Quotessence
Home / Topics / Normandy Quotes

Normandy Quotes

Browse 48 quotes about Normandy.

Related topics

D DayBeachSacrificeBattleWorldWorld War IiWwii

Normandy Quotes

“Some read to remember the home they had left behind, others to forget the hell that surrounded them. Books uplifted their weary souls and energized their minds…books had the power to sooth an aching heart, renew hope for the future, and provide a respite when there was no other escape.”

World War IiThe Great GatsbyBanned BooksOkinawaBook BurningNormandyGisFranklin Delano RooseveltIwo JimaPearl HarborGuadalcanalSaipanGi BillArmed Services EditionsBetty SmithOperation TorchVictory Books Campaign
Author:Molly Guptill Manning
Create image

“The rest of that summer in Normandy was wet. They fought their way from hedgerow to hedgerow from Caumont to St.-Lo. By the time they walked through the rubble that was left there were only four of them from the original squad, Jack, Saul, Casey, and Victor Sanchez. During August the battle for Normandy was over and a few days later Paris was liberated but the Bloody First was already heading towards Belgium and the Siegfried Line.”

World War IiNormandyParis Attacks
Book:Yavapai County Line: West of the Divide Book 1
Create image

“It was now autumn, and I made up my mind to make, before winter set in, an excursion across Normandy, a country with which I was not acquainted. It must be borne in mind that I began with Rouen, and for a week I wandered about enthusiastic with admiration, in that picturesque town of the Middle Ages, in that veritable museum of extraordinary Gothic monuments. Well, one afternoon, somewhere about four o'clock, as I happened to be passing down an out-of-the-way by-street, in the middle of which flowed a deep river, black as ink, named the Eau de Robec, my attention wholly directed to examining the bizarre and antique physiognomy of the houses, was all of a sudden attracted by the sight of a series of shops of furniture brokers, one after the other, from door to door along the street. Ah! these second-hand brokers had well chosen their locality, these sordid old traffickers of bric-a-brac, in this fantastic alley leading up from stream of that sinister dark water, under the steep pointed overhanging gables of tiled roofs and projecting shingle eaves, where the weathercocks of the past still creaked overhead. ("Who Knows?")”

GothicNormandyRouen
Book:Ghostly By Gaslight
Create image

“Sixty-five years ago [written 2009], in a brief lull between storms in a remarkably stormy June, even by the standards of Channel weather, the heirs of Harold and the kinsmen of the Conqueror came to Normandy. They were supported by the remnants of their first, North American, empire, the two great nations that they had planted in the New World in the time of Good Queen Bess and James 6th and 1st: the Americans, who had rebelled in the name of the rights of Englishmen, and the Canadians, who had stood loyal in the name of the Crown. … The honours of these regiments are ancient and moving: Minden and Malplaquet, Mysore, Badajoz, Waterloo, Inkerman, Gallipoli, the Somme, Imjin. None shines more brightly than Normandy 1944. The paths of glory may lead but to the grave; yet all, even golden boys and girls, must come to dust. It is a better path to the grave than any of the others, not because glory is something to seek, but because, not once or twice in our long island story, the way of duty has been the path to glory; and duty is to be done. …Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.”

RemembranceSecond World WarMilitary HistoryNormandyD Day
Author:G.M.W. Wemyss
Create image

“Throughout the autumn and the winter activity increased in the Beaulieu area, and with it came mysteries. Lepe House, the mansion at the entrance to the river, was taken over by the Navy and became full of secretive Naval officers; it became known that this was part of a mysterious Navel entity called 'Force J'. Near Lepe House and at the very mouth of the river a construction gang began work in full strength to make a hard, sloping concrete platform running down into the river where the flat-bottomed landing craft could beach to refuel and let their ramps down to embark the vehicles and tanks. This place was about two miles from 'Mastodon'. A mile or so along the coast a country house was occupied by a secret Naval party who did strange things with tugs and wires and winches, and with what looked like a gigantic reel of cotton floating in the sea; this was 'Pluto', Pipe Line Under The Ocean, which was to lay pipes from England to France to carry petrol to supply the armies which were due to land in Normandy. On a bare beach nearby a thousand navvies were camped making huge concrete structures known as 'Phoenix', one of many such sites all along the coast. It was not till after the invasion that it became known that these were a part of the artificial harbour 'Mulberry' on the north coast of France.”

ArmyNavyNormandy
Book:Requiem for a Wren
Create image

“A soaking rain had just stopped, and his boots sank deeply into the nitrogen-rich soil. The entire orchard smelled of wet wood and ripe fruit. It was a strong dizzying scent, and nothing else was quite like it- though his grandfather used to say this smell was identical to the limestone caves of Lower Normandy: cold and dripping, where cask upon cask of Calvados, the great fortified apple brandy of Norman lords, slept away the years.”

ApplesSoilOrchardScentsNormandyDylan Jackson
Book:The Orchard
Create image

“And can we get a tarte normande, the kind you used to love as a little girl?" The mere mention has my mouth watering and my heart aching. I can almost taste the tarts my mother used to make, with apples from the trees in our garden, loads of freshly grated cinnamon, and a dollop of whipped cream on top. "And can we look for treasure on the beach?" "Yes, sweet child." "And can we throw rocks in the water and look for starfish in the tide pools?”

VacationWishesDessertNormandyLittle Girl
Book:All the Flowers in Paris
Create image

“O.K., let's go." And again, cheers rang through Southwick House. Then the commanders rushed from their chairs and dashed outside to get to their command posts. Within thirty seconds the mess room was empty, except for Eisenhower, The outflow of the others and his sudden isolation were symbolic. A minute earlier he had been the most powerful man in the world. Upon his word the fate of thousands of men depended, and the future of great nations. The moment he uttered the word, however, he was powerless. For the next two or three days, there was almost nothing he could do that would in any way change anything. The invasion could not be stopped, not by him, not by anyone. A captain leading his company onto Omaha, or a platoon sergeant at Utah, would for the immediate future play a greater role than Eisenhower. He could now only sit and wait.”

WwiiNormandyEisenhower
Book:Eisenhower: Soldier and President
Create image

“My outlook on warfare is best illustrated by a cartoon I did some thirty-odd years ago of a soldier in an Italian foxhole reading about the Normandy invasion and observing to his buddy that: "The hell this ain't the most important hole in the world . I'm in it.”

WorldYearsImportantReadingHellYears AgoSoldierHolesOddThirtyItalianWarfareCartoonOutlookObservingInvasionBuddyNormandyFoxholes
Book:Mud & guts: a look at the common soldier of the American revolution
Create image

“A little while ago I visited Omaha Beach for the second time in my life. In the intervening 26 years, nearly 20,000 tides had come and gone and little remains visible of the greatest military landing in man's history of endless warring. What's to be seen is mostly in a superb museum and a panoramic cemetery. The cemetery memorializes with dignity and grandeur the event and the dead, and moves one deeply. Before they die less precipitously and/or in lesser purpose, Americans who can should visit World War II's Normandy Beach. Such seeing and remembering helps a man's perspective.”

MenWorldShouldYearsLittlesWarHelpingRememberMovingPurposeDiesGoneSeeingMilitaryEventsPerspectiveDignityRemainsEndlessBeachWar Of The WorldsVisibleMuseumsWorld War IiTidesWorld War IGrandeurLandingCemeterySuperbInterveningNormandyOmahaGreatest MilitaryOmaha Beach
Author:Malcolm Forbes
Create image

“The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or the next. It was the deep knowledge - and pray God we have not lost it - that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest.”

MenUseHumanityNextLostForceDifferencesMoralHe ManPrayingMercyProfoundLiberationGrantsConquestPraying To GodUse Of ForceNormandy
Author:Ronald Reagan
Create image

“I think that both Russia and other international actors, including those who are more actively engaged in the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis (that is the Federal Republic of Germany and France, the so-called Normandy Quartet, certainly, with close involvement of the United States, and we have intensified our dialogue on this issue), we should all be committed to the full and unconditional implementation of the agreements that were achieved in Minsk. The Minsk Agreements have to be implemented.”

ThinkingShouldStatesActorsUnitedUnited StatesIssuesCrisisIncludingInternationalCommittedRussiaDialogueFranceEngagedGermanyAgreementResolutionRepublicUnconditionalInvolvementImplementationQuartetsUkrainianNormandy
Author:Vladimir Putin
Create image

“It was very strange, because my father [ Erwin Rommel] received the first call at seven o'clock in the morning. And [Hans] Speidel told my father, "I will call you up in one hour when I see more clearly what's going on." After an hour, Speidel said, "Yes, the landing took place in Normandy." And the German Navy had told my father that it was too stormy. And that the British and the Americans and the French can't come. And my father believed him.”

FirstsSaidFatherHoursMorningStrangeSevenBritishClockNavyLandingOne HourStormyNormandyRommel
Author:Manfred Rommel
Create image

“This is our problem, our dilemma, yes? We cannot celebrate and declare ourselves to belong to the victorious nations because our brothers and our fathers and grandfathers died in this battle [in Normandy], yes. I understand that the Americans and the British and French celebrate one of the greatest and most important military victories in history. And I understand this. I don't see a reasonable place for the Germans. We watch everything on the television with compassion and sympathy.”

ImportantProblemFatherNationsCompassionWatchesMilitaryTelevisionBrotherVictoryBattleDiedBritishCelebrateReasonableGrandfatherOur FatherDilemmaFather DiedNormandyFathers And GrandfathersGrandfather Died
Author:Manfred Rommel
Create image

“I had a go at changing history - maybe not all by myself - I fought at the battle of Normandy, I slogged through the Ardennes, and I celebrated the liberation of Paris on the streets with beautiful French girls throwing flowers at me. I said good-bye to my first true love and discovered what I really wanted to do with my life.”

FirstsSaidWantedBeautifulGirlStreetsFlowerBattleLiberationParisGoodbyeGood LifeThrowingByeGood ByeNormandy
Book:All Told: My Art and Life Among Athletes, Playboys, Bunnies, and Provocateurs
Create image

“We know that progress is not inevitable. But neither was victory upon these beaches. Now, as then, the inner voice tells us to stand up and move forward. Now, as then, free people must choose.”

PeopleKnowsMovingVoiceProgressSacrificeVictoryMoving ForwardInevitableBeachInner VoiceNormandyD Day
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1994
Create image

“Almost 60,000 average Americans had the courage to go out and charge those beaches on Normandy, to drop out of airplanes who knows where, and take on the battle for freedom. Average Americans, the very Americans that our government now and this president does not trust to make a decision on your health care plan. Those Americans risked everything so they could make that decision on their health care plan.”

KnowsDoeGovernmentCarePresidentDecisionPlansBattleAverageHealth CareBeachAirplaneNormandy
Author:Rick Santorum
Create image

“I believe, if done correctly, eliminating Saddam and liberating Iraq could be the ‘Normandy Invasion’ or ‘fall of the Berlin Wall’ of our generation...the Iraqi people are eager to be rid of Saddam, and there is equally encouraging evidence that republican principles could thrive there.”

PeopleIfsBelieveDoneFallI BelievePrinciplesGenerationsWallRepublicanEvidenceIraqThriveSaddamLiberatingInvasionBerlinOur GenerationEliminatingBerlin WallNormandy
Author:Pete Hegseth
Create image

“We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied peoples joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.”

WorldYearsHumansLongWarNationsLibertyMillionsFourColdTerribleBattleShadowEuropeMarkJewTyrannyLiberationFallenGiantsAlliesCampsContinentsRescueCriedCold WarHuman HistoryUndertakingsNormandy
Author:Ronald Reagan
Create image

“I've read all the books, I've watched all the films and now, thanks to the glory of home gaming, I've even kind of experienced it: I've landed on the beaches of Normandy, I have successfully held Pegasus Bridge and I've disabled German tanks with stolen Panzerfausts. I have fought in Italy, France and North Africa and if I had a Euro for every virtual life I've lost I'd be able to build a replica of Hitler's bunker in my back garden.”

IfsKindBookHomeAbleFilmLostComputerGloryGardenThanksFranceBeachBridgesStolenTanksDisabledEuroGamingBunkersNormandyReplicaNorth AfricaPegasus
Author:Tom Dunne
Create image