Quotes & Sayings About Kalashnikov

Man keeps inventing things all the time. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

It wasn't perfect, but it would do for a few seconds, long enough to hole up and wait for the shooting to die down. Only it didn't. Pistols, shotguns, and that clatter you never forget, the kind that tells you someone has a Kalashnikov. — Max Brooks

When I see Bin Laden with his AK-47, I got nervous. But what can I do, terrorists aren't fools: they too chose the most reliable guns. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

In the 1970s, after the Damansky Island clashes, a joke began circulating: 'Optimists study English; pessimists study Chinese; and realists learn to use a Kalashnikov. — John Vaillant

I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work - for example a lawnmower. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

It is painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

The negative side is that sometimes it is beyond control. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

Before attempting to create something new, it is vital to have a good appreciation of everything that already exists in this field. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

When I went to Afghanistan in 2003, I walked into a war zone. Entire neighborhoods had been demolished. There were an overwhelming number of widows and orphans and people who had been physically and emotionally damaged; every 10-year-old kid on the street knew how to dismantle a Kalashnikov in under a minute. I would flip through math textbooks intended for third grade, fourth grade, and they would include word problems such as, "If you have 100 grenades and 20 mujahideen, how many grenades per mujahideen do you get?" War has infiltrated every facet of life. — Khaled Hosseini

Perhaps he was a stand-in for who I was, a primitive version of the me I'd lost track of and sloughed off in America. My shadow self, my picture of Dorian Gray, my mad brother in the attic, my Mr Hyde, my very, very rough draft. Me unmasked, unchained, unleashed, unfinished: me untrammeled, me in rags, me enraged. Me without books, without finish, without a green card. Me with a Kalashnikov. — Andre Aciman

I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

Life can make you do many things, even kiss a man with a runny nose. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

The fact that people die because of an AK-47 is not because of the designer, but because of politics. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

Then it was like a genie out of the bottle and it began to walk all on its own and in directions I did not want. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

Life is composed of different inventions. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

I created a weapon to defend the borders of my motherland. It's not my fault that it's being used where it shouldn't be. The politicians are more to blame for this. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

Any designer believes his gun is the best, and when its test performance is a bit less impressive compared to others, he feels bitterness and envy. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

It appears that the murder rate inside prisons is ten times higher than that outside prisons. It must be due to all those Kalashnikov rifles that are issued to prisoners upon their incarceration. — Jeff Cooper

Things that are complex are not useful, Things that are useful are simple. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

I've always wanted to improve and expand on the good name of my weapon by doing good things. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

I was probably born with some designing abilities. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

It is the Germans who are responsible for the fact that I became a fabricator of arms. If not for them, I would have constructed agricultural machines. ( ... ) If someone asks me how I can sleep at night knowing that my arms have killed millions of people, I respond that I have no problem sleeping, my conscience is clean. I constructed arms to defend my country. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

I am still ready to shake hands with anyone who designs a better assault rifle than mine. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

My spiritual pain is unbearable. I keep having the same unsolved question: if my rifle claimed people's lives, then can it be that I a Christian and an Orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths? — Mikhail Kalashnikov

People often ask me how I feel about my invention being used to kill people every day and the AK being a common weapon of ethnic conflicts. I want to make it clear that I created my assault rifle to protect my country. You can blame politicians for its spreading out of control on a global scale. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

For many observers, a child who has known nothing but war, a child for whom the Kalashnikov is the only way to make a living and for whom the bush is the most welcoming community, is a child lost forever for peace and development. I contest this view. For the sake of these children, it is essential to prove that another life is possible. — Ishmael Beah

AK 47, is perfect copy, yes? Every detail. Like real thing. Yes. Kalashnikov. Your boy, he be happy for Uncle Sante, no?"
"I'm sorry, Sante. It's really nice of you, but I don't want Sofus playing with guns."
Conversation between George Hanson and Sante
In The Shadow of Sadd — Steen Langstrup

I shot with it a lot. I still do now. That is why I am hard of hearing. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

I had to gain experience as I did not have a technical education. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

For years, I had a top secret clearance and never left Russia. Just once did I go to Bulgaria with my wife for a holiday at the Golden Sands resort, but I could not mention my real name. I was allowed to travel abroad only in the early 1990s. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

We had grain but no mills, so I designed a special mill of wood so we could make flour. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

Talk about tactful - she's got a tongue like a Kalashnikov! — Steve Fowler

I tried a dozen different modifications that were rejected. But they all served as a path to the final design. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

My work is my life, and my life is my work. I invented this assault rifle to defend my country. Today, I am proud that it has become for many synonymous with liberty. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

They led me across the commissary and along a short hall into the next building. The skinhead was named Royce, and Royce liked to bitch. He and most of the other guards had arrived yesterday, and didn't like busting their asses all night to put up the plywood. He went on about it until the Syrian told him to shut up. Then he shut, and we passed more guards. Most carried shock prods and clubs, but some had short black shotguns and one had a Chinese Kalashnikov. They looked tense and anxious, and their silence and weapons made me wonder what the Syrian was expecting. The — Robert Crais

I have continued to work at different things, and rebuilt my home all by myself. I did it for the sake of satisfaction at doing something. I did it because I happened to be where I was. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

Terrorists also want to use simple and reliable arms. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

Kabul fell prey to men who looked like they had tumbled out of their mothers with Kalashnikov in hand ... — Khaled Hosseini

He had a Kalashnikov, the universal weapon of all budget warriors, — Claire North

I made it to protect the motherland. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

I do not consider the AK to be the best-ever assault rifle. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

I was trying to perform as best as possible. I was a boy at the time, but worked well with the sickle. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

The AK-47 is not a device of aggression ... I devised this machine-gun for the security of my country. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

I wanted to invent an engine that could run for ever. I could have developed a new train, had I stayed in the railway. It would have looked like the AK-47 though. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

My aim was to create armaments to protect the borders of my motherland. It is not my fault that the Kalashnikov became very well-known in the world; that it was used in many troubled places. I think the policies of these countries are to blame, not the designers. Man is born to protect his family, his children, his wife. But I want you to know that apart from armaments, I have written three books in which I try to educate our youth to show respect for their families, for old people, for history. — Mikhail Kalashnikov