Claude Louis Hector de Villars

"God protect me from my friends, I can protect myself from my enemies. [Variation: Defend me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies myself]."

"I am going to fight your enemies, I leave you in the midst of my own."

"Do you want to know where Prince Eugene’s real enemies are? They are in Vienna, while mine are in Versailles."

"A general has to expose his life as much as he exposes the lives of others."

"What! Is it expected that I, a Marshal of France, should be the first to escalade, when I order you to attack?"

"When the first shot is fired, no one can calculate what will be the issue of the war. It is, therefore, of vast importance to reflect maturely before we begin it."

"When we are determined upon war, we should carry it on vigorously and without trifling."

"In war everything depends upon being able to deceive the enemy; and having once gained this point, in never allowing him time to recover himself."

"My principal attention was always directed to the study of the younger generals. Such a one I found, by the boldness of his character, fit to lead a column of attack; another, from a disposition naturally cautious, but without being deficient in courage, more perfectly to be relied on for the defence of a country."

"No governor of a place should he permitted to excuse himself for surrendering, on the ground of wishing to preserve the king's troops. Every garrison that displays courage will escape being prisoners of war. For there is no general who, however well assured of carrying a place by assault, will not prefer granting terms of capitulation rather than risk the loss of a thousand men in forcing determined troops to surrender."

"If God lets us have the grace of losing such a battle again, Your Majesty can count on all of his enemies being destroyed."

"I am going to drive your enemies so far that they shall not again see the banks of the Scheldt; and by a battle on my arrival, to regain all that has been taken from your majesty."

"I was unable before starting to formulate a plan of campaign because I did not know whether I should find an army there ... In fact I found the troops in a deplorable condition, without clothes, without arms, and without bread."

"Where there are no peasants there are no supplies."

"My friends ... if you make the people run away, you will die of hunger."

"[Your nation] seems immovable, never doing glorious things but by halves, and never disgracing itself."

"The most shameful, humiliating and disastrous of routs."

"Fortify your towns, and above all the Schellenberg, that fort above Donauworth, the importance of which the great Gustavus taught us."

"Villars was a being into every atom of whose texture vanity and valour entered in equal proportions. Both were serviceable to his country in those dark days. He boasted, he postured, he gesticulated, but at the same time he organized, inspired, and acted. His self-admiration was matched by his patriotism. He was a greathearted braggart. When disasters befell the armies on other fronts he was heard to exclaim, “I can't be everywhere.” His indomitable ardour in facing adversity and the foe was of the highest service to his country."

"He wanted very little to be a perfect general. Choosing an extremely advantageous position was one of his great talents."

"He foresees and provides for everything. He is the first Munitioner and Treasurer of his army. He has obtained the King's leave not to pass things through the channel of the Minister of War, who is an imbecile. He has himself formed a body of six munitioners for the army."

"He knew by heart the beautiful plays of Corneille, Racine, and Molière. I heard him say one day to a very famous statesman, who was surprised that he knew so many lines of comedy: "I played less than you, but I know more!""

"A fanfaron plein d'honneur."