Navy Quotes

Of all the branches of men in the forces there is none which shows more devotion and faces grimmer perils than the submariners.

The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.

The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy and the lash.

Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.

The ship was masted according to the proportion of the navy; but on my application the masts were shortened, as I thought them too much for her, considering the nature of the voyage.

Two weeks before the attack on the USS Cole and then again two days before the attack, they saw through their analysis that a major event was going to occur in Yemen. They told the Navy not to bring the Cole into Yemen harbor. It went in and was attacked.

Without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive.

It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.

The U.S.'s major strength factor and weapon is its economy. If you cripple it, you cripple the military.

Any commander who fails to exceed his authority is not of much use to his subordinates.

The Navy credits me with more kills as a sniper than any other American service member, past or present.

And then, when I left Princeton in the middle of my sophomore year, I went into the navy.

You may fire when you are ready Gridley.

Obviously I was challenged by becoming a Naval aviator, by landing aboard aircraft carriers and so on.

The reason that the American Navy does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the Americans practice chaos on a daily basis.

Now, you mummy's darlings, get a rift on them boots. Definitely shine em, my little curly-headed lambs, for in our mob, war or no war, you die with clean boots on.

The greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes.

I don't have any delusions. I don't think I would make it through Navy SEAL training.

A captured pirate was brought before Alexander the Great. “How dare you molest the sea?” asked Alexander. “How dare you molest the whole world?” the pirate replied, and continued: “Because I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief; you, doing it with a great navy, are called an emperor.

Making the world safe for hypocrisy.

If you are to use Alexander Graham Bell’s product, which is to say the blower, you should, in all courtesy, use it as he would have wished; and Dr Bell insisted that all phone calls should begin with the words ‘Ahoy, ahoy’. Nobody knows why he insisted this – he had no connection to the navy – but insist he did and started every phone call that way. Nobody else did, and it was at the suggestion of his great rival Edison that people took to saying ‘Hello’. This seems unfair.

A good Navy is not a provocation to war. It is the surest guaranty of peace.

The difference between a good and great officer is about ten seconds.

Strike fast, strike hard, strike often.

The army is the true nobility of our country.