The military system is, to a substantial extent, a method whereby the population provides a subsidy to the high technology industry.

-Chomsky, (Avram) Noam
  Interview, Public Broadcasting System, 4 Nov.

Only thestudyof militaryhistory iscapable of giving those who have no experience of their own a clear picture of what I have just called the friction of the whole machine.

-Clausewitz, Karl von
  Principles of  War (translated by  J  J Graham).

   We are suffering a national defeat comparable to any lost military campaign, and what is more, it is self- inflicted† It is about time that we pulled our fingers out† The rest of the world most certainly does not owe us a living.

-Edinburgh, Prince Philip, Duke of
  Speech to British industrialists, London,17 Oct.

Experience shows that great enterprises seldom end with a tidy and satisfactory flourish. Together, we are doingourbesttore-establishpeaceand civil order inthe Gulf region, and to help those members of civil and ethnic minorities who continuetosuffer through no fault oftheirown.If wesucceed,ourmilitarysuccesswill have achieved its true objective.

-Elizabeth II
  Commenting on the aftermath of the Gulf  War in the first address by a British monarch to Congress,16 May.

   It is ofcourseatruthuniversallyacknowledgedthat large overseas military commitments cannot be sustained without even larger economic resources.

-Ferguson, Niall
  Colossus:  The Rise and Fall of the American Empire.

   Stately as a galleon, I sail across the floor, Doing the MilitaryTwo-step, as in the days of yore.

-Grenfell,Joyce ne¤  e Phipps
  'Stately as a Galleon' (song).

The Frenchhad a moremartial air thanthe English.There seemed to be a species of military instinct in all classes. No young man appeared to have finished his education till after a bloody campaign† They were at this singular period, without the least exaggeration, a century behind us in notions of legal and moral responsibility.

-Haydon, Benjamin Robert
Autobiography (published1847).

Many times†I had heard the military take positions which, if wrong, had the advantage that no one would be around at the end to know.

-Kennedy, Robert F(rancis)
Recalling discussions on Soviet placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba. Thirteen Days (published1969).

   It is a great war for the emancipation of Europe from the thralldom of a military caste which has thrown its shadows upon two generations of men, and is now plunging theworld intoawelterof bloodshedand death.

-Lloyd George (of Dwyfor), David, 1st Earl
  Speech in Queen's Hall, London, 21 Sep.

I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier whotried to dohis dutyas Godgavehimthelight to see that duty.

-MacArthur, Douglas
  Address to Congress after being relieved of his duty by President Truman,19  Apr.

We had a two-track approach, one political and the other military, and the military was designed to move us along the political track.

-McNamara, Robert Strange
On the Vietnam War in late1967. Quoted in Deborah Shapley Promise and Power (1993).

As a military man who has given half a century of active service,Isay inall sincerity thatthenucleararmsracehas no military purpose. Wars cannot be fought with nuclear weapons; their existence onlyadds to our perils because of the illusions that they have generated. The world now stands on the brink of the final abyss. Let us all resolve to take all possible practicable steps to ensurethat we donot, through ourownfolly, go over the edge.

-Nicholas, 1st Earl
  Speech at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg,11 May.

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of militaryauthority, because I believethattheWar isbeing deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.

-Sassoon, Siegfried Louvain
  'A Soldier's Declaration'. Statement sent to his commanding officer which was read out in the House of Commons and printed in TheTimes.

The military struggle may frankly be regarded for what it actually was, namely a war for independence, an armed attempt to impose the views of the revolutionists on the British government and large sections of the colonial populationat whatevercosttofreedomofopinionor the sanctity of life and property.

-Schlesinger, Arthur Meier
  'TheAmerican Revolution Reconsidered', in Political Science Quarterly, Mar.

When the military man approaches, the world locks up its spoons and packs off its womankind.

-Shaw, George Bernard
  DonJuan. Man and Superman, act 3.

Any society, so long as it is, or feels itselfto be, a working society, tends to invest in itself: a military society tends to become more military, a bureaucratic society more bureaucratic, a commercial society more commercial, as thestatus and profits of waroroffice orcommerceare enhanced by success, and institutions are framed to forward it. Therefore, when such a society is hit by a general crisis, it finds itself partly paralyzed by the structural weight of increased social investment. The dominant military or official or commercial classes cannot easily change their orientation: and their social dominance, and the institutions through which it is exercised, prevent other classes from securing power or changing policy.

-Glanton
  The Rise of Christian Europe.

Dead battles, like dead generals, hold the military mind in their dead grip.

-Tuchman, BarbaraW(ertheim)
  The Guns of August, ch.2.

The Soviet Union remains a superpower in the military and nuclear senseöonly its economy is in difficulty. People want me to lead the troops out or to chuck them over the border, but I have neither the strength nor the will to do it.

-Walesa, Lech
  In TheTimes,17 Apr. English poet  and Sinologist.  He was  a distinguished translator of Chinese andJapanese literature.