We saw the children and the women with their babies and then I heard the poouff — the flame had broken through the thatched roof and there was a yell….

The great Chinese classics have always said that it's better not to fight; that the clever man achieves his ends without violence; that a battle dela….

It's commonly said that people who've been ill in childhood and who've had an upset education never really regret that they do. It means that you don….

The written history of the world is largely a history of warfare, because the states within which we live came into existence largely through conques….

The leader of men in warfare can show himself to his followers only through a mask, a mask that he must make for himself, but a mask made in such for….

I think to be shot in a mountain valley somewhere or other is altogether less glorious than crashing an airliner into a skyscraper..

I think that black Africa is extremely terrifying. Black Africa can become a maelstrom of warring tribes without the outside world needing to feel th….

Good men who exercise power are really the most fascinating of all people..

Of whatever class or nation, however, all successful participants in the repetitive and unrelenting stress of aerial fighting came eventually to disp….

Well, if they are trying to kill you, on the whole they're the people you have to kill, aren't they?.

I don't think that what's going on in Bosnia is political activity. It's partly political, but it's partly atavistic as well..

The Second World War is the largest single event in human history, fought across six of the world's seven continents and all it oceans. It killed 50 ….

The revival of Islam dates from the early years of the 20th century. It was brought about by their humiliation, by their sense of how low they'd fall….

We forget today that Britain still depends for its livelihood and, indeed, its day-to-day survival, on the sea. But the Royal Navy is now pitifully s….

The historian ought to be an educated person, writing for other educated people about something which they don't know about, but wish to know about i….

Soldiers, when committed to a task, can't compromise. It's unrelenting devotion to the standards of duty and courage, absolute loyalty to others, not….

Slavery in the modern world implies the absolute deprivation of the individual's liberty, while possession of weapons and mastery of their use are me….

I don't look to find an educated person in the ranks of university graduates, necessarily. Some of the most educated people I know have never been ne….

The Islam of the 18th, 19th and first half of the 20th century was a poor thing. Nobody bothered about it. Islam was that funny sort of pure system o….

A civilised man is someone who has discovered something more satisfying than combat..

The great men of power who seek to change the nations they belong to usually are pretty terrible people..