"I believe that one can't command sitting on one's ass in the rear. One has to up among the forward brigade commanders, even as far as battalion commanders, especially if one is fighting a defensive action. One simply has to know what is going on."

"Among the mouldering bones there was the head of a flaxen haired girl. One side of her face was well preserved, almost mummified. She must have been a beauty. But the other side of her face was all bone and a horrifying sight, not the sort of thing one likes to think about after."

"Some more of Monty's boys came up, soon after Malone had left but they, too, spent their time getting shelled by the ever-persistent Germans. Likewise, they departed, their minds expanded and their sphinctres contracted."

"Perhaps if Hitler had had the wisdom to withdraw his troops and prepare for the defense of his own country, Germany, despite the loss of face this would entail in the losing of all Italy, then the course of the war, if not the outcome, would have been quite different."

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

"In Ceylon I had a black nurse who wet - nursed me. Years later I was told by my father that she said of me:"This boy plenty belly, big stick.""

"The meek are a hell of a long way from inheriting the earth."

"I wanted people who wouldn't become too worried about casualties. One always should be concerned about casualties, but the risk of incurring casualties can't be allowed to affect decisions, unless it's evident casualties will be prohibitively heavy. There may be no safe way to write this."

"I looked for certain attributes in a soldier. I know the modern method is to put the attributes into a computer and see what comes out. But as far as I am concerned, the computer is the worst damn instrument devised by man to screw up man-management."

"I reckon that the Bailey Bridge and the bulldozer were the greatest advances in military engineering in the years between World War I and World War II."

"The most important thing, my father told me, which I have never forgotten, and which I have often put unto practice was: If you get into a quarrel with anybody, hit him first. "If you hit first, the battle is half-won," my father always said "Don't let him hit first. You hit him first." "What's more," he never forgot to say, too "Usually one blow is all you need." I found this to be true."

"I wonder will death be much lonelier than life. Life's an awfully lonesome affair. You can live close against other people yet your lives never touch. You come into the world alone and you go out of the world alone yet it seems to me you are more alone while living than even coming and going."

"Put simply, we must always remember that separate but equal is not equal."

"Canada's position was Saddam Hussein should be disarmed. Now, to be quite honest, I had a lot of difficulty understanding how he was going to be disarmed without being replaced."

"I really think Canada should get over to Iraq as quickly as possible. There's a huge need for front-line medical professionals. There's a huge need for policing. And there's a huge need for infrastructure rebuilding."

"The fact that now we know well that there is proliferation of nuclear weapons and that many of the weapons that Saddam Hussein had, for example, we do not know where they are, so that means the terrorists have access to all that."

"I mean if there are going to be missiles that are going off and there are going to be going off over Canadian airspace whether we want it or not, no I don't think that is acceptable. I think that we want to be at the table."

""I don't think there is any doubt, if there ever was . . . that Saddam Hussein does have weapons of mass destruction. Biological weapons that they discovered were very clear evidence of not only the fact that he had them, but that he had lied and that he is continuing to lie.”"

"All the same we take our chances, Laughed at by time, tricked by circumstances, Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, The more that things change, the more they stay the same. -- Circumstances (1978)"

"Rush is another impressive array of three otherworldly musicians. The technicality and precision is jaw dropping. I was quite busy on drums early on in the Pixies because of him. Quite a formative band for me when I was younger and learning drums."

"Name another drummer in the rock-pop-prog-fusion idiom who thoroughly composed his parts for every song, never deviating live or otherwise, applied his vision to a 30+ piece electric/acoustic 360 degree orchestral rock kit, and somehow managed to make every part musical, seamless, and iconic. He also wrote the lyrics almost every Rush song. I don't care if you don't like Rush, Neil is undeniable."

"I define my approach to each day I am given as, "What is the most excellent thing I can do today?" – from the book "Far and Near: On Days Like These""

"Among the people whose thinking I like is Ayn Rand, but there are a whole lot of others. It's a kind of disciple mentality that people are applying to me that they think I applied to her and it's all wrong. I'm nobody's disciple and you know 'No god, no government' none of that, so I don't like it applied to me any more than to them."

"I can't play to that! - on Rock Band"

"The secret to life is, you get up in the morning, and you go to work - from the book Travelling Music"

"Genius is the fire that lights itself. -Commenting on Buddy Rich."

"You can surrender Without a prayer But never really pray Pray without surrender You can fight Without ever winning But never ever win Without a fight -- Resist (1996)"

"Unstable condition A symptom of life In mental and environmental change Atmospheric disturbance The feverish flux Of human interface and interchange -- Vital Signs (1981)"

"When we are young Wandering the face of the Earth Wondering what our dreams might be worth Learning that we're only immortal For a limited time -- Dreamline (1991)"

"Quick to judge -- Quick to anger -- Slow to understand Ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand -- Witch Hunt (Part III of 'Fear') (1981)"

"No one gets to their heaven without a fight -- Armor and Sword (2007)"

"Life is like an aimless river The time is now again -- Ceiling Unlimited (2002)"

"How can anybody be enlightened? Truth is after all so poorly lit -- Turn The Page (1987)"

"Adventures suck when you're having them. -- Roadshow (2006)"

"To you, is it movement, or is it action? Is it contact or just reaction? And you, revolution, just resistance? Is it living, or just existence? -- The Enemy Within (Part I of 'Fear') (1984)"

"Everything in moderation, with occasional excess -- Ghost Rider (2002)"

"A few guys with guns can spoil everything. -- The Masked Rider (1996)"

"All the busy little creatures chasing out their destinies. Living in their pools they soon forget about the sea... -- Natural Science (1980)"

"Danger plus survival equals fun. --From A Work in Progress"

"Life is just a candle, and a dream must give it flame... -- The Fountain of Lamneth (1975)"

"A planet of playthings We dance on the strings of powers we cannot perceive The stars aren't aligned or the gods are maligned Blame is better to give than receive -- Freewill (1980)"

"An ounce of perception, a pound of obscure Process information at half speed Pause, rewind, replay Warm memory chip Random sample, hold the one you need -- Vital Signs (1981)"

"We each pay a fabulous price For our visions of paradise But a spirit with a vision is a dream With a mission -- Mission (1987)"

"Imagine a man when it all began The pilot of 'Enola Gay' Flying out of the shockwave on that August day All the powers that be, and the course of history Would be changed forevermore -- Manhattan Project (1985)"

"Now there's no more oak oppression For they passed a noble law And the trees are all kept equal By hatchet, axe and saw -- The Trees (1978)"

"They say there are strangers who threaten us In our immigrants and infidels They say there is strangeness too dangerous In our theaters and bookstore shelves That those who know what's best for us Must rise and save us from ourselves -- Witch Hunt (Part III of 'Fear') (1980)"

"I set a course just east of Lyra And northwest of Pegasus Flew into the light of Deneb Sailed across the Milky Way On my ship, the 'Rocinante' Wheeling through the galaxies Headed for the heart of Cygnus Headlong into mystery -- Cygnus X-1, Book One; The Voyage (1977)"

"Wheels can take you around. Wheels can cut you down. We can go from boom to bust. From dreams to a bowl of dust. We can fall from rockets' red glare, down to "Brother can you spare..." Another war. Another wasteland. And another lost generation -- Between The Wheels (1984)"

"I hear the sound of gunfire at the prison gate, Are the liberators here? Do I hope or do I fear? For my father and my brother, it’s too late but I must help my mother stand up straight. Are we the last ones left alive? Are we the only human beings to survive? -- Red Sector A (1984)"