"In the absence of orders, go find something and kill it."
- Field Marshall Erwin Rommel
"Be an example to your men, in your duty and in private life. Never spare yourself, and let the troops see that you don't in your endurance of fatigue and privation. Always be tactful and well-mannered and teach your subordinates to do the same. Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice, which usually indicates the man who has shortcomings of his own to hide."
- Field Marshall Erwin Rommel
"One must not judge everyone in the world by his qualities as a soldier: otherwise we should have no civilization."
- Field Marshall Erwin Rommel
"I would rather he had given me one more division"
- Rommel, when Hitler made him a Field Marshall
"Romans not only easily conquered those who fought by cutting, but mocked them too. For the cut, even delivered with force, frequently does not kill, when the vital parts are protected by equipment and bone. On the contrary, a point brought to bear is fatal at two inches; for it is necessary that whatever vital parts it penetrates, it is immersed. Next, when a cut is delivered, the right arm and flank are exposed. However, the point is delivered with the cover of the body and wounds the enemy before he sees it.
... However, they are given that double-weight shield frame and foil, so that when the recruit takes up real, lighter weapons, as if freed from the heavier weight, he will fight in greater safety and faster. But when field training was ended through negligence and laxity, the equipment (which the soldiers seldom put on) began to be seen as heavy."
- Flavius Vegetius Renatus (in Epitoma Rei Militari)
"I have to follow them. I am their leader."
-Alexandre-Auguste Ledru-Rollin, Leader of the French Revolution of 1848
