K: Karl XII – Kutuzov Military Quotes and Quotations
On the subject of diplomacy: “The sword has to do the best for it does not jest”.
– Karl / Charles XII “Carolus Rex” (1682-1718), Swedish warrior king.
“This shall hence become my music” ..upon hearing the sound of gunfire during his first real battle.
– Karl XII “Carolus Rex”
“I’ll likely be married to the soldier mob for better and for worse to live and to die.”
– Karl XII “Carolus Rex”
“If we cannot secure our needs for survival on the basis of law and justice, then we must be ready to secure them with army in our hands.”
– Mihaly Karolyi, Hungarian revolutionary leader, 1918-1919
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
– Robert F. Kennedy
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. That ripple builds others. Those ripples – crossing each other from a million different centers of energy – build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and injustice.”
– Senator Robert F. Kennedy
“A war regarded as inevitable or even probable, and therefore much prepared for, has a good chance of eventually being fought.”
– George F. Keenan, The Cloud of Danger
“Everything, everything in war is barbaric….But the worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being.”
– Ellen Key, War, Peace and the Future
“The inevitable never happens. It is the unexpected, always.”
– Lord Keynes
“Hold what you’ve got and hit them where you can”
– Admiral of the Fleet Ernest J. King, December 1941.
“If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr
“War is the greatest plague that can afflict mankind … Any scourge is preferable to it.”
– Martin Luther King Jr
“The ‘eathen in ‘is blindness must end where ‘e began. But the backbone of the Army is the non-commissioned man!”
– Rudyard Kipling
“We have a thousand reasons for failure but not a single excuse.”
– Rudyard Kipling
(do also look at the military poems section for more Kipling)
“War, if reason prevails, is waged to obtain a better peace than that which existed prior to the hostilities.”
– Bela K. Kiraly, Hungarian general and American military historian
“We have War when at least one of the parties to a conflict wants something more than it wants Peace.”
– Jeane J. Kirkpatrick
“Soldiers are men…most apt for all manner of services and best able to support and endure the infinite toils and continual hazards of war.”
– Henry Knyvett
“The most persistent sound which reverberates through man’s history is the beating of war drums.”
– Arthur Koestler, (1905-83), Hungarian-born British novelist, essayist.
“Being ready is not what matters. What matters is winning after you get there.”
– Lieutenant General V.H. Krulak, USMC
“The most important goal of our actions is destruction of the enemy to the last limit of possibility”
– Field Marshal Prince Mikhail I. Kutuzov (1745-1813)
“If my pillow knew my plans I wouldn’t sleep on it.”
– Russian Field Marshal Kutuzov
I can’t guarantee that these quotations are correct or true, but I have tried to verify as many of the quotes as possible. Please contact me if you find any errors in the quotes, have some additional information about the quotes or if you know any more quotations that are not listed here.
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