"Conquering the world on horseback is easy. Dismounting and governing it, is not."
"These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world ... and then we fucked up the endgame."
— Rep. Charlie Wilson (TX), Charlie Wilson's War
"The higher level of grand strategy [is] that of conducting war with a far-sighted regard to the state of the peace that will follow."
— Sir Basil H. Liddel-Hart
"This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years."
— Ferdinand Foch, referring to the Treaty of Versailles (1919) which ended World War One
Tywin: War swallowed gold like a pit in the earth.
Cersei: I suppose that explains why we did so well in the last one.
Tywin: Do you know how much gold was mined in the Westerlands this past year?
Cersei: Haven't a clue.
Tywin: Go on, your best guess.
Cersei: Pounds, tons, ounces?
Tywin: Doesn't matter. The answer's the same.
Cersei: I suppose that explains why we did so well in the last one.
Tywin: Do you know how much gold was mined in the Westerlands this past year?
Cersei: Haven't a clue.
Tywin: Go on, your best guess.
Cersei: Pounds, tons, ounces?
Tywin: Doesn't matter. The answer's the same.
"King Robert was strong. He won the rebellion and crushed the Targaryen dynasty. And he attended three Small Council meetings in 17 years. He spent his time whoring, drinking and hunting, untill the last two killed him."
— Tywin Lannister, Game of Thrones
"Winning is easy, young man; governing's harder."
— George Washington, Hamilton
"When I went under, the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."
"A lady asked Franklin: 'Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?'. Franklin replied: 'A Republic, if you can keep it.'"
— The notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
"To win at cars you must lose at war."
— James May, on the relative trajectories of the German and Japanese auto industries vs. the British and American ones since WW2.
Orochi: It's over, we will have peace.
Apollyon: Peace? So what happens now? You all just go home? You came into my home... and you brought your armies. What did you think would happen? Peace? That isn't how the world works. Don't speak to me of your virtues. Duty... Kinship... Honor... You've forgotten what you are.
Orochi: ...You want War. Only War.
Apollyon: What I want, is for you to admit what. You. Are. All of you... My... Wolves...
Apollyon: Peace? So what happens now? You all just go home? You came into my home... and you brought your armies. What did you think would happen? Peace? That isn't how the world works. Don't speak to me of your virtues. Duty... Kinship... Honor... You've forgotten what you are.
Orochi: ...You want War. Only War.
Apollyon: What I want, is for you to admit what. You. Are. All of you... My... Wolves...
"As Queen, what is my true duty to the realm, Lord Bartimos? Ensuring peace and unity, or that I sit the Iron Throne no matter the cost?"
— Rhaenyra Targaryen, House of the Dragon
"Episode VII, VIII, and IX would take ideas from what happened after the Iraq War. 'Okay, you fought the war, you killed everybody, now what are you going to do?' Rebuilding afterwards is harder than starting a rebellion or fighting the war. When you win the war and you disband the opposing army, what do they do? The stormtroopers would be like Saddam Hussein’s Ba'athist fighters that joined ISIS and kept on fighting. The stormtroopers refuse to give up when the Republic win. They want to be stormtroopers forever, so they go to a far corner of the galaxy, start their own country, and their own rebellion. There’s a power vacuum, so gangsters, like the Hutts, are taking advantage of the situation, and there is chaos."
