Quotes

Starve before doing business with the damned Navy. They don't know what in hell they want and will drive you up a wall before they break either your heart or a more exposed part of your anatomy.
Attributed to Kelly Johnson of Lockheed by Ben R Rich in Skunk Works.

You say that I am ignoring the time-honoured traditions of the Royal Navy? And what might they be? I shall tell you in three words: rum, buggery and the lash! Good morning, sirs!
Winston Churchill addressing the Sea Lords, 1912

The trouble with nuclear arms is that we do not know what the bloody hell they are for. We cannot use them independently; we can't even run them without the help of the USA. Indeed, no sane person would use them at all.
Attributed to Field Marshal Lord Carver by Alan Simpson MP

BEAUTIFUL Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay!
With your numerous arches and pillars in so grand array
And your central girders, which seem to the eye
To be almost towering to the sky.
The greatest wonder of the day,
And a great beautification to the River Tay,
Most beautiful to be seen,
Near by Dundee and the Magdalen Green.
William McGonagall

Quia quamdiu Centum ex nobis viui remanserint, nuncquam Anglorum dominio aliquatenus volumus subiugari. Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam Nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit.
For as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom—for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

Declaration of Arbroath