War Quotes

"Caesar was a clod. But he got one thing right: war gives the right to the conquerors to impose any condition they please upon the vanquished."

"All of a man’s affairs become diseased when he wishes to cure evils by evils. For order, I impaled soldiers. For liberty, you drowned cities. The victor writes history with the blood of the vanquished. I wonder, in the end, which of us will turn out the hero? Don’t you?"

"I look into their faces. Not a man or woman amongst them expects to survive the hour. But as the waiting has ended, so too has the fear. Not one quibbles or shies from duty. I could not be prouder."

"My heart is buried with my army in those sands. But my body trudges on, as it does, no matter the ruin it leaves in its wake."

"Even if I loathe war, my body thrills to its rituals like a drunk hearing the clink of ice into a whiskey tumbler."

"Starvation is a slow boil. The pan is set. The burner is on."

"In rapture, behind a ghost’s guise, I witnessed your rage against the Grimmus horde. As your army fell man by man in crossing the Ladon, I wept. For their purity. For their faith. Surely, since the age of Merrywater, no nobler soldiers have ever lived or died for their commander. Always on the back foot. Biting, gnawing for every inch of ground. Smashing the rising beast Ajax against the walls of Heliopolis. Truly, they were sons and daughters of Mars.” He touches his breast. “Respect."

"We have a fleet. We have weapons, but we do not have a general. It is time for you to fill your father’s helm. Come be our god of war."

"Mother, your inheritance was guilt. Father’s was surrender. Because of you, because of Father, mine is struggle. That is better than guilt. It is better than surrender. I do not blame you. I thank you. You never pretended the world wasn’t broken, even when a broken world favored you.“ He takes my hands. “I think…if love is anything, it is truth. If life is anything, it is struggle. You taught me that. Father taught me my life is not my own, not unless we win. So, do not come back here. Do not think of me. Fix your gaze on our enemies. Fix your heart on the struggle. And win."

"I fought in the Rat War. It was my least favorite theater. Ever."

"when it comes to breaking a planet, it takes tonnage, Newtons, manpower, and a strong stomach—most of your men will die. Why do you think Darrow and I are the only assholes who take planets?"

"War requires monstrous deeds! If you cannot be a monster, then get out of the way!"

"amputations on the field are best done without consulting the patient."

"Honor, dipshit. The Rim and Cassius have something in common. They’re new to this war. They don’t know what we know. Honor, if it ever existed, was the first casualty."

"Lysander, this is how it has always been. The vaunted past we so revere saw thousands of cities fall to thousands of armies. Periods of trauma are traded for periods of peace. The greater the trauma, the longer the peace. Bear it, and this year will be the last year you see war in your lifetime."