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The triumphs recently won by our Navy are largely to be attributed to the training which enabled us to garner the fruits of the fighting. If then we infer the future from the past, we recognize that though war may ceases we can not abandon ourselves to ease and rest.

— Tōgō Heihachirō Remarks by Admiral Togo at dispersal ceremony for the combined fleet (1905)

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More quotes by Tōgō Heihachirō

Defeat is a common fate of a soldier and there is nothing to be ashamed of in it.

The gods award the crown to those who, by their training in peacetime, are victorious even before they go into battle.

Heaven gives the crown of victory to those only who by habitual preparation win without fighting, and at the same time forthwith deprives of that crown those who, content with one success, give themselves up to the ease of peace.

Remarks by Admiral Togo at dispersal ceremony for the combined fleet (1905)

For such lessons, whether ancient or modern, Occidental or Oriental, though to some extent they are the outcome of political happenings, must be regarded as in the main the natural result of whether the soldier remembers war in the day of peace.

Remarks by Admiral Togo at dispersal ceremony for the combined fleet (1905)

But our duties as naval men are not at all lightened for that reason. To preserve in perpetuity the fruits of this war; to promote to an ever greater height of prosperity the fortunes of the country, the navy, which, irrespective of peace or war, has to stand between the Empire and shocks from abroad, must always maintain its strength at sea and must be prepared to meet emergency.

Remarks by Admiral Togo at dispersal ceremony for the combined fleet (1905)

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