"Just because you have been beaten by Wellington, you think he is a good general. I tell you that Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad troops and this affair is no more than eating breakfast."
— Napoléon Bonaparte to one of his marshals just before the Battle of Waterloo
"You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees."
— Kaiser Wilhelm II to Germany's soldiers, 1914
"Months earlier, when Siétamo was taken, the general commanding the Government troops had said gaily: 'Tomorrow we'll have coffee in Huesca.' It turned out that he was mistaken. There had been bloody attacks, but the town did not fall, and 'Tomorrow we'll have coffee in Huesca' became a standing joke throughout the army. If I ever go back to Spain I shall make a point of having a cup of coffee in Huesca."
The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.
— Robert Wilson Lynd
"We've won just enough territory to bury our dead."
— Red Army joke upon the conclusion of the Winter War, which was predicted to last two weeks.
"All we have to do is kick in the door, and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down."
— Adolf Hitler, shortly before the commencement of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.
George: Right! Bravo-issimo! Well, let's make a start eh, up and over to glory! Last one to Berlin's a rotten egg!
Blackadder: Give me your helmet, lieutenant.
[George does so. Blackadder throws it above the trench line, machine gun fire almost completely decimates it, it falls back into Blackadder's hands]
Blackadder: Give me your helmet, lieutenant.
[George does so. Blackadder throws it above the trench line, machine gun fire almost completely decimates it, it falls back into Blackadder's hands]
— Blackadder goes Forth, set during WWI.
"Tonight we will water our horses in the Tennessee River!"
— Albert Sidney Johnston to Confederate troops before the Battle of Shiloh, April 6th, 1862, in which Johnston was killed.
"When do you suppose the war will start?" he said. "I notice your husbands aren't here tonight?"
"Oh, they come and go, come and go," said Mrs. Phelps. "In again out again Finnegan, the Army called Pete yesterday. He'll be back next week. The Army said so. Quick war. Forty-eight hours they said, and everyone home. That's what the Army said. Quick war. Pete was called yesterday and they said he'd be, back next week. Quick..."
"Oh, they come and go, come and go," said Mrs. Phelps. "In again out again Finnegan, the Army called Pete yesterday. He'll be back next week. The Army said so. Quick war. Forty-eight hours they said, and everyone home. That's what the Army said. Quick war. Pete was called yesterday and they said he'd be, back next week. Quick..."
"Mark my words, the Imperial banner will be flying above Summerholm by midsummer."
— Dread Empress Regalia II, shortly before initiating the Sixty Years War, A Practical Guide to Evil
"The plan, like so many plans in so many wars before it, was meant to end the fighting by Christmas, and bring the boys back home."
— Opening narration of A Bridge Too Far, describing Operation Market Garden
Ernest Shackleton: Tell me, when was the war over?
Mr. Sorlle: The war is not over. Millions are being killed. Europe is mad. The world is mad.
Mr. Sorlle: The war is not over. Millions are being killed. Europe is mad. The world is mad.
— Ernest Shackleton, who departed Britain for Antarctica in August 1914, to the manager of a South Georgia Island whaling station in May 1916, after traveling across the South Atlantic without any news of the outside world for a year and a half.
"We have just started a war, it isn't a one day affair. It is not going to be over before the next commercial break."
— Colin Powell, then serving as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explaining the timeframe for the Gulf War
. It actually lasted four days.
. It actually lasted four days.