Individual mistakes we have, of course, all made; in view of the ferocity and protraction of the struggle they were inevitable.
"My Three Years in America"
Johann Heinrich Andreas Hermann Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff
The disappointment and impatience, now being manifested in too many quarters, over the inevitable protraction of the military situation in the Philippines, indicates a lack of such understanding; for, did it exist, men would not need to be told that even out of the best material, of which we have an abundance, a soldier is not made in a day, nor an army in a season; that when these, the necessary tools, are wanting, or are insufficient in number, the work cannot but lag until they are supplied; in short, that in war, as in every calling, he who wills the end must also understand and will the means.
"Lessons of the war with Spain and other articles"
Alfred T. Mahan
It would only be a protraction of my misery-a few hours more of wretched existence-for certainly I must meet death by hunger.
"The Boy Tar"
Mayne Reid