Best Quotes from August 1914 by Barbara W. Tuchman with Page Numbers

So gorgeous was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII of England that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration.

The sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.

He had come to bury Edward his bane; Edward the arch plotter, as William conceived it, of Germany’s encirclement.

Seldom has such a complete change of attitude been seen as that which has taken place in this country.

In the nine short years of his reign England’s splendid isolation had given way, under pressure, to a series of 'understandings' or attachments.

He had said to Napoleon III: 'You have a nice country. I would like to be your son.'

Old antagonisms were not so strong as new pressures.

No nation would be so foolish as to start one.

There can be no standing still; nations must progress or decay.

They shook the 'mailed fist,' demanded their 'place in the sun,' and proclaimed the virtues of the sword in paeans to 'blood and iron' and 'shining armor.'

"The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris."

"It is better to lose a province than split the forces with which one seeks victory."

"Gradual reduction of the enemy, or a war of attrition, he feared like the pit of hell."

"But the principles of strategy remain unchanged."

"Character is fate, the Greeks believed."

"The one that willed war more than the other could not help but will the violation of Belgian neutrality."

"Success alone justifies war."

"To speed an early decision was essential. Time counted above all else."

"Only make the right wing strong."

"We must put aside all commonplaces as to the responsibility of the aggressor."

“We’ll cut them in half!” he declared.

“N’en parlez jamais; pensez-y toujours” (Never speak of it; think of it always) had counseled Gambetta.

“France will have but one thought: to reconstitute her forces, gather her energy, nourish her sacred anger, raise her young generation to form an army of the whole people, to work without cease, to study the methods and skills of our enemies, to become again a great France, the France of 1792, the France of an idea with a sword. Then one day she will be irresistible.”

“The will to conquer is the first condition of victory.”

“Victoire c’est la volonte.” (Victory is the will.)

“A battle won is a battle in which one will not confess oneself beaten.”

“What is the essence of the problem?”

“Defeat is inevitable as soon as the hope of conquering ceases to exist. Success comes not to him who has suffered the least but to him whose will is firmest and morale strongest.”

“Vous devez apprendre a penser.” (You must learn to think.)

“The offensive alone is suited to the temperament of French soldiers.”

"Like everyone else I had come to Paris at nine o’clock on that morning... a new period had begun in the history of my life, in the history of this country, in the history of the world."

"Important question! But it is vital! There is no other."

"What is the smallest British military force that would be of any practical assistance to you?"

"A single British soldier—and we will see to it that he is killed."

"Their new Secretary for War... replied, 'A Hegelian army.'"

"France has always supposed so, but has never received an official assurance."

"I thought, from my study of the German General Staff, that once the German war party had got into the saddle, it would be war not merely for the overthrow of France or Russia but for the domination of the world."

"The overwhelming supremacy of the British Navy... is the only thing to keep the German Army out of Paris..."

"The conversation then fell off."

"There is no record what Asquith replied or what... he thought on this crucial question."

“The Russian colossus exercised a spell upon Europe.”

“Notwithstanding her shoddy performance in the war against Japan, thought of the Russian ‘steam roller’ gave comfort and encouragement to France and Britain.”

“A myth of its invincibility prevailed.”

“Its numbers inspired awe: 1,423,000 in peacetime strength; an additional 3,115,000 to be called upon mobilization.”

“It was envisaged as a gigantic mass, initially lethargic, but once thoroughly roused into motion, rolling forward inexorably.”

“The spirit in St. Petersburg was bold and willing.”

“The objective for both of us ought to be Berlin.”

“The problem was to get Russia to launch an offensive upon Germany’s rear at the same time as the Germans and French launched theirs.”

“Even if only half the 800,000 Russian troops promised for the German front could be put in position by the fifteenth day... the effect of their invasion of German territory was expected to be momentous.”

“In those days everyone was in poor health.”

"I hate the Slavs," he confessed to an Austrian officer. "I know it is a sin to do so. We ought not to hate anyone. But I can’t help hating them."

"If the iron dice roll, may God help us."

"The world will be engulfed in the most terrible of wars, the ultimate aim of which is the ruin of Germany."

"We have run our heads into the noose...."

"Now we can go to war against Russia only. We simply march the whole of our Army to the East!"

"Your Majesty, it cannot be done. The deployment of millions cannot be improvised."

"Something in me broke and I was never the same thereafter."

"Your honor was not involved. But there is a divine justice."

"I will not sign it. Do what you want with this telegram."

"It must be stopped, stopped at once. But how?"

The physical act and moral odium of aggression must be left squarely upon Germany.

Withdrawal was a bitter gesture to ask of a French Commander in Chief schooled in the doctrine of offensive and nothing but the offensive.

Character begets power, especially in hours of crisis.

In that most passionately political and quarrelsome of countries one sentiment thereupon prevailed. 'Vive la France!'

The act of withdrawal... was taking a chance 'never before taken in history'.

Conscious of the gigantic and infinite results to spread from that little piece of paper, all four of us felt our hearts tighten.

Honor wears different coats to different eyes.

If Germany dominated the Continent it would be disagreeable to us as well as to others, for we should be isolated.

The average patriot had already used up his normal supply of excitement and indignation in the current Irish crisis.

If it was the prime objective of France to enter war with Britain as an ally, it was a prime necessity for Britain to enter war with a united government.

"Your neighbor's roof may catch fire but your own house will be safe."

"If we are to be crushed, let us be crushed gloriously."

"Our answer must be 'No,' whatever the consequences. Our duty is to defend our territorial integrity. In this we must not fail."

"I am sure it will turn out all right."

"If Belgium opposed Germany's passage through her territory, she would be regarded as an enemy, and future relations with her would be left to 'the decision of arms.'"

"Understanding perfectly your country’s position... I shall never place her in a false position."

"When he speaks the King always looks as if he wished to build something."

"We are resolved to declare war at once upon any power that deliberately violates our territory."

"If Germany is victorious, Belgium, whatever her attitude, will be annexed to the German Empire."

"Let us not allow ourselves any illusions: the consequences would be grave and terrible; the enemy would be ruthless."

No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard and fast and specific decision.

In France war came and was accepted as a kind of national fate, however deeply a part of the people would have preferred to avoid it.

Belgium...took less than three hours to make her decision, knowing it might be mortal.

The method was plain; the muddle was in the British mind.

Half in despair but yet in hope...nations do not wage war 'by halves.'

Grey...must present Belgium as the cause without hiding France as the basic cause.

I do not believe for a moment that, at the end of this war, even if we stood aside, we should be able to undo what had happened.

The occasions when an individual is able to harness a nation are memorable, and Grey’s speech proved to be one of those junctures.

The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.

Whatever our lot may be, August 4, 1914, will remain for all eternity one of Germany’s greatest days!

The fateful moment came with the speed of time, where every decision would echo through history.

Some are made bold by the moment, some irresolute, some carefully judicious, some paralyzed and powerless to act.

Unwilling to turn back without, as he wrote, 'tasting that moment of fire so ardently desired by us all!'

Expecting to be pursued, Admiral Souchon deliberately chose to leave while it was still light.

Their chances of breaking through the Allied screen depended upon their speed, and this depended in turn upon the boilers.

His command consisted of two fast new ships, but one man's fleet can become a harbinger of fate.

The naval battles were not merely contests of ships; they were the manifestation of political will and ambition.

He ordered steam up for departure at five o’clock. All on board as well as on shore knew the Goeben and Breslau were preparing to run a gauntlet against heavy odds.

In waiting for the perfect moment, opportunities may slip through one's fingers like sand.

The cutting off of Russia with all its consequences followed from the voyage of the Goeben.

"The will to defend the country outran the means."

"The impetus of existing plans is always stronger than the impulse to change."

"She has won 'immortal renown' by shattering the superstition that the German armies are invincible..."

"Their own government... had already distributed notices... warning that if caught with arms by the Germans they might be subject to the death penalty."

"The spirit of resistance... was barely awake that first morning among the inhabitants of the frontier towns."

"His steadfastness... did not seem entirely believable even to his Allies."

"What Belgium gave the Allies was neither two days nor two weeks but a cause and an example."

"The method was as fruitless as the long-range bombardment of Paris..."

"The idea that the forts could not be taken became an article of faith. We shall see...."

"The glorious victory... heralded by happy correspondents in Brussels as the decisive battle of the war..."

"We must be prepared to put armies of millions in the field and maintain them for several years."

"To fight and win a European war, Britain must have an army of seventy divisions, equal to the continental armies."

"The Regular Army with its professional officers... he considered to be precious and indispensable as a nucleus for training the larger force he had in mind."

"To throw it away in immediate battle under what he expected to be unfavorable circumstances... he regarded as criminal folly."

"Ever since Khartoum the country had felt an almost religious faith in Kitchener."

"For England to have gone to war without Kitchener would have been as unthinkable as Sunday without church."

"Kitchener’s presence was indispensable 'to tranquilize public feeling.'"

"...the best-trained, best organized and best-equipped British Army that ever went forth to war."

"The happiness of the welcome gave point to Lord Kitchener’s dampening notice to his troops that they might expect to 'find temptations, both in wine and women,' which they must 'entirely resist.'"

"...the British Army was marching with peasants’ tweed caps on their heads and their trousers held up by string."

What gives the French Army its force is the lightness of its cannon.

The essence of the plan was to let the enemy in this sector come on as he showed every disposition to do and, while tempting him into a tactical victory, inflict upon him a strategic defeat.

In the hour when the trumpets sounded, when his fellow commanders were advancing to victory, it required Rupprecht to accept obediently the necessity of withdrawal.

Erect and good-looking in a disciplined way, with straightforward eyes and a sensible mustache.

At every rise in the road they could see great distances over the checkerboard of fields.

Confidence soared; offensive a entrance appeared to have triumphed; the troops exulted and saw themselves on the Rhine.

My inquietude increased from hour to hour.

The regiment of Sambre and Meuse marched to the cry of Liberty!

What dictated Order No. 13 was GQG’s fixed determination to carry through Plan 17, the bearer of all its hopes for victory.

In the best opinion of GQG the German units west of the Meuse were merely a 'screen.'

"We will continue, gentlemen."

"The power of the defense that was to transform the initial war of movement into a four-year war of position revealed itself at Morhange."

"As long as the Fifth Army lives, France is not lost."

"The evil is reparable."

"The French Army henceforth knows no law but the offensive... the offensive alone leads to positive results."

"There is only one way of defending ourselves—to attack as soon as we are ready."

"The moment had come to move fast, not hesitate."

"We have been beaten but the enemy threatens my right on the Meuse."

"In the dark morning of August 1914... the retreat began."

"The sense of urgency and responsibility...was paramount as the situation grew more perilous."

"Our proper objective is the annihilation of the German army;" he assured the French that he considered operations against Austria as "secondary" and that he had ordered the Grand Duke "at all costs to open the way to Berlin at the earliest possible moment."

"Firm in the conviction of victory," he telegraphed, he would march against the enemy bearing alongside his own standard the flag of the French Republic."

"Tears came even to the most bold and resolute."

"Gentlemen, no stealing."

"It had taken an extra week to straighten out the confusion."

"But never since the dawn of history has a country in time of war renounced the principal source of its revenue."

"The essence of the problem, as the Grand Duke once confessed, was that in an empire as vast as Russia when an order was given no one was ever sure whether it had been delivered."

"The cry 'Kosaken kommen!' (The Cossacks are coming!) echoing out of East Prussia weakened Germany's resolve to leave the province with only a minimum defense."

"He had earned a reputation for boldness, decisiveness, and tactical skill during service in the Boxer Rebellion."

"It requires exceptional vigor on the part of a commander to see and feel beyond the present moment and to act at once to attain those results which at the time seem to be the mere embellishments of victory— the luxury of triumph."

“If the order is given, of course I shall attack but my troops will be obliged to fight with the bayonet.”

“The enemy has luck one day, we will have luck another.”

“You alone will save us.”

“The Czar trusted me. How can I face him after such a disaster?”

“I will not allow General Samsonov to play the coward.”

“In God’s name, issue orders for gathering up the rifles.”

“We had an ally,” he said, “the enemy, We knew all the enemy’s plans.”

“The saving factor... was the ‘great victory’ on the French frontiers.”

“I wish you happier days.”

“The widely circulated report of Russians driven into the marshes and perishing there is a myth.”

He who writes this book in which hate is not hidden was formerly a pacifist.... For him no disillusionment was ever greater or more sudden.

Those deterrents—the brotherhood of socialists, the interlocking of finance, commerce, and other economic factors—which had been expected to make war impossible failed to function when the time came.

Now God be thanked who has matched us with His hour.

Honour has come back...And Nobleness walks in our ways again.

The war was to be, wrote Thomas Mann, 'a purification, a liberation, an enormous hope.'

The enemy...was German imperialism and militarism, 'the monstrous vanity begotten in 1870.'

Out of them would come...the moral regeneration of Europe.

The world must have received the news with horror.

The burning of the Library...meant war not only on noncombatants 'but on posterity to the utmost generation.'

The deeper both belligerents sank into war and the more lives and treasure they spent, the more determined they became to emerge with some compensating gain.

RlSK WAS THE LEAST FAVORITE CONCEPT OF THE British Admiralty in 1914.

Fear of the unknown but certainly bellicose intentions of the enemy... made for a highly sensitive state of British naval nerves.

The whole principle of naval fighting... is to be free to go anywhere with every damned thing the Navy possesses.

If the Germans had launched a naval offensive at this time, it might have obtained startling results.

Between bouts of nerves... the British Navy set about its business of laying down a blockade.

A government can be neutral, but no man can be.

Wilson... saw in the war an opportunity for greatness on the world stage.

To have battle and spilled blood... would make an arrangement between Germany and England difficult if not impossible.

The navy, whose existence had been a chief factor in bringing on the war, had no active role designed for it when war came.

Once the challenge had been made, British hostility could fairly be expected.

"Resume the offensive" was the dominant thought at GQG.

Though defeated in the offensive, they were not a routed army; their line, though dangerously pierced, was not yet broken.

In retreat the French fought with competence and emergency-learned skills that had not always been present during the opening battles in Belgium.

They fought now as the First and Second Armies were fighting for the Moselle and the Grand Couronne.

We will fight again and show the Germans we have teeth and claws.

My men recovered their spirits. They found a system of trenches dug by the infantry which they examined with the greatest curiosity as if they were sights offered for the admiration of the tourist.

The necessity to hold off pursuit and gain time to regroup and reestablish a solid line gave an urgency to the fighting.

...the brave scream of their own 755. They grip their positions, waiting for the artillery duel to end.

...Joffre intended to make his stand as near as he could to the point of breakthrough.

The fate of the campaign is in your hands.

For one August in its history Paris was French—and silent.

He believed Poincare and Viviani did not want to tell the country the truth and suspected them of preparing a 'mummery' to deceive the people.

He conceived of the work to be done as tripartite: military defense, moral defense, and provisioning.

You cannot convince the jurists without a text.

He maintained an even tenor, a stolid control, what Foch called a 'wonderful calm' which held the French Army together in an hour when it most needed the cement of confidence.

Do you no longer believe in France? Go get some rest. You will see—everything will be all right.

The formation of an army of four or at least three corps to fight under his orders outside the city as the extreme left wing of the French line was 'indispensable.'

It would be an illusion to believe that the entrenched camp could offer a serious resistance if the enemy should appear in the next few days before our line of exterior forts.

It takes more courage to appear a coward and risk popular disfavor than to risk being killed.

‘C’est une fdonie!’ (It’s betrayal!) he shouted.

Without the certainty of early victory and a triumphal entry into Paris, they would fall exhausted and go to sleep where they fall.

A victory on the battlefield is of little account if it has not resulted either in breakthrough or encirclement.

To hold out and fight must now become the order of the day. We will obtain the final victory—by unfaltering will, by endurance, by tenacity—by refusing to perish.

The mission of the Sixth Army was 'to cover Paris.'

Every Frenchman had to be drawn into the fight for their very survival against the invader.

It is heartbreaking how little suspicion the high authorities have of the seriousness of the situation.

The shock to the public was all the greater since GQG’s policy of issuing only the least explicit communiques had left people uninformed.

Gallieni’s contempt for politicians was all-inclusive.

The end was in sight: victory was still possible, but only if action was taken.

They offer us their flank! They offer us their flank!

The time has come to profit by the adventurous position of the German First Army and concentrate against that army all efforts of the Allied Armies.

Troops at the end of their strength? No matter, they are Frenchmen and tired of retreating. The moment they hear the order to advance they will forget their fatigue.

It may be he had a great commander’s instinctive feel for his moment; it is more likely he felt France would not have another.

For the sake of the coming offensive... he must be replaced.

His decision to break off battle... had saved the French left wing.

Fear sometimes is wisdom.

The immediate requirement was to find out whether they could be made ready.

The worst that can happen is that the enemy may not be ready to meet us.

I cannot believe the British Army will refuse to do its share in this supreme crisis... history would severely judge your absence.

This is no longer the time for looking back. Every effort must be made to attack and throw back the enemy.