“It is not heroes that make history, but history that makes heroes.”

Everybody has a right to be stupid, but some people abuse the privilege.

In war I would deal with the Devil and his grandmother

The Red Army and Navy and the whole Soviet people must fight for every inch of Soviet soil, fight to the last drop of blood for our towns and villages…onward, to victory!

A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.

Nowadays wars are not declared. They simply start.

If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a ‘peace conference,’ you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and airplanes.

Die, but do not retreat.

Ah, these diplomats! What chatterboxes! There’s only one way to shut them up – cut them down with machine guns. Bulganin, go and get me one!

Artillery is the god of war.

We do not want a single foot of foreign territory; but of our territory we shall not surrender a single inch to anyone.

Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach.

To choose one’s victims, to prepare one’s plan minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed… There is nothing sweeter in the world.

Music’s a good thing, it calms the beast in the man.

You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves.

We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us.

The leaders come and go, but the people remain. Only the people are immortal.

The earth is enjoyed by heroes”- this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear.

It is a law of nature that fainthearted men should be the fruit of luxurious countries, for we never find that the same soil produces delicacies and heroes.

Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.

We need not take refuge in supernatural gods to explain our saints and sages and heroes and statesmen, as if to explain our disbelief that mere unaided human beings could be that good or wise.

One day my grandson said to me, grandpa were you a hero in the war? And i said to him no I’m not a hero, but I have served in a company full of them.

It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.

If you are not the hero of your story, you need to change it.

Endure and overcome. Pay no heed to what others have done. Unless they have achieved unspeakable things. Unless they have vision, see the way you see. Rather die on your sword a hero, than die on your knees.