To kick it off, Henry V's speech to the mayor of Harfleur.

ACT III.
SCENE III.

Before the gates of Harfleur

Enter the GOVERNOR and some citizens on the walls. Enter the KING and all his train before the gates

KING HENRY.
   How yet resolves the Governor of the town?
   This is the latest parle we will admit;
   Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves
   Or, like to men proud of destruction,
   Defy us to our worst; for, as I am a soldier,
   A name that in my thoughts becomes me best,
   If I begin the batt'ry once again,
   I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
   Till in her ashes she lie buried.
   The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,
   And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart,
   In liberty of bloody hand shall range
   With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass
   Your fresh fair virgins and your flow'ring infants.
   What is it then to me if impious war,
   Array'd in flames, like to the prince of fiends,
   Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats
   Enlink'd to waste and desolation?
   What is't to me when you yourselves are cause,
   If your pure maidens fall into the hand
   Of hot and forcing violation?
   What rein can hold licentious wickednes
   When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
   We may as bootless spend our vain command
   Upon th' enraged soldiers in their spoil,
   As send precepts to the Leviathan
   To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
   Take pity of your town and of your people
   Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
   Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
   O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
   Of heady murder, spoil, and villainy.
   If not- why, in a moment look to see
   The blind and bloody with foul hand
   Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
   Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
   And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls;
   Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
   Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd
   Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
   At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
   What say you? Will you yield, and this avoid?
   Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?

GOVERNOR.
   Our expectation hath this day an end:
   The Dauphin, whom of succours we entreated,
   Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
   To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great King,
   We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.
   Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours;
   For we no longer are defensible.

The Branaugh version of Henry V has a slightly abridged version of this speech.  It's a great movie and I'd recommend it to anyone.  You guys got any more?

Frome the same (Henry V, Act iv. Scene 3)

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his
blood with me, Shall be my brother; be ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle
his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed, Shall think themselves
accursed they were not here, And hold their manhood's cheap whiles any
speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

“The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.”
-George Orwell-

Quoted: Frome the same (Henry V, Act iv. Scene 3) "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother; be ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed, Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhood's cheap whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

Great quote, that play is just amazing.  I really hope to see it perfomed live some day, hopefully at the Ashland, OR Shakespeare festival.

Anyone who clings to the historically untrue and thoroughly immoral doctrine that 'violence never settles anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence settled their fates quite nicely. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms. Dubois Starship Troopers Robert A. Heinlein

Oh, pardon me, you bleeding corpse, for speaking politely and acting mildly with these butchers! You are what’s left of the noblest man that ever lived. Pity the hand that shed this valuable blood. Over your wounds—which, like speechless mouths, open their red lips, as though to beg me to speak—I predict that a curse will fall upon the bodies of men. Domestic fury and fierce civil strife Shall cumber all the parts of Italy. Blood and destruction shall be so in use, And dreadful objects so familiar, That mothers shall but smile when they behold Their infants quartered with the hands of war, All pity choked with custom of fell deeds, And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge, With Ate by his side come hot from hell, Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war, That this foul deed shall smell above the earth With carrion men, groaning for burial. Antony Julius Caesar Act III, Scene 1

There were young knights among them who had never been present at a stricken field. Some could not look upon it, some could not speak. They held themselves apart from the others who were cutting down prisoners at my lord's orders, for the prisoners were a body too numerous to be guarded by those of us who were left. Then jean de rye, an aged knight of burgundy who had been sore wounded in the fight, rode up to the group of young knights and said: "are ye maidens with your downcast eyes? Look well upon it. See all of it. Close your eyes to nothing. For the battle is fought to be won, and this is what happens if you lose.

Don't know who it should be credited to...

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

                      - Emerson, Concord Hymn

"Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained."
Duke of Wellington

"War educates the senses, calls into action the will, perfects the physical constitution, brings men into such swift and close collision in critical moments that man measures man." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We're surrounded?  GREAT!  Now we know where they are!"
--Gen Lewis "Chesty" Puller (USMC)  

Goodnight Chesty, where ever you are...

Semper Fi!

"What if they held a war, and no one came? Why then, the war would come to you."
-Bertolt Brecht

Quoted: "What if they held a war, and no one came? Why then, the war would come to you." -Bertolt Brecht

My limerick on Brecht

There once was this guy Berthold Brecht
Who started a theatre sect
If you did what he said
And followed your head
Then everything'd come out correct.

It never got published... til now.

"Use humility to make the enemy haughty.  Tire them by flight.  Cause division among them.  When they are unprepared, attack and make your move when they do not expect it.  

--Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"