Military
- William Alexander (Canadian soldier) (1880–1917), World War I soldier executed for desertion
- William Melville Alexander (1897–1988), Canadian World War I flying ace
- William Alexander, Lord Stirling (1726–1783), American Revolutionary War soldier
Read more about this topic: Bill Alexander
Famous quotes containing the word military:
“Personal prudence, even when dictated by quite other than selfish considerations, surely is no special virtue in a military man; while an excessive love of glory, impassioning a less burning impulse, the honest sense of duty, is the first.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“War both needs and generates certain virtues; not the highest, but what may be called the preliminary virtues, as valour, veracity, the spirit of obedience, the habit of discipline. Any of these, and of others like them, when possessed by a nation, and no matter how generated, will give them a military advantage, and make them more likely to stay in the race of nations.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)