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History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
Ronald Reagan Address to the Nation and Other Countries on United States-Soviet Relations · 1984

Strategy Quotations

“History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.”

Ronald Reagan · Address to the Nation and Other Countries on United States-Soviet Relations, 1984 · Primary source

“I am more afraid of our own blunders than of the enemy’s devices.”

Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War, 431 BC · Primary source

“The greatest danger of all would be to do nothing.”

John F. Kennedy · Address During The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 · Primary source

“The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon [Sparta], made war inevitable.”

Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War, 431 BC · Primary source

“Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied air forces in the Second World War.”

John F. Kennedy · Commencement address at American University, 1963 · Primary source

“We are both caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counterweapons.”

John F. Kennedy · Commencement address at American University, 1963 · Primary source

“For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.”

John F. Kennedy · Inaugural Address of President John F. Kennedy, 1961 · Primary source

“We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth—but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced.”

John F. Kennedy · Address During The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 · Primary source

“The main military purpose and scheme of the Dictators is to produce quick results, to avoid a prolonged war. A prolonged war never suits dictators.”

Winston Churchill · The Second World War, 1948-1953 · Primary source

“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today. It’s been that way all this year. It’s been that way so many times. All of this war is that way.”

Ernest Hemingway · For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940 · Primary source

“It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.”

John F. Kennedy · Address During The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 · Primary source

“Our first line of defence is the enemy’s port.”

Winston Churchill · The World Crisis, 1923-1931 · Primary source

“War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.”

Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War, 431 BC · Primary source

“The first rule of war is to concentrate superior strength for decisive action and to avoid division of force or engaging in detail.”

Winston Churchill · The World Crisis, 1923-1931 · Primary source

“But I must drop one word of caution; for, next to cowardice and treachery, overconfidence, leading to neglect or slothfulness, is the worst of martial crimes.”

Winston Churchill · Give us the tools, 1941 · Primary source

“There is no merit in putting off a war for a year if, when it comes, it is a far worse war or one much harder to win.”

Winston Churchill · The Second World War, 1948-1953 · Primary source

“There is no merit in putting off a war for a year if, when it comes, it is a far worse war or one much harder to win.”

Winston Churchill · The Second World War, 1948-1953 · Primary source

“Clausewitz’s first principle was to have a secure base. From there one proceeds to freedom of action.”

Ian Fleming · Dr. No, 1958 · Primary source

Explore the subcategory

Strategy

12 authors · 22 works · 34 themes · 72 tags
Authors
Benjamin Franklin American statesmanBill Gates American Entrepreneur and PhilanthropistWinston Churchill British prime minister
Works
High Output Management Andrew S. Grove · 1983Only the Paranoid Survive Andrew S. Grove · 1996Poor Richard’s Almanack Benjamin Franklin · 1732-1758
Themes
The cost of delaying confrontationTiming in strategic decisionsDeterrence
Tags
DeterrenceCold WarDecision-makingCuban Missile Crisis
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