Quotes by John Keegan

About John Keegan:

Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan was a British military historian, lecturer, writer and journalist. He was the author of many published works on the nature of combat between the 14th and 21st centuries concerning land, air, maritime, and intelligence warfare, as well as the psychology of battle.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Soldiers, when committed to a task, can't compromise. It's unrelenting devotion to the standards of duty and courage, absolute loyalty to others, not letting the task go until it's been done.

John Keegan

The great men of power who seek to change the nations they belong to usually are pretty terrible people.

John Keegan

It's commonly said that people who've been ill in childhood and who've had an upset education never really regret that they do. It means that you don't look at the world in the way that other people do, and if you were inclined to be a writer, that's...

John Keegan

The great Chinese classics have always said that it's better not to fight; that the clever man achieves his ends without violence; that a battle delayed is better than a battle fought.

John Keegan

Good men who exercise power are really the most fascinating of all people.

John Keegan

I don't look to find an educated person in the ranks of university graduates, necessarily. Some of the most educated people I know have never been near a university.

John Keegan

The Islam of the 18th, 19th and first half of the 20th century was a poor thing. Nobody bothered about it. Islam was that funny sort of pure system of beliefs that depressed people in the Middle East held as their religion.

John Keegan

Well, if they are trying to kill you, on the whole they're the people you have to kill, aren't they?

John Keegan

Some people are more terrorist than others.

John Keegan

I think to be shot in a mountain valley somewhere or other is altogether less glorious than crashing an airliner into a skyscraper.

John Keegan

The revival of Islam dates from the early years of the 20th century. It was brought about by their humiliation, by their sense of how low they'd fallen compared with the West.

John Keegan

We may have to have a geo-political regrouping or major geo-political changes.

John Keegan

I think Americans like the practical; they like the human. And I like both those things myself, and I try and put them into my books.

John Keegan

There are certain wicked people in the world that you can't deal with except by force.

John Keegan

Nobody should teach anywhere for 25 years, but I did.

John Keegan

I don't think that what's going on in Bosnia is political activity. It's partly political, but it's partly atavistic as well.

John Keegan

It's a necessary quality of a diplomat or a politician that he will compromise. Uncompromising politicians or diplomats get you into the most terrible trouble.

John Keegan

Even a pacifist should admire the military virtues.

John Keegan

I think that black Africa is extremely terrifying. Black Africa can become a maelstrom of warring tribes without the outside world needing to feel the need to do anything about it.

John Keegan

I can't visualize the situation in which we nuke ourselves into extinction.

John Keegan

Author Bio

  • NameJohn Keegan
  • DescriptionBritish military historian, lecturer, writer and journalist
  • BornMay 15, 1934
  • DiedAugust 2, 2012
  • CountryEngland
  • ProfessionJournalist; Military Historian; Historian
  • AwardsOfficer Of The Order Of The British Empire