Quotes About Leadership

In the twelve months from June, 1940, to June, 1941, our civilian casualties were 43,381 killed and 50,856 seriously injured, a total of 94,237. Except for

I have made more bishops than anyone since St. Augustine.

Attlee is a modest man who has a great deal to be modest about.

unfortunately we have to make war as we must and not as we should like to.

he would in any case have saved the British Army in France from the futile slaughter of May, and possibly even discouraged the French from the long and frightful follies of their Spring offensive in Artois in which they squandered nearly a quarter of a million men.

I resisted these movements whenever they came to my notice. In this I was supported by Marshal Stalin, who followed the Russian maxim, "You may always walk with the Devil till you get to the end of the bridge.

Although general staffs present the results of their labours in simple and precise assertions, these are no sure foundations upon which to make intricate plans depending upon a few days or a few divisions one way or another.

It is said by several authorities that on being in the saddle he declared, "This day I conquer or die." Nothing was more unlike him. Months before in England he had used such words to Wratislaw, and assuredly they did not go beyond the truth. But, arrived at the point of action, it is more probable that he made some considerate inquiry about his horse's forage or his man's rations.

Battles are won by slaughter and manœuvre. The greater the general, the more he contributes in manœuvre, the less he demands in slaughter.

Nearly all the battles which are regarded as masterpieces of the military art, from which have been derived the foundation of states and the fame of commanders, have been battles of manœuvre in which very often the enemy has found himself defeated by some novel expedient or device, some queer, swift, unexpected thrust or stratagem. In many such battles the losses of the victors have been small.

if only the Generals had not been content to fight machine-gun bullets with the breasts of gallant men, and think that that was waging war.

How hard to build. How easy to evacuate. How hard to capture. How easy to do nothing. How hard to achieve anything. War is action, energy & hazard. These sheep only want to browse among the daisies.

There can be no revival of Europe without a spiritually great France and a spiritually great Germany.

During this period I usually managed to take two afternoons a week in the areas under attack in Kent or Sussex in order to see for myself what was happening.

If you are a great general,' said Pompaedius Silo to Marius, 'come down and fight.' 'If you are a great general,' was the famous answer, 'make me fight against my will.

Their national psychology is such that the bigger the Idea the more wholeheartedly and obstinately do they throw themselves into making it a success. It is an admirable characteristic provided the Idea is good.

Nothing is more dangerous in wartime than to live in the temperamental atmosphere of a Gallup poll, always feeling one's pulse and taking one's temperature. I see that a speaker at the weekend said that this was a time when leaders should keep their ears to the ground. All I can say is that the British nation will find it very hard to look up to leaders who are detected in that somewhat ungainly posture.

replace it. 7. Please say what you are doing and how you propose to overcome the growing difficulties of sending reinforcements into Singapore. Also, what has been done about reducing number of useless mouths in Singapore Island? What was the reply about supplies? *** It is not possible to pursue

Better a Zero than a Nero.

If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.

Los cuadros de bajas expuestos en el capítulo titulado «Estadística sangrienta» muestran la falsedad de esta impresión. Sir Douglas Haig no fue bien servido en esta ocasión por su Servicio de Información del Gran Cuartel General196 la tendencia a decirle a un jefe de elevada situación solo las cosas que gusta de oír es una de las explicaciones más corrientes de una dirección

always followed, so far as I could see, the principle that military commanders should not be judged by results, but by the quality of their effort.

By this time next year we shall know whether the Prime Minister's view of Herr Hitler and the German Nazi Party is right or wrong. By this time next year we shall know whether the policy of appeasement has appeased, or whether it has only stimulated a more ferocious appetite.

democracies are apt to think with their hearts rather than with their heads, and a general's business is, or should be, to use his head for planning.