Michel de L'Hopital Quotes

We shouldn't have politicians micromanaging this war because it is complex and unconventional.

You can’t take military action in war without the support of government.

The Congress decides when to make war and the President decides how to make war.

Ministers [government officials] in the conduct of war … assume that war having been declared, the sole duty and anxiety of Ministers should consist in supporting generals and armies in the field.

As Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, in time of war, I suppose I have a right to take any measure which may best subdue the enemy.

I will not be the first American President who lost a war!

Military campaigns are inseparable from politics.

Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.

To go to war, you must always think of, can you win?

War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.

The only difficulty I had in declaring war arose from the incompetency of the men to whom the principle management of it was to be given.

The military mind always imagines that the next war will be on the same lines as the last.

War may be an auction for countries. For soldiers it's a lottery.

The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

We all know that in war the political and military factors have to complement each other.

The power to wage war is the power to wage war successfully.

The biggest problem was the politicians knew nothing about fighting a war.

Never go to war unless your willing to win.

In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.

In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war.

There are two things that will always be difficult for a democratic people to do: to start a war and to finish it

There is no area where experience matters more than in war and diplomacy.

An army abroad is of little use unless there are prudent counsels at home. Parvi enim sunt foris arma, nisi est consilium domi.

No one starts a war—or rather, no one in his senses ought to do so—without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war, and how he intends to conduct it.

It is not every cause of war that should lead to war.