Having therefore no foreign establishments, either colonial or military, the ships of war of the United States, in war, will be like land birds, unable to fly far from their own shores. To provide resting places for them, where they can coal and repair, would be one of the first duties of a government proposing to itself the development of the power of the nation at sea.
Alfred Thayer MahanOrganized force alone enables the quiet and the weak to go about their business and to sleep securely in their beds, safe from the violent without or within.
Alfred Thayer MahanThose far distant, storm-beaten ships, upon which the Grand Army never looked, stood between it and the dominion of the world.
Alfred Thayer MahanFree supplies and open retreat are two essentials to the safety of an army or a fleet.
Alfred Thayer MahanThe surer of himself an admiral is, the finer the tactical development of his fleet, the better his captains, the more reluctant must he necessarily be to enter into a melee with equal forces, in which all these advantages will be thrown away, chance reign supreme, and his fleet be place on terms of equality with an assemblage of ships which have never before acted together.
Alfred Thayer Mahan