65 Quotes by Andrew Roberts

We owe to the Jews,’ wrote Winston Churchill in 1920, ’a system of ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all wisdom and learning put together.

I am very happy to see the enemy wish to avoid our coming to him. – Napoleon.

As one Finn put it after the battle of Kuhmo, ‘There were more Russians than we had bullets.

Nations slaughter each other for family quarrels, cutting each other’s throats in the name of the Ruler of the Universe, knavish and greedy priests working on their imagination by means of their love of the marvellous and their fears.

If you would make war,′ he would say to to General d’Hedouville in December 1799, ’wage it with energy and severity; it is the only means of making it shorter and consequently less deplorable for mankind.

Men can be unjust towards me, my dear Junot,’ he wrote to his faithful aide-de-camp, ’but it suffices to be innocent; my conscience is the tribunal before which I call my conduct.

He appealed to the pride of those he would conquer but gave them no doubt as to the consequences of resistance. ‘The French army loves and respects all peoples, especially the simple and virtuous inhabitants of the mountains,’ read a proclamation to the Tyrolese that month. ‘But should you ignore your own interests and take up arms, we shall be terrible as the fire from heaven.

Rule one on page one of the book of war, is: “Do not march on Moscow.” ’ Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, House of Lords, May 1962.

When you make some great mistake,’ he philosophized, ’it may very easily serve you better than the best-advised decision.