Famous Military Quotes

"Don't fire until you see the white's of their eyes."
Attributed to Israel Putnam, at the battle of Bunker Hill, June 1775.
The rest of the quote, according to Putnam's lower ranking officers was:
"Powder is scarce and must not be wasted. Fire Low! You are all marksmen and could kill a squirrel at a hundred yards. Reserve your fire and the enemy will be destroyed."
This quote has been wrongfully attributed to the commanding officer Colonel William Prescott.

"I have not yet begun to fight."
Captain John Paul Jones aboard the the Bon Homme Richard. He fought the British ship Serapis. The Serapis captain asked if John Paul Jones swanted to surrender. Jones yelled back, "I have not yet begun to fight!"

"Si vis pacem, para bellum."
(If you want peace, prepare for war.)
Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Roman military strategist. c. 390 A.D.

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
General George Patton

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Sir Edmund Burke (1729-1797) British statesman and philosopher.

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill after the battle of Britain about the Royal Air Corps.

"Veni, vidi, vici."
(I came, I saw, I conquered.)
Julius Caesar, Roman Emperor ( 100 b.c. - 44 b.c.)

"Come on you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?"
Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly, 04 June 1918, leading Marines at Belleu Woods. Gunny Daly served with the Fourth Marine Brigade in W.W. I and was awarded two Medals of Honor.