A man of real purpose puts his faith in himself always. Sometimes he refuses even to put his faith in the gods. So from time to time, he falls into error. - Isoroku Yamamoto

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I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. - Isoroku Yamamoto

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I'm against war with the United States. But I am an officer of the Imperial Navy and a subject of His Majesty the Emperor. - Isoroku Yamamoto

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People who don't gamble aren't worth talking to. - Isoroku Yamamoto

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The most important thing we have to do first of all in a war with the U.S., I firmly believe, is to fiercely attack and destroy the U.S. main fleet at the outset of the war so that the morale of the U.S. Navy and her people goes down to such an extent that it cannot be recovered. - Isoroku Yamamoto

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It is like a disease to think that an invincible status has been achieved after being satisfied with the past successful operations. -Isoroku Yamamoto

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Never tell anyone outside my staff that the Submarine Force and the First Air Fleet were responsible for the failure at Midway. The failure at Midway was mine. - Isoroku Yamamoto

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Even though there wasn't much damage, it's a disgrace that the skies over the imperial capital should have been defiled without a single enemy plane being shot down. It provides a regrettably graphic illustration of the saying that a bungling attack is better than the most skillful defense. - Isoroku Yamamoto

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The example afforded before the Great War by Germany - which, if only it had exercised forbearance for another five or ten years, would by now be unrivaled in Europe - suggests that the task facing us now is to build up our strength calmly and with circumspection. - Isoroku Yamamoto

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If we are to have a war with America, we will have no hope of winning unless the U.S. fleet in Hawaiian waters can be destroyed. - Isoroku Yamamoto

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