battle aftermath Quotes

Next to a lost battle, nothing is so sad as a battle that has been won.

For a whole generation after the battle of Pydna, the Roman state enjoyed a profound calm, scarcely varied by a ripple here and there on the surface.

They are more than men at the outset of their battles; at the end they are less than the women.

Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.

I'm a soldier who didn't know how nasty the battle was going to be, and now, I've got a purple heart and I'm back.

A bloody and complete victory has sometimes yielded no more than the possession of the field and the loss of ten thousand men has sometimes been sufficient to destroy, in a single day, the work of ages.

I have just read your dispatch about sore-tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?

After the battle in Pharsalia, when Pompey was fled, one Nonius said they had seven eagles left still, and advised to try what they would do. "Your advice," said Cicero, "were good if we were to fight jackdaws.

And everybody praised the Duke Who this great fight did win. "But what good came of it at last?" Quoth little Peterkin. "Why, that I cannot tell," said he, "But 'twas a famous victory."

After the battle is over, they [whites] retire to feast, and drink wine, as if nothing had happened; after which, they make a statement in writing, of what they have done – each party claiming the victory! And neither giving an account of half the number that have been killed on their own side.

The heads of lords lay strewn about the ground, like figs that sell a thousand for a fils. Fallen princes' bloated corpses lay like full wine-skins or women big in the womb. Slaves lay beside their masters, beggars next to kings, all one in rank, all turned to dung; unburied in the field they lay, they and their king Zuhair. Not one in ten, one in ten thousand survived, like grapes unpicked at harvest's end, and Andalus was rid of Slays, the host of Almeria crushed, her kingdom gone.

I really enjoyed the last scene at the Ewok celebration after the battle.

He lives not long who battles with the immortals, nor do his children prattle about his knees when he has come back from battle and the dread fray.

It seemed that out of battle I escaped Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which titanic wars had groined.

Extraordinary rains pretty generally fall after great battles.

Don't ever go to war. Even if you win, the battle is never over inside you.

It would be a fine thing if war could be conducted as a game where no lives were lost. At the end of a battle combatants could meet [...] and drink and talk.

That's a nice song,' said young Sam, and Vimes remembered that he was hearing it for the first time. It's an old soldiers' song,' he said. Really, sarge? But it's about angels.' Yes, thought Vimes, and it's amazing what bits those angels cause to rise up as the song progresses. It's a real soldiers' song: sentimental, with dirty bits. As I recall, they used to sing it after battles,’ he said. 'I've seen old men cry when they sing it,’ he added. Why? It sounds cheerful.' They were remembering who they were not singing it with, thought Vimes. You'll learn. I know you will.

Only a battle lost is sadder than a battle won.

Desjardins was literally fuming. His tattered robes still smoked from battle. (Carter says I shouldn’t mention that his pink boxer shorts were showing, but they were!)

He rarely knows the result of a battle when the battle is over.

The resolution of the combat is seldom equal to the vehemence of the charge.

The manner in which one loses the battle can sometimes outshine the victory.

Like an army defeated the snow hath retreated.

RECONCILIATION, n. A suspension of hostilities. An armed truce for the purpose of digging up the dead.