QuotesCosmos
Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, In the House of Lords, 30 May 1962 (Hansard, Col. 227)
“

Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow". Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. That is the first rule. I do not know whether your Lordships will know Rule 2 of war. It is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China". It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives.

— Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein on Moscow

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow". Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. That is the first rule. I do not know whether your Lordships will know Rule 2 of war. It is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China". It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives." in the context of "Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, In the House of Lords, 30 May 1962 (Hansard, Col. 227)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Moscow" (Quotes, M) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

Tags

#Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein#rule#war#objectives#lordships#napoleon#fighting#various#whether#country#clearly#defined

About Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein

Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery (17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976) was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the Second World War.