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Ernest King Quotes

1878–1956 United States

United States
Aviators
Military leaders

Random Ernest King quote

37 quotes

Initiative means freedom to act, but it does not mean freedom to act in an offhand or casual manner.

CINCUS to Vandegrift for his flyers- Many happy returns Sunday and congratulations- Keep knocking them off.

Any man facing a major decision acts, consciously or otherwise, upon the training and beliefs of a lifetime.

Fleet Admiral King: A Naval Record (1952)

Machines are as nothing without men. Men are as nothing without morale.

Anyone who won't take a chance now and then isn't worth a damn.

I don't care how good they are. Unless they get a kick in the ass every six weeks, they'll slack off.

It is no easy matter in a global war to have the right materials in the right places at the right times in the right quantities.

U.S. Navy at War, 1941-1945: Official Reports to the Secretary of the Navy (1946)

Do the best you can with what you have.
Do not worry about water that has gone over the dam.
Difficulties exist to be overcome.

Fleet Admiral King: A Naval Record (1952)

War has changed little in principle from the beginning of recorded history. The mechanized warfare of today is only an evolution of the time when men fought with clubs and stones, and its machines are as nothing without the men who invent them, man them and give them life.

Fleet Admiral King: A Naval Record (1952)

To the Class of 1901, United States Naval Academy.

Fleet Admiral King: A Naval Record (1952)

In the last analysis, Russia will do nine-tenths of the job of defeating Germany.

There is work in plenty for all hands- officers and men.

While we contemplate with pride the accomplishments of the past twelve months- accomplishments without precedent in naval history- we must never forget that there is a long, tough and laborious road ahead.

U.S. Navy at War, 1941-1945: Official Reports to the Secretary of the Navy (1946)

The war has been variously termed a war of production and a war of machines. Whatever else it is, so far as the United States is concerned, it is a war of logistics.

U.S. Navy at War, 1941-1945: Official Reports to the Secretary of the Navy (1946)

Our days of victory are in the making.

Both in Europe and in the Pacific long roads still lie ahead. But we are now fully entered on those roads, fortified with unity, power, and experience, imbued with confidence and determined to travel far and fast to victory.

U.S. Navy at War, 1941-1945: Official Reports to the Secretary of the Navy (1946)

It must be the key idea of all hands that we will make the best of what we have.

No fighter ever won his fight by covering up- by merely fending off the other fellow's blows. The winner hits and keeps on hitting even though he has to take some stiff blows in order to be able to keep on hitting.

I don't know much about this thing called logistics. All I know is that I want some.

Don't tell them anything. When it's over, tell them who won.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Ernest King (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.