John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

"I found many remarkable men, but he was on the whole the most extraordinary personality of them all, and charged with genius."

"No man I have ever met ever gave me so authentic a feeling of originality as this dare-devil of genius, this pirate of public life, who more than any other Englishman saved British democracy from a Prussian domination."

"There is no doubt whatever that Fisher was right in nine-tenths of what he fought for."

"I found Fisher a veritable volcano of knowledge and of inspiration..."

"There was always something foreign to the Navy about Fisher. He was never judged to be one of the 'band of brothers' which the Nelson tradition had prescribed. Harsh, capricious, vindictive, gnawed by hatreds arising often from spite, working secretly or violently as occasion might suggest by methods which the typical English gentleman and public-school boy are taught to dislike and avoid, Fisher was always regarded as the 'dark angel' of the Naval service."

"To be a 'Fisherite' or, as the Navy called it, to be in 'the Fish pond' was during his tenure of power an indispensible requisite for preferment."

"I knew his weakness as well as his strength. I understood his extravagances as much as I admired his genius. In sheer intellect he stood head and shoulders above his naval fellows."

"I went the whole hog, totus porcus."

"thumb|O.M.G. (Oh! My God) - Letter to Winston Churchill|Churchill, 9 Sept 1917We want brave men! ANY BLOODY FOOL CAN OBEY ORDERS!"

"Can the Army win the war before the Navy loses it?"

"D-mn the Dardanelles! they'll be our grave!"

"O.M.G. - Oh! My God!"

"If any subordinate opposes me, I will make his wife a widow, his children fatherless and his home a dunghill."

"Length of course depends on the stupidity of the class..."

"Those who rise in peace are men of formality and routine, cautious, inoffensive...Hawke represented the spirit of war, the ardour, the swift initiative, the readiness of resource, the impatience of prescription and routine, without which no great things are done!"

"...Jellicoe had all the Nelsonic attributes except one - he is totally wanting in the great gift of Insubordination. Nelson's greatest achievements were all solely due to his disobeying orders!..... Any fool can obey orders! But it required a Nelson to disobey Sir John Jervis at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, to disregard the order to retire at Copenhagen, to go into the Battle of the Nile by night with no charts against orders, and, to crown all, to enter into the Battle of Trafalgar in a battle formation contrary to all the Sea orders of the time! BLESS HIM! Alas! Jellicoe is saturated with Discipline!"

"We left our element, the sea, to make ourselves into a conscript nation fighting on the Continent with four million soldiers out of a population of forty millions."

"We are an Island. Every soldier that wants to go anywhere out of England - a sailor has got to carry him there on his back."

""Tact" is insulting a man without his knowing it."

"Even a man's faults may reflect his virtues."

"I thought it would be a good thing to be a missionary, but I thought it would be better to be First Sea Lord."

"Hit first! Hit hard! Keep on hitting!! (The 3 H's)"

"The 3 Requisites for Success - Ruthless, Relentless, Remorseless (The 3 R's)"

"Never Deny : Never Explain : Never Apologise"

"The best scale for an experiment is 12 inches to the foot."

"EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL.... Nature is no respecter of birth or money power when she lavishes her mental and physical gifts. We fight God when our Social System dooms the brilliant clever child of a poor man to the same level as his father."

"The Essence of War is Violence. Moderation in War is Imbecility."

"...and you may sleep quietly in your beds."

"As age increases, audacity leaks out and caution comes in."

"The Frontiers of England are the Coasts of the Enemy."

"It is an historical fact that the British Navy stubbornly resists change."

"The Submarine will be the Battleship of the future!"

"It is very silly indeed to build vessels of War so strong as to last a hundred years. They are obsolete in less than ten years."

"When by-and-by the Chinese know their power, they hae only to walk slowly westwards and, like the locusts in Egypt, no Pharaohs in Europe with all their mighty boats will stop them. They won't want to fire guns or bombs. They'll just all walk along and smother Europe. (Richard Hough, First Sea Lord, p. 35)"

"To tell you the truth this is another proof that Fisher's intellectual flaws are on the same great scale as his intellectual virtues. I told you his proposal about the German fleet at Kiel [to "Copenhagen" it]. It was no use of paradox nor said to shock. He meant it."

"But it does so happen that at the very moment when the changed conditions of naval sea-power rendered administrative revolution necessary, in Sir John Fisher was found a man of genius peculiarly fitted to aid in its execution."

"Favouritism was the secret of our efficiency in the old days and got us young Admirals.....Going by seniority saves so much trouble. Buggins's turn has been our ruin and will be disastrous hereafter!"

"Big risks bring big success!"

"The luxuries of the present are the necessities of the future. Our grandfathers never had a bath-room...."

"Sea fighting is pure common sense. The first of all its necessities is SPEED, so as to be able to fight--When you like, Where you like, and How you like."

"Favouritism is the secret of efficiency"

"The humanising of war? You might as well talk about the humanizing of Hell!...... The essence of war is violence! Moderation in war is imbecility!..... I am not for war, I am for peace! That is why I am for a supreme Navy....... The supremacy of the British Navy is the best security for peace in the world...... If you rub it in both at home and abroad that you are ready for instant war.....and intend to be first in and hit your enemy in the belly and kick him when he is down and boil your prisoners in oil (if you take any), and torture his women and children, then people will keep clear of you."