170 Defense Quotes

Following is our list of defense quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about basketball defense.

Quick Jump To

Famous Defense Quotes

Defense is superior to opulence. — Adam Smith

Best defense, thorough analysis, margin for error — Howard Marks

Your defense will save you on the nights that your offense isn't working. — Adolph Rupp

The best defense is a good offense. — Jack Dempsey

Defense is what matters. Scoring doesn't interest me. — David Robinson

Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack. — Sun Tzu

There is no such thing as a successful defense. — George S. Patton

Criticize on defense and encourage on offense. — John Brady

America needs to be defended. We need missile defense to better police the skies over the United States. — Rudy Giuliani

If you're not talking, you're not playing defense — Doc Rivers

Against those skilled in attack, an enemy does not know where to defend; against the experts in defense, the enemy does not know where to attack. — Sun Tzu

National defense is the sacred duty of the young and all other people. — Kim Jong Il

We are for peace, but we accept the challenge of the enemy. We will protect our motherland. — Petro Poroshenko

Knavery is the best defense against a knave. — Plutarch

Attack the enemy's strategy. — Sun Tzu

Short Defense Quotes

  • If you find yourself under lethal attack don't be kind. Be harsh. Be tough. Be ruthless. — Jeff Cooper
  • Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who kept their swords. — Benjamin Franklin
  • The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry. — William F. Buckley
  • The aims of life are the best defense against death. — Primo Levi
  • Never make a defense or apology before you are accused. — Charles I
  • Never make a defense or apology before you are accused. — Charles I of England
  • Defensive and offensive lineman control the game and true sports fans know that. — Dante Hall
  • A tree never hits an automobile except in self defense. — American Indian Proverbs
  • Attack is the best defense. — Swedish Proverbs
  • War is just a racket... I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. — Smedley Butler

Defense Image Quotes

Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense. - Mark Twain quote

Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense. — Mark Twain

Defense quote Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.
Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.
A tree never hits an automobile except in self defense. - Woody Allen quote

A tree never hits an automobile except in self defense. — Woody Allen

Self-defense is Nature's eldest law. - John Dryden quote

Self-defense is Nature's eldest law. — John Dryden

Our firefighters are our last line of defense, baby. - Jack Scalia quote

Our firefighters are our last line of defense, baby. — Jack Scalia

A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack. - Frank Oz quote

A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack. — Frank Oz

Football Defense Quotes

My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor. — Bowden Wyatt

People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society. — Vince Lombardi

Now that I'm retired, I want to say that all defensive linemen are sissies. — Dan Fouts

The strategies of offense and defense are very similar between chess and football. Chess really brought closeness to the team back in those days. — Rubin Carter

Basketball also helps you learn to move your feet by playing defense and guarding guys, and that all carries over to playing football with staying square and having good footwork. — Calvin Pryor

Football is one-third offense, one-third defense, and one-third special teams. — George Allen

Go back through football, and you will see that the team with the best defense wins. — Vince Lombardi

Being a running back helped me tremendously. It taught me judgement in the defense and how to judge the football. — Tommy McDonald

You get hit the hardest when trying to run or hide from a problem. Like the defense on a football field, putting all focus on evading only one defender is asking to be blindsided. — Criss Jami

A good football team plays offense and defense. You have to be aggressive and disrupt. — Vince Flynn

Basketball Defense Quotes

I asked them if it wasn't too much trouble, if I wasn't being too pushy, if they could execute what we were trying to do. And if it didn't make them too angry, if they also wanted to play some defense on the other end, that would be great. — Gregg Popovich

I thought we were aggressive across the board defensively, and you could just see it grow. As the game went along, you could see the confidence grow. It showed in the fourth quarter. — Bill Laimbeer

Once the Hack-a-Shaq works once, you know I'm going to see it again. The only thing worse for basketball than that defense is the Lack-a-Shaq offense, where I have to go to the bench because of foul trouble. There is no fun in that. — Shaquille O'Neal

If one of our players gets his second foul in the first half, then he must come out of the game and not re-enter until the second half. To play defense and not foul is an art that must be mastered if you are going to be successful. — Chuck Daly

When we're playing a good scoring center, we tell our team that it is not our defensive man's job to stop the center. It's the responsibility of our perimeter people to stop the ball from going inside. — Bobby Knight

You have to make shots to win basketball games and we didn't do that. You also have to get back on defense, so it was a double-whammy. — Gregg Popovich

Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up. — Red Auerbach

Good defensive play is as much a matter of hustle, desire and pride as it is anything else. — Tex Winter

Defense doesn't break down on the help, it breaks down on the recovery. — Chuck Daly

If you are a good team, your offense is born on the defensive end. — Don Meyer

Self Defense Quotes

If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim. — Jeff Cooper

When a government betrays the people by amassing too much power and becoming tyrannical, the people have no choice but to exercise their original right of self-defense — to fight the government. — Alexander Hamilton

Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace. — James Madison

Karate is not a game. It is not a sport. It is not even a system of self-defense. Karate is half physical exercise and half spiritual. The karateist who has given the necessary years of exercise and meditation is a tranquil person. He is unafraid. He can even be calm in a burning building. — Mas Oyama

The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals. — James Monroe

He who is cornered will fight. — Afghan Proverbs

Self defense is a primary law of nature, which no subsequent law of society can abolish; the immediate gift of the Creator, obliges everyone to resist the first approaches of tyranny. — Elbridge Gerry

Even the lion protects himself against flies. — African Proverbs

The police and armed forces must prioritize safeguarding their lives, those of their companions and of honest citizens. The use of lethal force is authorized in self-defense or in defense of the lives of Salvadoreans. — Nayib Bukele

Your mind-set is your primary weapon — Jeff Cooper

Playing Defense Quotes

Each and every Notary Public plays a crucial role in combating identity theft. They serve as our front line of defense and the public is safer because of the job they do. — Ken Salazar

Goals have never defined me as a player. What has defined me is my impact on the team. If that means passing or playing defense to win, I'll do it. — Mia Hamm

We have to get better at that. All of the Stanley Cup winning teams throughout the past few seasons, when they needed to play defense, they did it. If you can play defense, that's when you know it's game over. — Steve Yzerman

Withstanding hardships is a sort of sport. You can’t control how life plays, but you can control your defensive strategy. — Isaac Mashman

It takes brains. It's not like a forward, where you can get away with scoring and not play defense. On defense you have to be thinking. — Chris Chelios

If you are going to have to play defense all the time, you cannot have the kind of ingenuity, assertiveness, independence, and intelligence which is what has made our country strong. — Arlen Specter

I really like to play inside. I really like being able to go one-on-one with an offensive lineman every play. At defensive end, you're more running up the field and containing more than you are just against an offensive lineman. — Darrion Scott

The accent in the counter attack style of play lays on the defensive team function, with the emphasis being on the defender's own half of the field and letting the opponents keep the initiative of the game. This is to take advantage of the space behind their defense for the buildup and the attack. — Rinus Michels

When you play against an experienced opponent who exploits all the defensive resources at his command you sometimes have to walk time and again, along the narrow path of 'the only move'. — David Bronstein

It's a game of making great pitches at the right time, being opportunistic by getting a run at the right time and playing good defense. — Mike Candrea

Military Defense Quotes

A people who mean to be free must be prepared to meet danger in person, and not rely upon the fallacious protection of armies — Edmund Randolph

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We will strengthen our security by building missile defense, restoring our military might, and standing by and strengthening our intelligence officers. — Mitt Romney

These are the strategic dialectics of anti-imperialist struggle: through the defensive reactions of the system, the escalation of counterrevolution, the transformation of the political martial law into military martial law, the enemy betrays himself, becomes visible. — Ulrike Meinhof

Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can complel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

(God) gives the weak a weapon for self-defense that the strong, despite his military and nuclear arsenals, can do nothing against. There are clerics who condemn this and even say that these are suicide operations that are not allowed in Islam. — Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Strategic air assault is wasted if it is dissipated piecemeal in sporadic attacks between which the enemy has an opportunity to readjust defenses or recuperate. — Henry H. Arnold

Let us hope our weapons are never needed - but do not forget what the common people of this nation knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny. — Edward Abbey

Now this brings me to my main topic - our military strength - more specifically, how to stay strong against threat from outside, without undermining the economic health that supports our security. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Putting together a counter- terrorism policy, it's very easy to look at law enforcement or defense, military action or stopping the money flows or whatever, but the really difficult part is integrating all aspects of the policy, and I think she put a lot of emphasis on that. — Lee H. Hamilton

Defense Mechanisms Quotes

Rock and roll music - the music of freedom frightens people and unleashes all manner of conservative defense mechanisms. — Salman Rushdie

The shark is the apex predator in the sea. Sharks have molded evolution for 450 million years. All fish species that are prey to the sharks have had their behavior, their speed, their camouflage, their defense mechanisms molded by the shark. — Paul Watson

Without comedy as a defense mechanism I wouldn't be able to survive. — Garry Shandling

When you use defense mechanisms like 'Everything in moderation,' 'You only live once,' and the like, you disguise the fact that over years and decades, those little ice cream outings can add up literally to hundreds of pounds of ingested substances that are toxic to your body. — Mark Sisson

What are you going to do when you are not saving the world. — Hans Zimmer

The human mind has a primitive ego defense mechanism that negates all realities that produce too much stress for the brain to handle. It’s called Denial. — Dan Brown

What are you going to do when you love music? You can't stop. — Peggy Lee

As a kid I was short and only weighed 95 pounds. And though I was active in a lot of Sports and got along with most of the guys, I think I used comedy as a defense mechanism. You know making someone laugh is a much better way to solve a problem than by using your fists. — Tim Conway

My way of dealing with the world has always been to make fun of it and observe it but not take part in it.That's how I became a writer. But when you have kids, suddenly you have to be part of things. It leads almost to a breakdown because your whole defense mechanism is now really destructive. — Judd Apatow

Everyone is a little bitter. We're born bitter. The personality itself is really just a very complex defense mechanism. A reaction to the first time someone said, "No you can't. — Marc Maron

Defense Spending Quotes

Education is, quite simply, peace-building by another name. It is the most effective form of defense spending there is. — Kofi Annan

I spend a great deal of my personal time trying to figure out one thing, which is, at a given point in time, how should you balance aggressiveness and defensiveness in your portfolio. — Howard Marks

I talked to General Downer about some of the funding about the National Guard and some of the civil defense workers, the firefighters, the police officers, and the way that FEMA is making them spend that money. We have got a problem there. — Lynn Westmoreland

The last four secretaries of defense have pointed out that defense spending creates jobs. So do pornography, prostitution, and narcotics. — Michael Parenti

Historically, defense spending cuts have preceded increased international turmoil as America's global enemies sense a failure of will. — Ben Shapiro

If I was mentoring a young fighter, I'd tell him to spend more time on boxing. That doesn't mean I would ignore kickboxing - you still need to learn the defenses - but in stand-up, it's hard to beat good, solid boxing. — Chael Sonnen

Today, the US spends less on defense as a percentage of our economy than we did at any time since he Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For the world's only superpower, that is an invitation to very serious trouble. — Steve Forbes

After September 11, it became unpatriotic to question any homeland-security or defense spending, and that let things get out of control. — Jeff Flake

I think we will have to spend more on defense, for infrastructure, for extension of the broadband network and also for domestic security. — Wolfgang Schauble

Cyber Command is supposed to be defending our critical infrastructure at home, but they are spending so much time looking at how to attack networks, how to break systems, and how to turn things off. I don't think it adds up as representing a defensive team. — Edward Snowden

Defense Attorneys Quotes

To be an effective criminal defense counsel, an attorney must be prepared to be demanding, outrageous, irreverent, blasphemous, a rogue, a renegade, and a hated, isolated, and lonely person - few love a spokesman for the despised and the damned. — Clarence Darrow

The defendant wants to hide the truth because he's generally guilty. The defense attorney's job is to make sure the jury does not arrive at that truth. — Alan Dershowitz

There is no client as scary as an innocent man. — Michael Connelly

When...has a mugging case ever heard a defense attorney claim, 'Your Honor, the victim was dressed in an Armani suit and wearing a Rolex. Clearly he was begging to be assaulted.' — Peter David

You can be a career professional as a judge, a prosecutor, sometimes as a defense attorney, and never insist on fairness and justice. That's tragic and that's what we have to change. — Bryan Stevenson

One of the people that wrote a forward to my book is Gerry Spence, whom I admire. Gerry is a friend of mine, and Gerry's perhaps the leading criminal defense attorney in the country. — Vincent Bugliosi

I think when you play a role, you always have to be a defense attorney for that character. — Matt Bomer

I always received much more satisfaction as a defense attorney in obtaining an acquittal for a client than I ever have as a D.A. in obtaining a conviction. All my interests and sympathies tend to be on the side of the individual as opposed to the state. — Jim Garrison

Senator Jeff Sessions is reportedly on the [Donald] Trump shortlist to be either the next Secretary of Defense or the next Attorney General of the United States. — Lawrence O'Donnell

I think most defense attorneys honestly believe the principle that says, 'Better 10 guilty go free than even one possibly innocent person be convicted. — Alan Dershowitz

Common Defense Quotes

I support development and deployment of a limited national missile defense. Few if any of our duties surpass our obligation to provide for the common defense of our nation. — Joe Lieberman

Commonly they must use their feet for defense whose only weapon is their tongue. — Sir Philip Sidney

Among the many interesting objects which will engage your attention that of providing for the common defense will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. — George Washington

Fear is a healthy instinct, not a sign of weakness. It is a natural self-defense mechanism that is common to felines, wolves, hyenas, and most humans. Even fruit bats know fear, and I salute them for it. If you think the world is weird now, imagine how weird it would be if wild beasts had no fear. — Hunter S. Thompson

Well, first let's say that the fundamental responsibility of any government is national security - in the preamble to the Constitution, provide for the common defense and insure domestic tranquility. — Angus King

I think anybody that is concerned with national security, and if you look at our Constitution - the Constitution states very clearly that the number one task of our government is to provide for the common defense and protection of this country. — Ted Yoho

The great leading objects of the federal government, in which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic peace, and provide for the common defense. — Alexander Hamilton

As we have seen, the first public expression of disenchantment with nonviolence arose around the question of 'self-defense.' In a sense this is a false issue, for the right to defend one's home and one's person when attacked has been guaranteed through the ages by common law. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

A common defense among obituary-fanciers such as myself is that the obit is not about death at all. It is about life. This is true since an article about the condition of deadness would make for turgid reading at best. — Tom Rachman

If your basic premise about the fundamental purpose of our government is that it must provide for the common defense, then no other position is possible. — Don Nickles

Defence Quotes

I am determined to defend my rights and maintain my freedom or sell my life in the attempt. — Nathanael Greene

[Somali maritime violence] is a response to greedy Western nations, who invade and exploit Somalia's water resources illegally. It is not a piracy, it is self defence. It is defending the Somalia children's food. — Muammar al-Gaddafi

The best defence of peace is not power, but the removal of the causes of war, and international agreements which will put peace on a stronger foundation, than the terror of destruction. — Lester B. Pearson

I don't imagine Heads of Government would ever be able to say I'm not an economist therefore I can't take decisions on matters of the economy; I'm not a soldier I can't take decisions on matters of defence; I'm not an educationist so I can't take decisions about education. — Thabo Mbeki

Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves and those we love. — Julian Assange

To come to know your enemy, first you must become his friend, and once you become his friend, all his defences come down. Then you can choose the most fitting method for his demise. — Ieyasu Tokugawa

Self-defence, self-confidence, discipline and self control. The values you learn are priceless. — Rickson Gracie

A zeal for the defence of their country led these heroes to the scene of action, though with a few men to attack a powerful army of experienced warriors. — Daniel Boone

We will work with industrial or Dept. Of Defence sponsorship as long as we keep our principals of openness firm we're proud to work with the military, and they respect that in turn. — Charles Vest

Independence is never given to a people, it has to be earned; and, once earned, must be defended. — Chaim Weizmann

People Writing About Defense

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu
quotes on leadership, strategy and love

454 6304
Read quotes by Adam Smith

Adam Smith
quotes on economics, capitalism and human nature

191 2545
Read quotes by Howard Marks

Howard Marks
quotes on cycle, risk and investing

117 1
Read quotes by Adolph Rupp

Adolph Rupp

10 31
Read quotes by Jack Dempsey

Jack Dempsey
quotes on education, leadership and life

18 560
Read quotes by George S. Patton

George S. Patton
quotes on leadership

246 7467

More Defense Quotes

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. — Thomas Jefferson

Brave men do not gather by thousands to torture and murder a single individual, so gagged and bound he cannot make even feeble resistance or defense. — Ida B. Wells

Nothing fills me with deeper sadness than to see a Southern man apologizing for the defense we made of our inheritance. Our cause was so just, so sacred, that had I known all that has come to pass, had I known what was to be inflicted upon me, all that my country was to suffer, all that our posterity was to endure, I would do it all over again. — Jefferson Davis

We are the only people on Earth asked to guarantee the security of our occupier...while Israel is the only country that calls for defense from its victims. — Hanan Ashrawi

I don't think I was awake for much of my childhood. I did a lot of napping. This might have been a defensive measure against encroaching depression. Until about the age of eleven or twelve, I had zero interests other than trying to steal gumballs from supermarket gumball machines. — Michael Ian Black

I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense. But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home. — Ronald Reagan

I believe that we are put here in human form to decipher the hieroglyphs of love and suffering. And, there is no degree of love or intensity of feeling that does not bring with it the possibility of a crippling hurt. But, it is a duty to take that risk and love without reserve or defense. — Allen Ginsberg

A real jiu-jitsu fighter does not go around beating people down. Our defense is made to neutralize aggression. — Helio Gracie

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible... Thus, political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness... Political language [is] designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable. — George Orwell

When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt in the future. So the fearful past causes a fearful future and the past and future become one. — Alfred Hitchcock

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country. — James Madison

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. — Barry Goldwater

I don't say we are a defensive team. I say we are a strong team in defensive terms, but at the same time lacking sufficient fluidity in attack because that will take time to come. — Jose Mourinho

Encryption...is a powerful defensive weapon for free people. It offers a technical guarantee of privacy, regardless of who is running the government... It's hard to think of a more powerful, less dangerous tool for liberty. — Esther Dyson

There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. — Smedley Butler

In the face of the sudden outbreak of the novel coronavirus, we have adhered to the supremacy of the people and the supremacy of life, adhered to dynamic zero-COVID, carried out the people's war, the overall war and defensive war against the epidemic, protected the people's life safety and physical health to the greatest extent, and achieved major positive results in the overall prevention and control of the epidemic, and economic and social development. — Xi Jinping

The Intelligence Committee will also examine present counterintelligence programs for the Department of Energy, the National Laboratories, and the Department of Defense. — Charles Foster Bass

The Secretary of Defense is not a super General or Admiral. His task is to exercise civilian control over the Department for the Commander-in-Chief and the country. — Donald Rumsfeld

National Missile Defense is of a nature to retrigger a proliferation of weapons, notably nuclear missiles. Everything that goes in the direction of proliferation is a bad direction. — Jacques Chirac

In Conclusion

Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of defense quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about defense to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.

Citation

Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of defense quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.

Embed HTML Link

Copy and paste this HTML code in your webpage