Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations

Book excerpt: The quotations in this unique dictionary cover all aspects of the military art─war, personalities, traditions and customs, weapons and equipment, as well as virtues and failings. It is a fascinating and comprehensive collection which includes over 5000 quotations and spans the past two thousand years. The words of Catherine the Great are here, along with those of Churchill, Shakespeare, Nimitz, Clausewitz, Kant, and John F. Kennedy. Napoleon I and Thomas Jefferson share a page with Robert E. lee and Alfred Thayer Mahan. The scope of the subject matter covered by the quotations is extensive. The table of rubrics runs between Action to Zeal with 365 pages in between. Aggression, Causes of War, D tente, Duty, Loyalty, Luck, Profanity, Recruits, Victory, Weapons, and Women are but a few of the headings. Quotations under each entry appear in chronological order. Transcending the barriers of the profession of arms, there is much here for the student, the teacher, the historian, the politician, the reference specialist, the public speaker, and the interested reader. The words of hundreds of the world's greatest philosophers, poets, admirals, generals, prophets, and politicians serve both to inspire and to remind us of Santayana's words: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."