“Don’t fire until you can see the whites of their eyes”, William Prescott at the battle of Bunker Hill.
“Sink it!”, Margaret Thatcher calling the shots during the Falklands War. I know she said it in a much more politically correct way, but the movie did it better.
“Splash the Zeroes!” Totally fictitious from The Final Countdown film but it’s fucking Kirk Douglas at his clenched jaw best.
“Nuts” said by General McAuliffe in WWII when face with surrendering.
To the German Commander,
N U T S !
The American Commander"
‘Damn the Torpedoes. Full Speed Ahead!’ - ADM David Farragut, Battle of Mobile Bay, 1864.
He didn’t actually say that though. His actual order was ‘Damn the torpedoes! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!’ Also, ‘torpedo’ back then meant naval mines.
Philip II to Sparta:
You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city.
Sparta in reply:
“If.”
I have always appreciated the way Col Tim Collins closed his speech prior to moving into Iraq (hell, the whole speech is a gem) with a simple no-nonsense order:
“Our business now is north. Good luck.”
“Do you wanna gossip or do you wanna shoot somebody?” — Spartan
Stranger
Well, if we’re going to use movies:
How about:
“Avengers assemble!” said by Captain America in Avengers: Endgame?
Richard Pearson, captain HMS Serapis:
“Has your ship struck?”
(Struck her colors, i.e., surrendered)
John Paul Jones, captain Bonhomme Richard:
“I have not yet begun to fight!”
Oliver Hazard Perry:
“Don’t give up the ship”
“You’re all clear, kid. Now let’s blow this thing and go home!”
Kiss me, Hardy.
“End this.” - Delenn, B5
How to deal with a subordinate’s doubts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onyfp4uSmcY
They edited the “fucking” out of Matt Damon’s line.
“Come on, you sons-o’-bitches, do you want to live forever?”
-Sgt. Daniel Daly at the battle of Belleau Woods (claimed)
Another one from the Spartans. this time at Thermopoli:
Persians: Our arrows will blot out the Sun.
Spartans: Then we’ll fight in the shade.
Actually those were the last words of Captain James Lawrence on the USS Chesapeake. They would have been more impressive if they didn’t surrender the ship shortly after they took him to his cabin. Perry borrowed the line as a motto for his command.
The American army had been caught off guard on the first day of the Battle of Shiloh and had done poorly. Sherman approached Grant and said “Well, Grant, we’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we.”
Grant responded yes but then turned to Sherman and said "Lick 'em tomorrow, though.”
That explained Grant’s success in the war. He always saw the big picture and didn’t get demoralized by a defeat. He just shifted his focus to the next battle. And Grant did defeat the Confederates on the second day of the Battle of Shiloh.
Even if Perry wasn’t the first to say those words, he did say them. And unlike Lawrence, when he said them, it stuck.
And of course there’s Patton’s line (precise wording may have varied, and he probably said it multiple times):
Not quite an exact quote, but something very similar was said by Joshua Chamberlain, commander of the 20th Maine regiment at Gettysburg, Little Round Top, July 2d, 1863:
“Chamberlain raised his saber, let loose the shout that was the greatest sound he could make, boiling the yell up from his chest: Fix bayonets! Charge! Fix bayonets! Charge! Fix bayonets! Charge! He leaped down from the boulder, still screaming, his voice beginning to to crack and give, and all around him his men were roaring animal screams, and he saw the whole Regiment rising and pouring over the wall and beginning to bound down through the dark bushes, over the dead and dying wounded, hats coming off, hair flying, mouths making sounds, one man firing as he ran, the last bullet, last round.”
For badass material, there is always the legendary Battle of Camarón: Seeing that he was totally surrounded, Capt. Danjou "urged his men to take an oath to fight to the death rather than surrender… he made them swear their fealty on his wooden hand. Danjou then shared his bottle of wine and encouraged his men with “those noble words that warm one’s heart and makes the final sacrifice less difficult to face.”
Oops. Typo. (I’m surprised nobody called me on it.)
That should be 1864.