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To stand on the firing parapet and expose yourself to danger; to stand and fight a thousand miles from home when you’re all alone and outnumbered and probably beaten; to spit on your hands and lower the pike; to stand fast over the body of Leonidas the King; to be rear guard at Kunu-Ri; to stand and be still to the Birkenhead Drill; these are not rational acts. They are often merely necessary.

— Jerry Pournelle There Will Be War (1983)

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More quotes by Jerry Pournelle

If there aren't any whaling ships, then whales may survive. Anything short of that is so much hot air.

Of course most people underestimate the warrior characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman peoples anyway. It takes a heap of piety to keep a Viking from wanting to go sack a city.

I thought MAD was truly insane when we first adopted it, and I haven't changed my opinion.

In any ethical situation, the thing you want least to do is probably the right action.

Lucifer's Hammer (1985)

The importance of information is directly proportional to its improbability.

Lucifer's Hammer (1985)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jerry Pournelle (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.