“Forrest saw the war as a moral crusade, a fight for decency and order, and victory to the British would mean that the Almighty, who could not possibly be suspected of Republican sentiments, had blessed the British effort.”

—  Bernard Cornwell

Major Joseph Forrest, p. 162
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Company (1982)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Forrest saw the war as a moral crusade, a fight for decency and order, and victory to the British would mean that the A…" by Bernard Cornwell?
Bernard Cornwell photo
Bernard Cornwell 175
British writer 1944

Related quotes

Winston S. Churchill photo

“War is horrible, but slavery is worse, and you may be sure that the British people would rather go down fighting than live in servitude.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Interview https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/01/winston-churchill-new-statesman-archive with Kingsley Martin for the New Statesman (7 January 1939)
The 1930s

Lynn Compton photo

“To try to distinguish between our objectives in World War II and the war we are fighting today- that one war was justified and the other isn't- is a complete fallacy. All wars are wars of choice. The Revolutionary War was a war of choice- we could have stayed British subjects if we had wanted. Equally so, we could have chosen not to fight World War II if we had wanted. But there were compelling reasons to fight both the Revolutionary War and World War II, as there are compelling reasons to fight the war against terror today.”

Lynn Compton (1921–2012) Easy Company soldier turned noted jurist

Source: Call of Duty: My Life Before, During and After the Band of Brothers (2008), p. 250

George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston photo

“The British people realise that they are fighting for the hegemony of the Empire. If necessary we shall continue the war single-handed.”

George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (1859–1925) British politician

King Albert I of Belgium's diary entry (7 February 1916), quoted in R. van Overstraeten (ed.), The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians (1954), p. 85.

“War tore the guts out of the British empire, weakening it in resources and morale. The first major loss was Ireland.”

Jeremy Black (historian) (1955) British military historian

Source: A History of the British Isles (1996)

Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV photo

“That no one who had followed the events of the Great War could help realising that while it had resulted in overthrowing the three great monarchies of Europe, its effect on the British Empire had been to strengthen the bonds between king and people and to leave the British Throne more deeply seated in the affections of every class of His Imperial Majesty's subjects.”

Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV (1884–1940) King of Mysore

Lord Irwin on the occasion of the State Banquet held on the 29th July on his taking over as Viceroy. Modern_Mysore, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Open University, 26 November 2013, archive.org, 345-46 http://archive.org/stream/modernmysore035292mbp/modernmysore035292mbp_djvu.txt,
As ruler of the state

William Joyce photo

“[Winston Churchill] is the servant, not of the British public, or of the British Empire, but of International Jewish Finance. This charge must be preferred against a man who has so signally violated British tradition in the course of this war.”

William Joyce (1906–1946) British fascist and propaganda broadcaster

Broadcast, Radio Cologne, 8 April 1943.

Gore Vidal photo

“You think of the Republican Party as a party, like the British Conservative Party - well it isn't! I don't say that the British Conservative Party is much better, I'm only saying the Republican Party is a mindset. They love war! They love money! They're out to hang on through all the connections that they have, through their various operatives.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

On the Republican Party http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD0p-wfCARk&feature=youtu.be&t=46s
2000s, What I've Learned (2008), Gore Vidal's America (2009)

“Our war is not against everybody who is American or British, but against whoever stops us from fighting America and Britain, whether it is Pakistan or even our own people.”

Mullah Dadullah (1966–2007) Afghan Taliban commander

There Will Be No Reconciliation with America before Withdrawal, Apology, and Compensation http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1402, exclusive interview, March 2007.
Targeting collaborators

Gene Wolfe photo

“The Falklands War continues to fascinate me. What a conflict! What an unlikely pair of antagonists! The British have always fought, to be sure. No nation on Earth can be taken seriously in historical circles unless it has had at least one war with the British; it's like not having an American Express card. And yet the very idea of Britain in a contemporary war is a shock. Britain, one feels, fights in history books and not on TV.”

Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer

"A Few Points About Knife Throwing", Fantasy Newsletter (1983), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days (1992)
Nonfiction

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo

“The North is fighting for no sentimental cause—for no victory of a 'higher civilization.'”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

It is fighting for a very ancient and vulgar object of war—for that which Russia has secured in Poland—that which Austria clings to in Venetia—that which Napoleon sought in Spain. It is a struggle for empire, conducted with a recklessness of human life which may have been paralleled in practice, but has never been avowed with equal cynicism. If any shame is left in the Americans, the first revision they will make in their constitution will be to repudiate formally the now exploded doctrine laid down in the Declaration of Independence, that 'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed'.
Source: 'The United States as an Example', Quarterly Review, 117, 1865, pp. 252-253

Related topics