A Quote by Montesquieu

The object of war is victory; that of victory is conquest; and that of conquest preservation.

Montesquieu

Quote Topics

War Conquest Object Preservation Victory

Quote Author

Montesquieu
French - Philosopher
January 18, 1689 - February 10, 1755

The object of war is victory, the object of victory is conquest, and the object of conquest is occupation.

Napoleon Bonaparte

The object of defense is preservation; and since it is easier to hold ground than to take it, defense is easier than attack. But defense has a passive purpose: preservation; and attack a positive one: conquest.... If defense is the stronger form of war, yet has a negative object, it follows that it should be used only so long as weakness compels, and be abandoned as soon as we are strong enough to pursue a positive object.

Carl von Clausewitz

War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war there is no substitute for victory.

Douglas MacArthur

Anticipation leads the way to victory, and is the spur to conquest.

Nicolas Chamfort

There's a double meaning in the film The Conquest. First, the conquest of power at the UMP party and how Sarkozy had to fight his colleagues inside the party so that it was him running for President. He wins the political conquest, but he loses the feminine conquest in that his wife leaves him. It's hard for a President to be single - that's never happened.

Xavier Durringer

Wars of aggression are popular nowadays with those nations convinced that only victory and conquest could improve their material well-being.

Ludwig von Mises

You ask, What is our policy? I will say; 'It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.' You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory-victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.

Winston Churchill

To renounce the conquest of power is voluntarily to leave the power with those who wield it, the exploiters. The essence of every revolution consisted and consists in putting a new class in power, thus enabling it to realize its own program in life. It is impossible to wage war and to reject victory.

Leon Trotsky

Survival is the key word to remember—not victory, not conquest, just survival.

Max Brooks

Yes, even amongst wiser militants, how many wounds have been given, and credits slain, for the poor victory of an opinion, or beggarly conquest of a distinction.

Thomas Browne

The olive branch has been consecrated to peace, palm branches to victory, the laurel to conquest and poetry, the myrtle to love and pleasure, the cypress to mourning, and the willow to despondency.

Dorothea Dix

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

Winston Churchill

Victory is the most important aspect in Iraq, because victory in Iraq will help us have victory in the War on Terror.

Andrew Card

It seems strangely difficult for some to realize that here in Asia is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest, and that we have joined the issue thus raised on the battlefield; that here we fight Europe's war with arms while the diplomats there still fight it with words; that if we lose the war to communism in Asia the fall of Europe is inevitable, win it and Europe most probably would avoid war and yet preserve freedom. As you pointed out, we must win. There is no substitute for victory.

Douglas MacArthur

The totalitarian attempt at global conquest and total domination has been the destructive way out of all impasses. Its victory may coincide with the destruction of humanity; wherever it has ruled, it has begun to destroy the essence of man.