"The standing armies, while a burden on the people, are inadequate for the achievement of great and decisive results in war, and meanwhile the mass of the people, untrained in arms, degenerates....The hegemony over Europe will fall to that nation which...becomes possessed of manly virtues and creates a national army."

"Les hommes font les lois. Les femmes font les mœurs."

"I must inform your excellencies how the Duke of Burgundy came with all pomp for his coronation as king of the kingdom of Burgundy and Friesland with twenty-six standards besides a magnificent sceptre and crown. He also wished to take his duchy and territories in Savoy and Guelders and others in fief from him [the emperor] and not from the empire."

"Iesu Christi, quem Chrotchildis praedicat esse filium Dei vivi, qui dare auxilium laborantibus victuriamque in te sperantibus tribuere diceris, tuae opis gloriam devotus efflagito, ut, si mihi victuriam super hos hostes indulseris et expertus fuero illam virtutem, quam de te populus tuo nomine dicatus probasse se praedicat, credam tibi et in nomine tuo baptizer. Invocavi enim deos meos, sed, ut experior, elongati sunt ab auxilio meo; unde credo, eos nullius esse potestatis praeditos, qui sibi oboedientibus non occurrunt. Te nunc invoco, tibi credere desidero, tantum ut eruar ab adversariis meis."

"He was, in the nineteenth century, a superb type of the valiant knight, devoted heart and soul to the defence of the pope's temporal sovereignty, and consecrated himself to that cause in the same spirit which actuated the Crusades of the Middle Ages."

"The constable, Raoul de Nesle, proposed a manœuvre by which the Flemings would have been turned, and cut off from Courtrai. But the king's cousin, the Count d'Artois, who commanded the army, brutally asked him, "Are you afraid of these rabbits, or have you any of their skin about you?" The constable, who had married one of the count of Flanders' daughters, felt the insult, and haughtily answered, "If your highness will ride even with me to-day, you will ride far enough!""

"Silence! Voilá l’ennemi!"

"Que d'eau! Que d'eau!"

"Fièvre typhoide? Mauvaise affaire, très mauvaise affaire! Un homme en meurt, ou il reste idiot pour le reste de sa vie. J'en sais quelque chose. J'ai eu la fièvre typhoide en Algérie."

"J'y suis, et j'y reste."

"C'est vous le negre? Très bien. Continuez, mon ami, continuez!"

"Ha belle blonde Au cors si gent Perle du monde Que j'aime tant!"

"And now I salute thee with awe, with veneration, and wonder, ancient India, of whom I am the adept, the India of the highest splendor of art and philosophy. May thy awakening astonish the Occident, decadent, mean, daily dwindling, slayer of nations, slayer of Gods, slayer of souls, which yet bows down still, ancient India, before the prodigies of thy primordial conceptions!"

"Meteor-like, his orbit was swift and brilliant; also like a meteor, he was to disappear without trace. In the rapidity of his early promotion he resembled Pétain, but no further. He was an out-and-out Grandmaisonite, and like Foch he believed that victory was purely a matter of moral force. ... [T]he supreme attribute of Nivelle—cultured, courteous, suave and eloquent—was his ability to handle the politicians. His allure seems to have been almost hypnotic."

"Good impression; clear eyes which look you in the face, neat and precise thoughts, no bluff in his speech, good sense dominates everything."

"Here is a chief in the Latin sense of the word, that is to say une tête ... confident hope rings a carillon of bells in our hearts."

"[Nivelle was] not only a rash commander, he was representative of the national temperament. This is the reason that he was blindly followed."

"Ils ne passeront pas! [They shall not pass!]"

"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."

"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."

"A fanfaron plein d'honneur."

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

"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!""

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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 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."

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

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

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

"Oh, no! It is impossible. War is a kind of game, and has its fixed rules, whereby, when we are well acquainted with them, we can pretty correctly tell how the trial will go. Tomorrow it seems, the die is to be cast, and, in my judgement, without the least chance on our side. The militia will, I suppose as usual, play the back game. That is, get out of battle as fast as their legs will carry them. But that, you know, won't do for me. I am an old soldier, and cannot run, and I believe I have some brave fellows that will stand by me to the last. So, when you hear of our battle, you will probably hear that your old friend, De Kalb, is at rest."

"It is with equal regret, my dear sirs, that I part with you. Because I feel a presentiment that we part to meet no more."

"Well, sir. Perhaps a few hours will show who are the brave."

"On the whole, I have annoyances to bear, of which you can hardly form a conception. One of them is the mutual jealousy of almost all the French officers, particularly against those of higher rank than the rest. These people think of nothing but their incessant intrigues and backbitings. They hate each other like the bitterest enemies, and endeavor to injure each other wherever an opportunity offers. I have given up their society, and very seldom see them. La Fayette is the sole exception; I always meet him with the same cordiality and the same pleasure. He is an excellent young man, and we are good friends... La Fayette is much liked, he is on the best of terms with Washington."

"No! No! Gentlemen, no emotion for me. But, those of congratulation. I am happy. To die is the irreversible decree of him who made us. Then what joy to be able to meet death without dismay. This, thank God, is my case. The happiness of man is my wish, that happiness I deem inconsistent with slavery, and to avert so great an evil from an innocent people, I will gladly meet the British tomorrow, at any odds whatever."

"I thank you sir for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for, the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man."

"Save the Baron de Kalb! Save the Baron de Kalb!"

"Kalb was thus attacked on all sides, but remained during the whole encounter, fighting bravely to the last. Bareheaded and dismounted, with sword in hand, he engaged in one personal encounter after another, encouraging his men with his voice as well as his example, till he had received eleven wounds."

"De Kalb died, as he had lived, the unconquered friend of liberty."