Quote: Pierre Bosquet

C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre

In English, “It is magnificent, but it is not war.” Supposedly spoken during the Crimean War by French Marshal Pierre Bosquet, upon hearing word of the events of the infamous “charge of the light brigade,“ the suicidal assault by a British cavalry troop upon a force of entrenched Russian guns, which was immortalized in Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade.” It was a mindless and ill-advised (and probably accidental) assault that lost nearly the entire British force for little strategic gain; Bosquet’s words are an apt commentary.