2010s, 2017

Ralph Chaplin photo
Roger Nash Baldwin photo
Phil Brooks photo

“Before you cut me off, Raven, the reason I hate you, the reason in my heart of hearts why I hate you, is I did not know any better when I was a little kid. When my dad came home smelling like beer. I thought it was a hard day’s work he was doing. I did not realize he was out at a bar. I did not realize ‘work’ meant ‘unemployment office.’ I did not think it was strange for someone to come home and take an Old Style up into the shower. I did not think it was strange for somebody to pass out. I thought an Old Style, a pack a day, was the norm. Raven, my father is exactly like you. Since day one of Ring of Honor, where fighting spirit is supposed to be revered, things are not supposed to be this way! I’d shake your hand like a normal man, but the thing is, I don’t respect you! I hate you! I hate you for everything you have pissed away! Everything I have scrapped and clawed for that I haven’t even earned yet! That you got handed to you and you flushed down the toilet! For what? For pills? For booze? For alcohol? For women? I’m born of your poison society. So, on the seventeenth of July, I will become a monster to fight the monsters of the world! Your time in Ring of Honor will be done. That is a promise. This is true! This is real! This is straight edge!”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

Ring of Honor: WrestleRave '03. June 28th, 2003.
Promo aimed at Raven after a tag team match with Colt Cabana against Raven and Christopher Daniels
Ring of Honor

Pete Doherty photo
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner photo

“Life is unfixed when one lives in Berlin, where one has to fight for a living. It is painfully base here. I see that a fine, free culture cannot be created under these circumstances and wish to leave as soon as I have overcome this big slump.”

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) German painter, sculptor, engraver and printmaker

End of 1911; as quoted in Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: ein Künstlerleben in Selbstzeugnissen, Andreas Gabelmann (transl. Claire Louise Albiez); Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern, Germany 2010, p. 45
remark, shortly after their move to Berlin - the bustle, tempo, and anonymity of city-life soon got tough to Kirchner and the other Brücke members
1905 - 1915

Mata Amritanandamayi photo
Joan Miró photo

“.. something as sensational as [a] heavy weight prize fight…. a rain of swings, uppercuts, and straight right and lefts to the stomach and everywhere throughout the entire event – a round lasting about twenty minutes. [remark on a ballet Miro planned to, c. 1930]”

Joan Miró (1893–1983) Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist

Quote of Miró in 'Bravo' Barcelona 1994; as cited in Calder Miro, ed. Elizabeth Hutton Turner / Oliver Wick; Philip Wilson Publishers, London 2004, p. 37
1915 - 1940

Garth Brooks photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“My goal is always again to bring people together. But if I'm forced to fight for something I really care about, I will never, ever back down and our country will never, ever back down. Thank you. I've fought for my family. I've fought for my business. I've fought for my employees. And now, I'm going to fight for you, the American people like nobody has ever fought before.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Victory speech after winning New Jersey and other states Tuesday night (7 June 2016) – TIME transcript http://time.com/4360872/donald-trump-new-jersey-victory-speech-transcript/
2010s, 2016, June

“Since so little is known about the early Macedonians, it is hardly strange that in both ancient and modern times there has been much disagreement on their ethnic identity. The Greeks in general and Demosthenes in particular looked upon them as barbarians, that is, not Greek. Modern scholarship, after many generations of argument, now almost unanimously recognises them as Greeks, a branch of the Dorians and ‘NorthWest Greeks’ who, after long residence in the north Pindus region, migrated eastwards. The Macedonian language has not survived in any written text, but the names of individuals, places, gods, months, and the like suggest strongly that the language was a Greek dialect. Macedonian institutions, both secular and religious, had marked Hellenic characteristics and legends identify or link the people with the Dorians. During their sojourn in the Pindus complex and the long struggle to found a kingdom, however, the Macedonians fought and mingled constantly with Illyrians, Thracians, Paeonians, and probably various Greek tribes. Their language naturally acquired many Illyrian and Thracian loanwords, and some of their customs were surely influenced by their neighbours[…] To the civilised Greek of the fifth and fourth centuries, the Macedonian way of life must have seemed crude and primitive. This backwardness in culture was mainly the result of geographical factors. The Greeks, who had proceeded south in the second millennium, were affected by the many civilising influences of the Mediterranean world, and ultimately they developed that very civilising institution, the polis. The Macedonians, on the other hand, remained in the north and living for centuries in mountainous areas, fighting with Illyrians, Thracians, and amongst themselves as tribe fought tribe, developed a society that may be termed Homeric. The amenities of city-state life were unknown until they began to take root in Lower Macedonia from the end of the fifth century onwards.”

John V.A. Fine (1903–1987) American historian

"The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History", Harvard University Press, 1983, pgs 605-608

E. L. James photo
Paula Modersohn-Becker photo
Michael Moorcock photo
Zinedine Zidane photo

“It's hard to explain but I have a need to play intensely every day, to fight every match hard. And this desire never to stop fighting is something else I learnt in the place where I grew up.”

Zinedine Zidane (1972) French association football player and manager

Interview, 2004 http://www.theguardian.com/football/2004/apr/04/sport.features

Prem Rawat photo
Sarah McLachlan photo
Michael Bloomberg photo
Bernard Hopkins photo

“I am an old man, I just happen to be an old man that can fight.”

Bernard Hopkins (1965) American boxer

As quoted at "Calzaghe nicks round one" at BBC Sport (8 February 2008) http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A32124377
2000s, 2008

Immortal Technique photo

“They say the rebels in Iraq still fight for Saddam, but that's bullshit, I'll shows you why that's totally wrong.”

Immortal Technique (1978) American rapper and activist

Bin Laden (2005)
, 2011, Singles

L. Frank Baum photo

“An eastern contemporary, with a grain of wisdom in its wit, says that "when the whites win a fight, it is a victory, and when the Indians win it, it is a massacre."”

L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) Children's writer, editor, journalist, screenwriter

Saturday Pioneer (3 January 1891)
The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer (1890 and 1891)

William Blake photo
Billy Joel photo
Bernie Sanders photo
Franz Kafka photo

“To fight against this lack of understanding, against a whole world of non-understanding, was impossible.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

"A Hunger Artist"
The Complete Stories (1971)

David Ortiz photo

“We keep on fighting, we keep on playing. We won tonight and we're going to try to keep on winning.”

David Ortiz (1975) Dominican-American professional baseball player, designated hitter

On cue, Drew caps remarkable Sox rally, MLB.com, Ian Browne, October 17, 2008, 2008-12-26 http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20081016&content_id=3625822&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos,

T.I. photo

“I'm throwed off slightly bro, don't wanna fight me bro
I'm fast as lightnin' bro, ya better use your nikes bro”

T.I. (1980) American rapper, record producer, actor, and businessman from Georgia

"What You Know" (2006)
2000s, King

Hope Solo photo

“What I love about this team is the fact that you can feel the energy and trust - even after the defeat against Sweden. That's the really special thing about this group. Even when we were a player down and a goal behind in extra time, you sensed that something was going to happen. The team kept fighting. You can't teach that. It's a feeling - and we play with that feeling.”

Hope Solo (1981) American association football player

As quoted in "Brazil-USA Quotes: USA goalkeeper and Player of the Match Hope Solo" http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/matches/round=255995/match=300144440/quotes.html, fifa.com (July 10, 2011)
2010s

Al-Biruni photo
Vladimir Lenin photo

“Endless fascination with nature—nothing more and nothing less—is the key to enlisting people in the fight to save biodiversity.”

Reed Noss (1952)

p. xv https://books.google.com/books/about/Forgotten_Grasslands_of_the_South.html?id=9ZOaZZbukBwC&pg=PR15
Forgotten Grasslands of the South: Natural History and Conservation (2012)

Ayn Rand photo
Rudyard Kipling photo
Arthur Scargill photo

“The miners of this country will now have to seriously consider their position and recognise that at some stage they are going to have to stand and fight in defence of our industry, in defence of our jobs and above all to retain a dignity and respect.”

Arthur Scargill (1938) British trade unionist

Interview (15 June 1983) quoted in David Felton, "65 thousand pit jobs to go, says Siddall", The Times (16 June 1983), p. 1

Enoch Powell photo

“The revolution which Black Theology advocates … [means] confronting white racists and saying: 'If it's a fight you want, I am prepared to oblige you.”

James H. Cone (1938–2018) American theologian

This is what the black revolution means.
Source: Black Theology and Black Power (1969), p. 136

Winston S. Churchill photo
Amir Taheri photo

“There is no evidence that a majority of Israelis want a two-state formula. In fact, if we add up votes won by all parties implicitly or explicitly opposed to the two-state formula, we will have a whopping 75 per cent of Israelis. Thus what Netanyahu mastered enough courage to say aloud is what most Israelis think in silence. The picture is hardly different on the Palestinian side. To start with, the Palestinians are divided in at least three camps. In one camp we have Fatah and its allies who have never formally committed to a two-state formula but have dropped hints that they might accept such a solution as a first step toward liberating the rest of historic Palestine, that is to say, what is now Israel, later. The second camp is dominated by Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of Israel in no uncertain terms. However, Hamas does not want a Palestinian state either. As the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas is a pan-Islamist group dedicated to fighting for the creation of a global caliphate. In the third camp, there are more radical Palestinian groups, including the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, now the favored protégé of the Islamic Republic in Tehran. The IJLP leadership has repeatedly declared its support for a one-state formula sponsored by Iranian “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei.”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

Who wants a two-state solution, anyway? http://nypost.com/2015/03/20/who-wants-a-two-state-solution-anyway/, New York Post (March 20, 2015).
New York Post

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo
Anand Patwardhan photo
Susan Sontag photo
Tim Buck photo

“These men volunteered to fight against the German Kaiser's armies - not against Russian workers and peasants.”

Tim Buck (1891–1973) Canadian politician

Referring to Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War Tim Buck A Conscience for Canada

Allen C. Guelzo photo
Piet Joubert photo
Verghese Kurien photo

“Amul Dairy is a manifestation of what can happen when farmers assert themselves, fight for a cause.”

Verghese Kurien (1921–2012) Indian founder of dairy-cooperative Amul

In p. 87
Quote, Our Leaders

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu photo
Conor Oberst photo
Michelle Obama photo
Henry Adams photo
Ronda Rousey photo
Joe Hill photo

“I die with a clear conscience, I die fighting, not like a coward.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Said while being taken to his execution, as quoted in Philip Foner, The Case of Joe Hill (International Publishers Co., 1966), p. 108

Neville Chamberlain photo
Karel Appel photo

“As an artist you have to fight and survive the wilderness to keep your creative freedom. Creativity is very fragile. It's like a leaf in the fall; it hangs and when it drops you don't know where it's drifting.”

Karel Appel (1921–2006) Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet

Source: Karel Appel – the complete sculptures,' (1990), p. 91 'Quotes', K. Appel (1989)

Seneca the Younger photo

“Toward good men God has the mind of a father, he cherishes for them a manly love, and he says, "Let them be harassed by toil, by suffering, by losses, in order that they may gather true strength." Bodies grown fat through sloth are weak, and not only labour, but even movement and their very weight cause them to break down. Unimpaired prosperity cannot withstand a single blow; but he who has struggled constantly with his ills becomes hardened through suffering; and yields to no misfortune; nay, even if he falls, he still fights upon his knees.”
Patrium deus habet adversus bonos viros animum et illos fortiter amat et "Operibus," inquit, "doloribus, damnis exagitentur, ut verum colligant robur." Languent per inertiam saginata nec labore tantum sed motu et ipso sui onere deficiunt. Non fert ullum ictum inlaesa felicitas; at cui assidua fuit cum incommodis suis rixa, callum per iniurias duxit nec ulli malo cedit sed etiam si cecidit de genu pugnat.

Patrium deus habet adversus bonos viros animum et illos fortiter amat et "Operibus," inquit, "doloribus, damnis exagitentur, ut verum colligant robur."
Languent per inertiam saginata nec labore tantum sed motu et ipso sui onere deficiunt. Non fert ullum ictum inlaesa felicitas; at cui assidua fuit cum incommodis suis rixa, callum per iniurias duxit nec ulli malo cedit sed etiam si cecidit de genu pugnat.
De Providentia (On Providence), 2.6; translation by John W. Basore
Moral Essays