Herman Wouk Quotes

The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you are not an idiot, but find yourself in the Navy, you can only operate well by pretending to be one. All the shortcuts and economies and common-sense changes that your native intelligence suggests to you are mistakes. Learn to quash them. Constantly ask yourself, "How would I do this if I were a fool?" Throttle down your mind to a crawl. Then you will never go wrong.

An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.

If our most highly qualified General Staff officers had been told to work out the most nonsensical high level organization for war which they could think of, they could not have produced anything more stupid that that which we have at present.

And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader.

The art of making war with success being the fruit of courage combined with prudence, intelligence and experience, a companion in arms of the great Frederick, who was with him during twenty-two years, seemed to us all a man most fit to assist Monsieur Washington.

Generals do not always run wars the way they would like to, nor the troops under them.

You have to give the soldiers, the Army, a clear vision.

In the Army, we address a crisis by identifying critical objectives, planning a response, marshaling resources and communicating the plan clearly.

It would probably be a direct order, shape up your morale. And so he understands command. He understands how to delegate. And I think that [General John Kelly] will bring law and order.

The military preferred - invariably - those who could be readily defined, assigned roles, understood, and controlled.

Every great man exhibits the talent of organization or construction, whether it be in a poem, a philosophical system, a policy, or a strategy. And without method there is no organization nor construction.

Ah! the Generals! they are numerous, but not good for much!

There is a great Field-Marshal, my friend, who arrays our battalions; Let us to Providence trust, and abide and work in our stations.

With respect to Committees as you would perceive I am very jealous of their formation. I mean working committees. I think business is always better done by few than by many.

Most important, you can have a war room, you can have a war plan, but if your general - in this case, it's Donald Trump - isn't following the plan and is tweeting or is going and giving interviews that contradict the plan, then none of this really matters.

Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you must win through superior logistics.

If officers desire to have control over their commands, they must remain habitually with them, industriously attend to their instruction and comfort, and in battle lead them well.

The military was all about hierarchies, who urinated highest on the hydrant

A private should preserve a respectful attitude toward his superiors, and should seldom or never proceed so far as to offer suggestions to his general in the field. If the battle is not being conducted to suit him, it is better for him to resign. By the etiquette of war, it is permitted to none below the rank of newspaper correspondent to dictate to the general in the field.

Being a president is being a CEO, essentially.

He read reports, examined evidence, and poured more reports up the chain than the Pentagon could read. Nothing short of a human sieve. But in the end he was just one small piece on this game board called war. End of story

Discipline is the soul of an army.

If those who are sent to draw water begin by drinking themselves, the army is suffering from thirst.

Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization.

Yes," Vorkosigan agreed, "I could take over the universe with this army if I could ever get all their weapons pointed in the same direction.