John Adams
John Adams

But America is a great, unwieldy Body. Its Progress must be slow. It is like a large Fleet sailing under Convoy. The fleetest Sailors must wait for the dullest and slowest. Like a Coach and six—the swiftest Horses must be slackened and the slowest quickened, that all may keep an even Pace.

Brian Aldiss
Brian Aldiss

Frank II liked Spain. Philip's capital was gayer, warmer, and more sanitary than London. It was intoxicating to enjoy the best of both courts. It proved also extremely remunerative: the shared consciousness of Frank I and II was by far the quickest communicational link between the two rival countries, and as such was worth money. Not that Frank revealed his secret to a soul, but he let it be known

he had a fleet of capable spies who moved without risk of detection between England and Spain. Burly Lord Burleigh beamed upon him. So did the Duke of Medina Sidonia.

Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu

(transcripts from Council of Ministers meeting 13 noiembrie 1941) I. Antonescu: I'd like you to remove all Jews from Odesa immediately, because the resistence at Sevastopol makes us think that we can expect a landing at Odesa. I thought Sevastopol will fall earlier. Yet today, because the Russian fleet has the possibility to use Sevastopol, it can make us an unpleasent surpirse.”

Augustus
Augustus

He could not even stand up to review his fleet when the ships were already at their fighting stations, but lay on his back and gazed up at the sky, never rising to show that he was alive until Marcus Agrippa had routed the enemy.

Malcolm Azania
Malcolm Azania

I’m not saying Hamza’s cheap, but if the only thing standing between our solar system and a fleet of intergalactic enslavers was Hamza’s wallet crunched inside his fist, we’d all be drilling methane wells on Pluto right now.