Claude Louis Hector de Villars Quotes

In war everything depends upon being able to deceive the enemy; and having once gained this point, in never allowing him time to recover himself.

My friends ... if you make the people run away, you will die of hunger.

Fortify your towns, and above all the Schellenberg, that fort above Donauworth, the importance of which the great Gustavus taught us.

No governor of a place should he permitted to excuse himself for surrendering, on the ground of wishing to preserve the king's troops. Every garrison that displays courage will escape being prisoners of war. For there is no general who, however well assured of carrying a place by assault, will not prefer granting terms of capitulation rather than risk the loss of a thousand men in forcing determined troops to surrender.

God protect me from my friends, I can protect myself from my enemies. [Variation: Defend me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies myself].

Villars to Louis XIV, quoted by Voltaire ("Sire, je vais combattre les ennemis de votre majesté, et je vous laisse au milieu des miens"),

When we are determined upon war, we should carry it on vigorously and without trifling.

I was unable before starting to formulate a plan of campaign because I did not know whether I should find an army there ... In fact I found the troops in a deplorable condition, without clothes, without arms, and without bread.

Do you want to know where Prince Eugene’s real enemies are? They are in Vienna, while mine are in Versailles.

The most shameful, humiliating and disastrous of routs.

When the first shot is fired, no one can calculate what will be the issue of the war. It is, therefore, of vast importance to reflect maturely before we begin it.

I am going to drive your enemies so far that they shall not again see the banks of the Scheldt; and by a battle on my arrival, to regain all that has been taken from your majesty.

If God lets us have the grace of losing such a battle again, Your Majesty can count on all of his enemies being destroyed.

Where there are no peasants there are no supplies.

A general has to expose his life as much as he exposes the lives of others.