War Quotes (24)

(Alphabetically by author's first name)

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives. --Abba Eban

Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.--Abraham Flexner

I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.--Abraham Lincoln

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure.--Abraham Lincoln

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.--Abraham Lincoln

Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.--Abraham Lincoln

Military glory--that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood--that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy... --Abraham Lincoln

We must recognize the chief characteristic of the modern era--a permanent state of what I call violent peace.--Admiral James D. Watkins

Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.--Adolph Hitler

In war, truth is the first casualty.--Aeschylus

Any excuse will serve a tyrant.--Aesop

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.--Agatha Christie

No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic.--A. J. P. Taylor

The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight.--A. J. P. Taylor

No war is inevitable until it breaks out.--A. J. P. Taylor

Wars based on principle are far more destructive...the attacker will not destroy that which he is after.--Alan Watts, "The Way of Zen"

We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives...inside ourselves.--Albert Camus

It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.--Albert Camus

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.--Albert Camus

The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.--Albert Camus

When a war breaks out, people say: "It's too stupid, it can't last long." But though a war may be "too stupid," that doesn't prevent its lasting.--Albert Camus

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.--Albert Einstein

Force always attracts men of low morality.--Albert Einstein

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.--Albert Einstein

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.--Albert Einstein

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.--Albert Einstein

Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.--Albert Einstein

How vile and despicable war seems to me! I would rather be hacked to pieces than take part in such an abominable business.--Albert Einstein

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.--Albert Einstein

It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own.--Albert J. Nock

What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood.--Aldous Huxley

The next war ... may well bury Western civilization forever.--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The demands of internal growth are incomparably more important to us...than the need for any external expansion of our power.--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change if we want to save life from self-destruction.--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder.--Alexander Berkman

War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood.--Alexander Berkman

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.--Alexander Hamilton

O peace! how many wars were waged in thy name.--Alexander Pope

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.--Alexis de Tocqueville

No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.--Alexis de Tocqueville

To all those who walk the path of human cooperation war must appear loathsome and inhuman.--Alfred Adler

Distorted history boasts of bellicose glory . . . and seduces the souls of boys to seek mystical bliss in bloodshed and in battles.--Alfred Adler

It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.--Alfred Adler

Our modern states are preparing for war without even knowing the future enemy.--Alfred Adler

War is not the continuation of politics with different means, it is the greatest mass-crime perpetrated on the community of man.--Alfred Adler

War is organized murder and torture against our brothers.--Alfred Adler

...Violence as a way of gaining power...is being camouflaged under the guise of tradition, national honor [and] national security...--Alfred Adler

At least we're getting the kind of experience we need for the next war.--Allen Dulles

The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.--Ambrose Bierce

"History is an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools."-- Ambrose Bierce, American writer, 1842-1914

Since the end of the World War II, the United States has fought three "small" wars...we lost all three of them and for the same reason--hubris.--Andrew Greely

Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty.--Anne Louise Germaine de Stael

Today the real test of power is not capacity to make war but capacity to prevent it.--Anne O'Hare McCormick

A great war leaves a country with three armies: an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.--Anonymous (German), from the Anti-War Quote Book.

The real triumph of civilization is the extent to which coercion is banished from human relations.--Anthony Gregory

Brute force is not our salvation, especially as directed by State central planning and done with little regard for the innocents...--Anthony Gregory

War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.--Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Make wars unprofitable and you make them impossible.--A. Philip Randolph

Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor.--A pirate, from St. Augustine's "City of God"

Old men declare war because they have failed to solve complex political and economic problems.--Arthur Hoppe

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.--Arthur Schopenhauer

Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives. --Ayn Rand

Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.--Ayn Rand

Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths...I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?--Barbara Bush

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.--Barbara Ehrenreich

What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise.--Barbara Jordan

War is the unfolding of miscalculations.--Barbara Tuchman

You've got to forget about this civilian. Whenever you drop bombs, you're going to hit civilians.--Barry Goldwater

The world cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and to seek peace like intellectual pygmies.--Basil O'Connor

War is never a solution; it is an aggravation.--Benjamin Disraeli

A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang.--Benjamin Franklin

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.--Benjamin Franklin

When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?--Benjamin Franklin

Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.--Benjamin Franklin

There never was a good war or a bad peace.--Benjamin Franklin

Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.--Benjamin Franklin

I hope....that mankind will at length, as they call themselves responsible creatures, have the reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats...--Benjamin Franklin

We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.--Benjamin Harrison

The Atomic Age is here to stay--but are we?--Bennett Cerf

Let us not deceive ourselves; we must elect world peace or world destruction.--Bernard M. Baruch

War does not determine who is right, only who is left.--Bertrand Russell

Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man.--Bertrand Russell

Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man has a right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has quarrel with mine, although I have none with him?--Blaise Pascal

The terrorist is the one with the small bomb.--Brendan Behan

Peace is constructed, not fought for.--Brent Davis

After each war there is a little less democracy left to save.--Brooks Atkinson

Blind faith in your leaders or in anything will get you killed.--Bruce Springsteen

Coercive practices that threaten our neighbor(s) also threaten us.--Butler Shaffer

The state has, in order to control us, introduced division into our thinking, so that we come to distrust others and look to the state for protection.--Butler Shaffer

In this war – as in others – I am less interested in honoring the dead than in preventing the dead.--Butler Shaffer

No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war.--Calvin Coolidge

Politics is the womb in which war develops.--Carl P. G. von Clausewitz

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.--Carl P. G. von Clausewitz

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.--Carl P. G. von Clausewitz

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.--Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu

A rational army would run away.--Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu

The voice of protest...is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum...is bidding all men...obey in silence the tyrannous word of command.--Charles Eliot Norton

If a war be undertaken...before the resources of peace have been tried and proved vain to secure it, that war has no defense, it is a national crime.--Charles Eliot Norton

War should be made a crime, and those who instigate it should be punished as criminals.--Charles Evans Hughes

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.--Charles-Louis De Secondat

Almost all war making states borrow extensively, raise taxes, and seize the means of combat- including men--from reluctant citizens...--Charles Tilly

Name me an emperor who was ever struck by a cannonball.--Charles V of France

The politicians in this world... have at their command weapons of mass destruction far more complex than their own thinking processes.--Charley Reese

We...are not really free if we can't control our own government and its policies. And we will never do that if we remain ignorant.--Charley Reese

The truth is that neither British nor American imperialism was or is idealistic. It has always been driven by economic or strategic interests.--Charley Reese

War, n: A time-tested political tactic guaranteed to raise a president’s popularity rating by at least 30 points. It is especially useful during election years and economic downturns.--Chaz Bufe

War in the end is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of soldiers by politicians, and of idealists by cynics.--Chris Hedges

The failure to dissect the cause of war leaves us open for the next installment.--Chris Hedges

In war, we always deform ourselves, our essence.--Chris Hedges

After victory, you have more enemies.--Cicero

True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.--Clarence Darrow

Hell hath no fury like a non-combatant.--C.L. Montague

War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.--Colin Powell

Chauvinism is a proud and bellicose form of patriotism...which equates the national honor with military victory.--Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps

The dangerous patriot...drifts into chauvinism and exhibits blind enthusiasm for military actions.--Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps

The dangerous patriot...is a defender of militarism and its ideals of war and glory.--Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps

You cannot be on one hand dedicated to peace and on the other dedicated to violence. Those two things are irreconcilable.--Condoleeza Rice

Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms.--Congressman Ron Paul

War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures.--Congressman Ron Paul

As a rule of thumb, if the government wants you to know it, it probably isn't true. --Craig Murray

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised "for the good of its victims" may be the most oppressive.--C. S. Lewis

Do not waste time bothering whether you "love" your neighbor; act as if you did.--C.S. Lewis

Peace will be realized only by forging bonds of trust between people at the deepest level, in the depths of their very lives.--Daisaku Ikeda

I am a steadfast follower of the doctrine of non-violence which was first preached by Lord Buddha, whose divine wisdom is absolute...--Dalai Lama

All forms of violence, especially war, are totally unacceptable as means to settle disputes between and among nations, groups and persons.--Dalai Lama

When the largest industry in the world is no longer War, I will accept Darwin's theory of Evolution.--Dale S. Mugford

Today the real test of America's power and wisdom is not our capacity to make war but our capacity to prevent it.--Dale Turner

Societies can be sunk by the weight of buried ugliness.--Daniel Goleman

There is nothing politically right that is morally wrong.--Daniel O'Connell

Tis nobler to lose honor to save the lives of men than it is to gain honor by taking them.--David Borenstein

You cannot win a War on Terrorism. It’s like having a war on jealousy.--David Cross

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.--David Friedman

The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny...--David Hume

You are not going to get peace with millions of armed men. The chariot of peace cannot advance over a road littered with cannon.--David Lloyd

War creates peace like hate creates love.--David L. Wilson

Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.--Davy Crockett

From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.--Denis Diderot

The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.--Dick Cheney

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.--Donald Rumsfeld

There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact.--Donald Rumsfeld

Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism.--Dorothy Thompson

Peace...is the product of Faith, Strength, Energy, Will, Sympathy, Justice, Imagination, and the triumph of principle.--Dorothy Thompson

It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives.--Dorothy Thompson

Dress it as we may...huzza it, and sing swaggering songs about it, what is war, nine times out of ten, but murder in uniform?--Douglas Jerrold

The best defense is no offense.--Dr. Ivan Eland

We must pursue peaceful end through peaceful means.--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Rules of engagement" are a set of guidelines for murder.--Dr. Teresa Whitehurst

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.--Dr. Wayne Dyer

Nothing except a battle lost can be half as melancholy as a battle won.--Duke of Wellington

War settles nothing.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

This world of ours...must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

You can't have this kind of war. There just aren't enough bulldozers to scrape the bodies off the streets.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

How far can you go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?--Dwight D. Eisenhower

Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war.--E. B. White

Wisdom is better than weapons of war.--Ecclesiastes 9:18

I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.--Edmund Burke

Tyrants seldom want pretexts.--Edmund Burke

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.--Edward Abbey

The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other--instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.--Edward Abbey

A Patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.--Edward Abbey

Our "neoconservatives" are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell.--Edward Abbey

Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.--Edward Everett

As long as mankind shall bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst for military glory will remain the vice of the most exalted characters.--Edward Gibbon

Violence is an admission that one's ideas and goals cannot prevail on their own merits.--Edward M. Kennedy

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.--Edward R. Murrow

All the gods are dead except the god of war.--Eldridge Cleaver

All wars eventually act as boomerangs and the victor suffers as much as the vanquished.--Eleanor Roosevelt

It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.--Eleanor Roosevelt

Rulers who want to unleash war know very well that they must procure or invent a first victim.--Elias Canetti

My theory is, strong people don't need strong leaders.--Ella Baker

The worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being.--Ellen Key

Most quarrels are inevitable at the time; incredible afterwards.--E. M. Forster

History is littered with wars which everybody knew would never happen.--Enoch Powell

The first casualty of war is not truth, but perspective. Once that's gone, truth, like compassion, reason, and all the other virtues, wanders around like a wounded orphan.--Ente Grillenhaft

War is the blackest villainy of which human nature is capable.--Erasmus

Dulce bellum inexpertis (War is delightful to the inexperienced).--Erasmus, the 16th-century scholar

History is replete with examples of empires mounting impressive military campaigns on the cusp of their impending economic collapse.--Eric Alterman

A hospital alone shows what war is.--Erich Maria Remarque

You can wipe out your opponents. But if you do it unjustly you become eligible for being wiped out yourself.--Ernest Hemingway

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.--Ernest Hemingway

No weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one.--Ernest Hemingway

The 1st panacea of a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the 2nd is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; a permanent ruin.--Ernest Hemingway

For me war has become a flat, black depression without highlights, a revulsion of the mind and an exhaustion of the spirit.--Ernie Pyle

No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.--Eugene Debs

God hates violence. He has ordained that all men fairly possess their property, not seize it. --Euripides

Wars should be over in three days or less...and the American people must be all for it from the outset.--Evan Thomas

I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, ‘Mother, what was war?'--Eve Merriam

'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.--FA Hayek

We need a type of patriotism that recognizes the virtues of those who are opposed to us.--Francis John McConnell

We must get away from the idea that America is to be the leader of the world in everything.--Francis John McConnell

The pertinent question: if Americans did not want these wars should they have been compelled to fight them?--Frank Chodorov

The State acquires power... and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of giving up any of it. The State never abdicates.--Frank Chodorov

All wars come to an end, at least temporarily. But the authority acquired by the state hangs on; political power never abdicates.--Frank Chodorov

All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.--Frank Herbert

It is not that power corrupts but that power is a magnet to the corruptible.--Frank Herbert

The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people.--Frank Kent

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.--Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.--Franklin D. Roosevelt

The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.--Frederick Douglass

If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army.--Frederick the Great

Wars are the hobbies of half-informed children who have somehow come into possession of the levers of power.--Fred Reed

When goods don't cross borders, soldiers will.--Fredric Bastiat

Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it.--Friedrich Hebbel, German poet and dramatist

Under conditions of peace the warlike man attacks himself.--Friedrich Nietzsche

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.--Friedrich Nietzsche

If, finally, violence meets with violence, we have confirmation of the age old adage that war though it kills many men, makes many more men evil.--Fritz Medicus

The winds that blow our billions away return burdened with themes of scorn and dispraise.--Garet Garrett

With no notice to the American people...this country entered the war...Stranger than the fact was the passive acceptance of it.--Garet Garrett

Is it security you want? There is no security at the top of the world.--Garet Garrett

War is a tool of the rich that sucks blood and money from the poor on both sides. Gary Amirault

Why is it that “compassionate” conservative, gun toting, patriotic, politically right wing Christians usually behave and speak more like Jewish Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers and scribes than Jesus Christ?--Gary Amirault

What makes a mother pour her very life into a child; take it to Sunday school to learn how to overcome enemies with love (Matt. 5:38-48) and then hands it over to a recruiter who brainwashes it to kill anyone on command? Mothers, end this insanity!--Gary Amirault

Only the winners decide what were war crimes.--Gary Wills

I want to scare the hell out of the rest of the world.--General Colin Powell

In war, as it is waged now, with the enormous losses on both sides, both sides will lose. It is a form of mutual suicide.--General Douglas MacArthur

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency.--General Douglas MacArthur

I believe that the entire effort of modern society should be concentrated on the endeavor to outlaw war as a method of the solution of problems between nations.--General Douglas MacArthur

It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear.--General Douglas MacArthur

Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificually induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear.--General Douglas MacArthur

Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it.--General Douglas MacArthur

As far as I am concerned, war itself is immoral.--General Omar Bradley

War: A wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization.--General Omar N. Bradley

We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.--General Omar N. Bradley

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.--General Omar N. Bradley

War is just a racket...I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else.--General Smedley Butler

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. --General Smedley Butler

War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.--General Smedley Butler

There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.--General Smedley Butler

My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military.--General Smedley Butler (USMC, Ret.)

It is painful enough to discover with what unconcern they speak of war and threaten it. I have seen enough of it to make me look upon it as the sum of all evils.--General Stonewall Jackson

People who are anxious to bring on war don’t know what they are bargaining for; they don’t see all the horrors that must accompany such an event.--General Stonewall Jackson

Putting aside all the fancy words and academic doubletalk, the basic reason for having a military is to do two jobs --to kill people and to destroy.--General Thomas S. Power

Any forces that would impose their will on other nations will certainly face defeat.--General Vo Nguyen Giap (Vietnam)

War is at best barbarism. Its glory is all moonshine...War is hell.--General William Tecumseh Sherman

It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.--General William Tecumseh Sherman

Vietnam was the first war ever fought without censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.--General William Westmoreland

War is fear cloaked in courage.--General William Westmoreland

The military doesn't start wars. The politicians start wars.--General William Westmoreland

Cruelty must be whitewashed by a moral excuse, and pretense of reluctance.--George Bernard Shaw

Man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid...There is no harm in a well-fed lion. It has no ideals, no sect, no party...--George Bernard Shaw

I can tell you this: If I’m ever in a position to call the shots, I’m not going to rush to send somebody else’s kids into a war.--George H. W. Bush

There can be no public or private virtue unless the foundation of action is the practice of truth.--George Jacob Holyoake

I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.--George McGovern

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.--George Orwell

War is a way of shattering to pieces...materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and...too intelligent.--George Orwell

The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.--George Orwell

The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.--George Orwell

All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.--George Orwell

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.--George Orwell

The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.--George Orwell

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.--George Orwell

Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable--George Orwell

War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.--Georges Clemenceau

It is far easier to make war than peace.--Georges Clemenceau

Hate is able to provoke disorders, to ruin a social organization, to cast a country into a period of bloody revolutions; but it produces nothing.--Georges Sorel

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.--George Washington

The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.--George Washington

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.--George Washington

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force...Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.--George Washington

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.--George Washington

It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world.--George Washington

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.--George Washington

Our nation is somewhat sad, but we’re angry. There’s a certain level of blood lust, but we won’t let it drive our reaction. We’re steady, clear-eyed and patient, but pretty soon we’ll have to start displaying scalps.--George W. Bush

We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace.--George W. Bush

...the role of the military is to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place.--George W. Bush

If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.--George W. Bush

I think war is a dangerous place.--George W. Bush

If we don’t stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, we’re going to have a serious problem coming down the road.--George W. Bush

Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is.--George W. Bush

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful...They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.--George W. Bush

Evil men, obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience, must be taken very seriously--and we must stop them before their crimes can multiply.--George W. Bush

Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction.--George W. Bush

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.--George W. Bush

These people are trying to shake the will of the Iraqi citizens, and they want us to leave...I think the world would be better off if we did leave...--George W. Bush (on Iraqi Insurgency)

What experience and history teach is this—that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.--Georg W. Hegel

Don't regard yourself as a guardian of freedom unless you respect and preserve the rights of people you disagree with...--Gerard K. O'Neill

Dictators have always played on the natural human tendency to blame others and to oversimplify.--Gerard K. O'Neill

A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.--German proverb

The only defensible war is a war of defense.--G. K. Chesterton

A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over...is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen.--G. K. Chesterton

"My country right or wrong" is like saying, "My mother drunk or sober."--G. K. Chesterton

There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance.--Goethe

There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse.--Golda Meir

Every move we make in fear of the next war in fact hastens it.--Gregory Bateson

Are bombs the only way of setting fire to the spirit of a people? Is the human will as inert as the past two world-wide wars would indicate? --Gregory Clark

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.--Groucho Marx

Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck.--Guy de Maupassant

Although tyranny...may successfully rule over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it destroys first of all the national institutions of its own people.--Hannah Arendt

The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is a more violent world.--Hannah Arendt

The chief qualification of a mass leader has become unending infallibility; he can never admit an error.--Hannah Arendt

War is a bankruptcy of policy--Hans Van Seeckt

War is the most striking instance of the failure of intelligence to master the problem of human relationships.--Harry Elmer Barnes

I hate war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatreds it arouses... --Harry Emerson Fosdick

The tragedy of war is that it uses man’s best to do man’s worst.--Harry Emerson Fosdick

I hate war...for the dictatorships it puts in the place of democracies, and for the starvation that stalks after it.--Harry Emerson Fosdick

The responsibility of the great states is to serve, and not to dominate, the world.--Harry S. Truman

Mankind is becoming a single unit, and that for a unit to fight against itself is suicide. --Havelock Ellis

Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought!--Helen Keller

Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction!--Helen Keller

War brings out the most negative emotional human responses on both sides.--Henk Middelraad

Emphasis on military prowess is an indication of philosophical poverty.--Henk Middelraad

Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide.--Henri Barbusse

There is nothing that war has ever achieved that we could not better achieve without it.--Henry Havelock Ellis

It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true.--Henry Kissinger

What political leaders decide, intelligence services tend to seek to justify.--Henry Kissinger

It is for us to refuse loyalty when injustice holds sway.--Henry T. Laurency

It is the youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow...that are the aftermath of war.--Herbert C. Hoover

Old men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.--Herbert C. Hoover

A visitor from Mars could easily pick out the civilized nations. They have the best implements of war.--Herbert V. Prochnow

The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.--Herman Goering

Every politician in the world is all for revolution, reason, and disarmament--but only in enemy countries, not in his own.--Hermann Hesse

In peace, sons bury their fathers; in war, fathers bury their sons.--Herodotus

A time will come when a politician who has willfully made war and promoted international dissension will be...surer of the noose than a private homicide.--H. G. Wells

It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not pay with their own.--H. G. Wells

I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.--H. L. Mencken

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.--H. L. Mencken

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.--H. L. Mencken

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. --H.L. Mencken

Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right.--H.L. Mencken

When fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.--H.L. Menken

Force without judgement falls on its own weight.--Horace

During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.--Howard Thurman

One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression.--Howard Zinn

How can you make a war on terror if war itself is terrorism?--Howard Zinn

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.--Howard Zinn

Historically, the most terrible things--war, genocide and slavery--have resulted from obedience, not disobedience.--Howard Zinn

It's more humane to cure your enemies than to kill them.--Hugh Mann

Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people...--Hugo Black, Supreme Court Justice

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.--Hugo Black, Supreme Court Justice

Suspicion must always fall on those who attempt to silence their opponents.--Ian Buckley

Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: ‘War is bad in that it begets more evil than it kills.'--Immanuel Kant

It is not only the living who are killed in war. --Isaac Asimov

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.--Issac Asimov

We believed ourselves indestructable... watching only the madmen outside our frontiers, and we remained defenseless against our own madmen.--Jacobo Timerman

I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.--James Baldwin

Freedom is whatever the president says it is, pending revision.--James Bovard

Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.--James Bryce

Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity.--James Bryce

We cloak ourselves in cold indifference to the unnecessary suffering of others--even when we cause it.--James Carroll

We carefully nurture a spirit of detachment toward the wars we pay for.--James Carroll

The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad.--James Madison

All men having power ought to be mistrusted.--James Madison

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.--James Madison

War...should only be declared by the authority of the people...instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.--James Madison

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.--James Madison

It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.--James Madison

The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature.--James Madison

War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement--James Madison

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.--James Madison

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps the most to be dreaded because it compromises and develops the germ of every other. --James Madison

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.--James Madison

The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it.--James Madison

A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.--James Madison

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.--James Madison

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.--James Madison

In any war, the first casualty is common sense, and the second is free and open discussion.--James Reston

Even the most piddling life is of momentous consequence to its owner.--James Wolcott

The lies the government and media tell are amplifications of the lies we tell ourselves. To stop being conned, stop conning yourself.--James Wolcott

It’s one thing to fight for what you believe in, another thing to fight for what others believe in.--James Wolcott

Every man thinks god is on his side.--Jean Anouilh

We have war when at least one of the parties to a conflict wants something more than it wants peace. --Jeane J. Kirkpatrick

You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.--Jeanette Rankin

After every ''victory'' you have more enemies. --Jeanette Winterson

Man was/is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One who believes himself the master of others is nonetheless a greater slave than they.--Jean Jaques Rousseau

Killing a man in defense of an idea is not defending an idea; it is killing a man.--Jean -Luc Godard

Total war is no longer war waged by all members of one national community against all those of another. It is total...because it may well involve the whole world.--Jean-Paul Sartre

...Uncalled-for aggression arouses the hatred of the civilian population...--Jean-Paul Sartre

It is always more valuable to report the truth.--Jean-Paul Sartre

Human failure of communication and failed diplomacy between Nations should not yield the ultimate sacrifice; a life.--Jerome G. Fenster

I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security.--Jim Garrison

There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.--Jimmy Carter

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.--Jimmy Carter

A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished.--Johan Christoph Schiller

The coward threatens when he is safe.--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.--John 8:32

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak...--John Adams

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.--John Adams

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.--John Adams

The real fabric of American society is not all those flags you see on people's cars...it's in the Bill of Rights and in our constitutional form of government.--John Adams

Yes, we love peace, but we are not willing to take wounds for it, as we are for war.--John Andrew Holmes

If this phrase of the 'balance of power' is to be always an argument for war, the pretext for war will never be wanting, and peace can never be secure.--John Bright

It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.--John C. Calhoun

War is the cemetery of futures promised. --John Cory

War is eternity jammed into frantic minutes that will fill a lifetime with dreams and nightmares.--John Cory

War is the tool of small-minded scoundrels who worship the death of others on the altar of their greed. --John Cory

There is no morality in war. Morality is the privilege of those judging from the distance. War is only death and destruction...--John Cory

There are no politics in war. Politics is the luxury of the safe-at-home. War is a lottery of survival.--John Cory

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.--John F. Kennedy

The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.--John F. Kennedy

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.--John F. Kennedy

Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes...can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.--John F. Kennedy

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values.--John F. Kennedy

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.--John F. Kennedy

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.--John F. Kennedy

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie: deliberate, continued, and dishonest; but the myth: persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.--John F. Kennedy

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.--John F. Kennedy

We are all familiar with the argument: Make war dreadful enough, and there will be no war. And we none of us believe it.--John Galsworthy

Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew.--John Greenleaf Whittier

There is neither rank nor station nor prerogative in the republic of the grave.--John James Ingalls

War remains the decisive human failure.--John Kenneth Galbraith

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.--John Lennon

War is organized murder.
"War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday living. We precipitate war out of our daily lives; and without a transformation in ourselves, there are bound to be national and racial antagonisms, the childish quarreling over ideologies, the multiplication of soldiers, the saluting of flags, and all the many brutalities that go to create organized murder." - J. Krishnamurti

All mankind...being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.--John Locke

For what can war, but endless war, still breed?--John Milton

The hardest thing for me in Vietnam wasn't seeing the wounded and dead. It was watching the big transport jets come in, bringing loads of fresh new boys for the war.--Johnny Cash

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. --John Quincy Adams

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.--John Stuart Mill

Imperialism is an institution under which one nation asserts the right to seize the land or at least to control the government or resources of another people.--John T. Flynn

Those who suppress freedom always do so in the name of law and order.--John V. Lindsay

The opposite of war is not peace, it's creation.--Jonathan Larson

There is but one evil, war. All the other proclaimed evils such as hate, greed, descrimination, and jealousy are only sub-categories of it.--Jose Barreiro

In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.--Jose Narosky

Our poverty will be brought home to us to its full extent only after the war. --Joseph A. Schumpeter

Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.--Joseph Goebbels

I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private individuals.--Joseph Heller

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.--Josh Billings

We have all taken risks in the making of war. Isn't it time that we should take risks to secure peace?--J. Ramsay MacDonald

We shall never be able to effect physical disarmament until we have succeeded in effecting moral disarmament.--J. Ramsay MacDonald

Governments use national animosities, foreign wars and the glamour of empire-making, in order to...divert rising sentiment against domestic abuses.--J. R. Hobson

Freedom is to understand, and to be unbounded by that freedom.--Juan C. Mustelier

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.--Julia Ward Howe

To declare that the end justifies the means, to declare that the government may commit crimes, would bring terrible retribution.--Justice Louis D. Brandeis

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.--Justice Louis D. Brandeis

It is not the function of government to keep the citizen from error, it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.--Justice Robert Jackson

We have to show the American People that war is not patriotic.--Justin Raimondo

Where is the justice of political power if it...marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?--Kahlil Gibran

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer?--Kahlil Gibran

Vietnam should remind conservatives that whenever you put your faith in big government for any reason, sooner or later you wind up an apologist for mass murder.--Karl Hess

War: first, one hopes to win...in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.--Karl Kraus

War is the continuation of politics by other means.--Karl Von Clausewitz

War doesn't make boys men, it makes men dead.--Ken Gillespie

I am not against all wars--just whichever is current.--Ken Gillespie

It takes twenty years or more of peace to make a man; it only takes twenty seconds of war to destroy him.--King Baudouin I of Belgium

Peace has its victories no less than war, but it doesn't have as many monuments to unveil.--Kin Hubbard

Wars frequently begin ten years before the first shot is fired. --K. K. V. Casey

The war on terrorism is akin to the war on drugs…unwinable, unless you kill everyone…or address the root causes.--K. W. Ibrahim

The reality right now is that the most dangerous opinion in the world is the opinion of a U.S. serviceman.--Lance Cpl. Devin Kelly (USMC)

Only fools seek power, and the greatest fools seek it through force.--Lao Tsu

Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself.--Lao Tzu

How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?--Lao Tzu

Phony pretexts repeated often enough become real reasons. Things that...are not true become true in the public mind simply through endless repetition.--Lenny Bloom

The greater the state, the more wrong and cruel its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded.--Leo Tolstoy

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.--Leo Tolstoy

What an immense mass of evil must result...from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen.--Leo Tolstoy

We must not only cease our present desire for the growth of the state, but we must desire its decrease, its weakening...--Leo Tolstoy

People who talk of outlawing the atomic bomb are mistaken — what needs to be outlawed is war.--Leslie Richard Groves

War is both the product of an earlier corruption, and a producer of new corruptions.--Lewis Mumford

In war, the army is not merely a pure consumer, but a negative producer...--Lewis Mumford

Misery, mutilation, destruction, terror, starvation and death characterize the process of war and form a principal part of the product.--Lewis Mumford

War vies with magic in its efforts to get something for nothing...--Lewis Mumford

The greatest protection against war is a well educated populace.--L.L. Castetter

How does one prevail in war? Both sides have already lost.--Logan Kodysz

War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation.--Lois McMaster Bujold

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the party that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.--Lord Acton

Where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. --Lord Acton

Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice.--Lord Acton

War’s a brain spattering windpipe splitting art.--Lord Byron

Don't talk to me about atrocities; all war is an atrocity.--Lord Kitchener (Horatio Herbert)

Whether or not patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, national security can be the last refuge of the tyrant.--Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe

One does not create a human society on mounds of corpses. --Louis Lecoin

Acts of terror have never brought down liberal democracies. Acts of parliament have closed a few.--Lt. General William E. Odom, US Army (Ret.),

It's quite fun to fight 'em, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling.--Lt. Gen. James Mattis, USMC

Economically considered, war and revolution are always bad business.--Ludwig von Mises

Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking.--Ludwig von Mises

Only one thing can conquer war--that attitude of mind which can see nothing in war but destruction and annihilation...--Ludwig von Mises

The attainment of the economic aims of man presupposes peace.--Ludwig von Mises

The essence of so-called war prosperity; it enriches some by what it takes from others. It is not rising wealth but a shifting of wealth and income.--Ludwig von Mises

History has witnessed the failure of many endeavors to impose peace by war, cooperation by coercion, unanimity by slaughtering dissidents…. A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets.--Ludwig von Mises

The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments.--Ludwig von Mises

A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets.--Ludwig von Mises

To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war.--Ludwig von Mises

Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism.--Ludwig von Mises

War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings.--Ludwig von Mises

Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.--Ludwig von Mises

Whoever wants peace among nations must seek to limit the state and its influence most strictly.--Ludwig von Mises

The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.--Ludwig von Mises

War...is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror.--Ludwig von Mises

Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father of all things.--Ludwig von Mises

To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war.--Ludwig von Mises

War can really cause no economic boom, at least not directly, since an increase in wealth never does result from destruction of goods.--Ludwig von Mises

The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war.--Ludwig von Mises

Sovereignty must not be used for inflicting harm on anyone, whether citizen or foreigner.--Ludwig von Mises

Modern society, based as it is on the division of labor, can be preserved only under conditions of lasting peace.--Ludwig von Mises

Men are fighting...because they are convinced that the extermination of adversaries is the only means of promoting their own well-being.--Ludwig von Mises

If men do not now succeed in abolishing war, civilization and mankind are doomed.--Ludwig von Mises

The root of the evil is not the construction of new, more dreadful weapons. It is the spirit of conquest.--Ludwig von Mises

If some peoples pretend that history or geography gives them the right to subjugate other races, nations, or peoples, there can be no peace.--Ludwig von Mises

Wars of aggression are popular nowadays with those nations convinced that only victory and conquest could improve their material well-being.--Ludwig von Mises

[War] might be avoidable were more emphasis placed on the training to social interest, less on the attainment of egotistical grandeur.--Lydia Sicher

As long as we can talk with people, as long as one can keep the guns quiet, one has a chance.--Lydia Sicher

Wars are inevitable... as long as we believe that wars are inevitable. The moment we don't believe it anymore it is not inevitable.--Lydia Sicher

The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure.--Lyndon B. Johnson

Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.--Mahatma Gandhi

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.--Mahatma Gandhi

Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood.--Mahatma Gandhi

An eye for an eye makes us all blind.--Mahatma Gandhi

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.--Mahatma Gandhi

There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. --Mahatma Gandhi

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?--Mahatma Gandhi

Was not war itself a crime against God and humanity, and therefore, were not all those who sanctioned, engineered and conducted wars, war criminals?--Mahatma Gandhi

The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault.--Major Ralph Peters, US Military

You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or who says it.--Malcolm X

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.--Marcus Aurelius

The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.--Marcus Aurelius

The more laws, the less justice.--Marcus Tullius Cicero

The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.--Marcus Tullius Cicero

The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall.--Marcus Tullius Cicero

The sinews of war are infinite money.--Marcus Tullius Cicero

What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage.--Marcus Tullius Cicero

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.--Margaret Mead

The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.--Marie Beyle

It takes more courage to get out of a war than it does to get into one.--Mark Couturier

Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't.--Mark Twain

Man is the only animal that is cruel. It kills just for the sake of it.--Mark Twain

I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.--Mark Twain

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your governmant when it deserves it.--Mark Twain

Look at you in war...There has never been a just one, never an honorable one, on the part of the instigator of the war.--Mark Twain

Why, the Government is merely...a temporary servant...Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.--Mark Twain

The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is being attacked, and every man will be glad of these conscience-soothing falsities--Mark Twain

Be loyal to your country always, and to the government only when it deserves it.--Mark Twain

Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain.--Marquis de Sade

Is it not a strange blindness on our part to teach publicly the techniques of warfare and to reward with medals those who prove to be the most adroit killers?--Marquis de Sade

Let not your zeal to share your principles entice you beyond your borders.--Marquis de Sade

What is more immoral than war?--Marquis de Sade

War is the greatest plague that can affect humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.--Martin Luther

We all have to be concerned about terrorism, but you will never end terrorism by terrorizing others.--Martin Luther King III

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

The chain reaction of evil--wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have condemned any organizer of war, regardless of his rank or nationality.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nothing good ever comes of violence.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle...your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

We have guided missiles and misguided men.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. --Martin Luther King, Jr.

I hate those men who would send into war youth to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die.--Mary Roberts Rinehart

One can...never create [freedom] by an invading force.--Maximilien Robespierre

Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional.--Max Lucade

Politics and crime are the same thing.--Michael Corleone (from "The Godfather: Part III")

Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power.--Michael Gillespie

Follow not the person carrying flag nor sword, for they will invariably lead you to a cliff and a mighty fall.--Michael Hall

The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda ccomplishments.
--Michael Parenti

To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man.--Michael Servetus

One day the end of the world will come as a result of a 'justified' war.--Mikhail Gofman, Antiwar.com reader

An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.--Montesquieu

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.--Moshe Dayan

The State thrives on war – unless, of course, it is defeated and crushed – expands on it, glories in it.--Murray Rothbard

All government wars are unjust.--Murray Rothbard

It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society.--Murray Rothbard

...The very nature of interstate war puts innocent civilians into great jeopardy, especially with modern technology.--Murray Rothbard

War is the business of barbarians.--Napoleon Bonaparte

In the eyes of empire builders men are not men but instruments.--Napoleon Bonaparte

There are only two powers in the world: the sword and the mind. In the long run, the sword is always defeated by the mind.--Napoleon Bonaparte

War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man. --Napoleon Hill

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.--Nelson Mandela

Let us become inspired by inherent beauty, and not impassioned by manufactured hate.--Nima Shirali, Middle Eastern Reconciliation Forum

Let us form a new religion, that which would be called 'humanity', with 'peace' as its prophet.--Nima Shirali, Middle Eastern Reconciliation Forum

It's very common for the victims to understand a system better than the people who are holding the stick.--Noam Chomsky

There are many terrorist states in the world, but the United States is unusual in that it is officially committed to international terrorism.--Noam Chomsky

To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public.--Noam Chomsky

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.--Noam Chomsky

You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.--Noam Chomsky

The only security for the American people today, or for any people, is to be found through the control of force rather than the use of force.--Norman Cousins

Where is the indignation about the fact that the US and USSR have thirty thousand pounds of destructive force for every human being in the world? --Norman Cousins

To initiate a war of aggression...is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.--Nuremburg War Tribunal

Some explanations of a crime are not explanations: they're part of the crime.--Olavo de Cavarlho

It is finer to bring one noble human being into the world and rear it well...than to kill ten thousand.--Olive Schreiner

Have you ever thought that war is a madhouse and that everyone in the war is a patient?--Oriana Fallaci

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.--Oscar Wilde

Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.--Otto von Bismarck

If we don't stop behaving like the British Empire, we will end up like the British Empire.--Pat Buchanan

War is a failure of human intelligence.--Patricia Sun

[War] comes from an immature style of thinking where creativity and overview is scarce.--Patricia Sun

War comes from our being immature, fearful, and injured, and not being able to concieve of other ways of solving problems.--Patricia Sun

No one has deputized America to play Wyatt Earp to the world.--Patrick J. Buchanan

If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war.--Pentagon Official (unnamed )

War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade.--Percy Bysshe Shelley

Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder.--Percy Bysshe Shelley

If you love this land of the free, bring 'em home, bring 'em home, Bring 'em back from overseas.--Pete Seeger

I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war...suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the same old lessons on its own.--Phillip Caputo

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.--Plato

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.--Plato

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.--Plato

Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of men.--Pope John Paul II

War is a defeat for humanity.--Pope John Paul II

Humanity should question itself, once more, about the absurd and always unfair phenomenon of war...--Pope John Paul II

Will . . . the threat of common extermination continue?. . . Must children receive the arms race from us as a necessary inheritance?--Pope John Paul II

Wars generally do not resolve the problems for which they are fought and therefore...prove ultimately futile.--Pope John Paul II

You lose nothing through peace. You can lose everything through war.--Pope Pius XII

To wage war, you need first of all money; second, you need money, and third, you also need money.--Prince Montecuccoli

One more such victory and we are undone.--Pyrrhus of Epirus

During war, the laws are silent.--Quintus Tullius Cicero

There are no warlike people--just warlike leaders.--Ralph Bunche

Violence is not power, but the absence of power.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

The real and lasting victories are those of peace and not of war.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

War is not a word, it's an acronym for "Wasting Another's Resources."--Ramman Kenoun

Killing someone is the ultimate crime, while on the other hand, killing someone in uniform is fulfillment of duty.--Ramman Kenoun

Humanity is quite a unique species, since it is the only one with the means to wipe itself out.--Ramman Kenoun

All it takes is a single act of aggression to permanently wound a nation's reputation.--Ramman Kenoun

The tyrant always talks as if he's preserving the best interests of his people when he actually acts to undermine them.--Ramman Kenoun

Conflict is the criminals' paradise; it is the only time when killing is allowed, theft is tolerated, and rape is forgiven. --Ramman Kenoun

Patriotism lies not in blind obedience to authority, but in the desire to search for the truth.--Ramman Kenoun

The only antidote to the poison of war is the public's courage to disagree with their leader.--Ramman Kenoun

The occupation and robbery of a nation occurs under the illusion of freeing its citizens from brutal oppression.--Ramman Kenoun

The soldier's main enemy is not the opposing soldier, but his own commander.--Ramman Kenoun

A tyrant has succeeded in his search for absolute power when his own people fear to question his actions.--Ramman Kenoun

Good leaders serve the interests of their people, while unfit leaders exploit their citizens to serve their own.--Ramman Kenoun

How is it possible for people to consider themselves supporters of the troops when they approve of an event that throws those troops into...peril?--Ramman Kenoun

War may be only temporary, but its toll remains permanently.--Ramman Kenoun

Power is usurped from the people, first by implementing fear, then it is maintained by slandering as 'unpatriotic' those who refuse submission.--Ramman Kenoun

It is frightening how the actions of a single leader can have such drastic effects on the prestige of an entire nation.--Ramman Kenoun

It's truly ironic how self-proclaimed 'patriots' have a tendency to support those who seek to undermine their country.--Ramman Kenoun

A man who kills on his own is a murderer. A man who kills at his government's request is a national hero.--Ramman Kenoun

In war, there are no winners.--Ramman Kenoun

Think of war as a game of Russian roulette. It is a game of chance with your life as the grand prize.--Ramman Kenoun

War is the Health of the State.--Randolph Bourne

One keeps healthy in wartime...by a vigorous assertion of values in which war has no part.--Randolph Bourne

Either war is obsolete, or men are.--R. Buckminster Fuller

War is the ultimate tool of politics.--R. Buckminster Fuller

I hate it when they say, ‘He gave his life for his country.’ They don’t die for the honor and glory of their country. We kill them.--Rear Admiral Gene R. LaRocque

War has become a spectator sport for Americans.--Rear Admiral Gene R. LaRocque

They talk about conscription as a democratic institution. Yes; so is a cemetery.--Rep. Meyer London

Why should you ask blood be spilled for a cause that is not in the interest of the American people?--Rep. Wally Herger

We may extend our dominion over the whole continent...but be assured it will be at the price of our free institutions.--Rep. William Waters Boyce

Patriotism at the expense of another nation is as wicked as racism at the expense of another race...Let us resolve to be patriots always, nationalists never.--Rev. William Sloane Coffin

Wars have ever been but another aristocratic mode of plundering and oppressing commerce.--Richard Cobden

Washington...has become an alien city-state that rules America, and much of the rest of the world, in the way that Rome ruled the Roman Empire.--Richard Maybury

When we fill our souls up with creativity, artistry and intelligence ...we have a better chance at avoiding the behavior that leads to destruction.--Rick DellaRatta

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so...--Robert A. Heinlein

I do not believe any policy which has behind it the threat of military force is justified as part of the basic foreign policy of the United States except to defend the liberty of our own people.--Robert A. Taft

What a cruel thing is war...to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world.--Robert E. Lee

The war...was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forebearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides.--Robert E. Lee

What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness god has given us in this world...
--Robert E. Lee

This much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.--Robert F. Kennedy

Since the end of the nineteenth century, if not earlier, presidents have misled the public about their motives and their intentions in going to war.--Robert Higgs

When American presidents prepare for foreign wars, they lie.--Robert Higgs

...History shows that ... (people) can be deflected from their natural tendencies by artful propaganda, bogus crises, or other political trickery.--Robert Higgs

It is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.--Robert H. Jackson

The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.--Robert Lynd

Never is the power of the state greater, and never are the forces of political parties of opposition less effective, than at the outbreak of war.--Robert Michels

If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another.--Robert M. LaFollette

The maintenance of the right of criticism in the long run will do the country...more good than it will do the enemy.--Robert Taft

There were no international terrorists in Iraq until we went in. It was we who gave the perfect conditions in which Al Qaeda could thrive.--Robin Cook

The world should be worried about those who go around the planet with a can of gasoline in one hand and a box of matches in the other, pretending to sell fire insurance.--Rodrigue Tremblay

The world should take notice when someone...with a fanatic mind and with powerful means, receives his marching orders from Heaven.--Rodrigue Tremblay

Wars of aggression are the most barbarous of all human endeavors and are, more often than not, the instruments of insane tyrants who hear voices.--Rodrigue Tremblay

I learned nothing from war. War is not an activity for human beings; war is for criminals—rape, robbery and murder.--Roman Podabedov (Russian anti-tank gunner)

Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.--Ronald Reagan

People do not make wars; governments do.--Ronald Reagan

...no mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.--Ronald Reagan

The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor.--Ronald Reagan

History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.--Ronald Reagan

We must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.--Ronald Reagan

Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.--Ronald Reagan

Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will.--Ronald Reagan

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.--Ronald Reagan

A people free to choose will always choose peace.--Ronald Reagan

The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people.--Ron Paul

If you sacrifice liberty for security, you will lose both.--Ron Paul

Do they think if we destroy our freedoms for the terrorists they will no longer have a reason to attack us?--Ron Paul

Terror is a tactic. We can not wage "war" against a tactic.--Ron Paul

Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.--Rosa Luxemburg

Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things.--Russell Baker

The fact that certain planets are uninhabited may very well derive from the fact that their nuclear scientist are more advanced than ours.--Salon Gahlin, Swedish author

No one has ever succeeded in keeping nations at war except by lies.--Salvador de Madariaga

How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!--Samuel Adams

War--after all, what is it that the people get? Why--widows, taxes, wooden legs and debt.--Samuel B. Pettengill

If you support any offensive war, consider yourself just as culpable of murder as the most insane serial killer.--Sarah Bellum

Not only is war a form of legalized murder, but it is mass serial killing.--Sarah Bellum

I'd like to think the best bunker buster is a diplomat.--Scott Ritter

We are the ones responsible to determine whether the war that our marines, soldiers and airmen are fighting in is worth the cause...--Scott Ritter

We say that we care about the war, but we don’t even really know what we’re fighting for.--Scott Ritter

Iraq was a war of choice, not necessity.--Senator Barbara Boxer

Tis not, 'my country right or wrong'; tis, 'my country, that which is right to be kept right, that which is wrong to be set right'--Senator Carl Schurz (MO)

The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements.--Senator James W. Fulbright

War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.--Senator John McCain

National defense is the usual pretext for the policy of fleecing the people.--Senator John Taylor

Before the war is ended, the war party assumes the divine right to denounce and silence all opposition to war as unpatriotic and cowardly.--Senator Robert M. La Follette

Every nation has its war party. It is not the party of democracy. It is the party of autocracy. It seeks to dominate absolutely. --Senator Robert M. La Follette

If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another...after the war is on.--Senator Robert M. La Follette

In times of peace, the war party insists on making preparation for war. As soon as prepared for, it insists on making war.--Senator Robert M. La Follette

The first casualty when war comes is the truth.--Sen. Hiram Johnson

The price of empire is America’s soul, and that price is too high.--Sen. J. William Fulbright (Ark.)

This war is not necessary. We are truly sleepwalking through history.--Sen. Robert Byrd

Criticism in a time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government.--Sen. Robert Taft, (R) Ohio

We first fought...in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change.--Serj Tankian

Democracy is not an incident that happens overnight, nor a gift that America can give to the world. It is a culture which needs peace to evolve.--Shirin Ebadi

Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.--Sigmund Freud

Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another...--Sigmund Freud

A belligerent state permits itself every such misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual.--Sigmund Freud

If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.--Simone de Beauvoir

What a country calls its vital... interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war.--Simone Weil

The great error of nearly all studies of war... has been to consider war as an episode in foreign policies, when it is an act of interior politics...--Simone Weil

Modern war appears as a struggle led by all the State apparatuses and their general staffs against all men old enough to bear arms... --Simone Weil

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.--Sir Francis Bacon

I went into the Army believing that if you want peace you must prepare for war. I now believe that if you prepare thoroughly for war you will get it.--Sir John Frederick Maurice

As for being a General, well, at the age of four with paper hats and wooden swords, we're all Generals. Only some of us never grow out of it.--Sir Peter Ustinov

Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.--Sir Peter Ustinov

War is a racket.--Smedley Butler

All wars are fought for money.--Socrates

If peace...only had the music and pagaentry of war, there'd be no wars.--Sophie Kerr

It is the merit of a general to impart good news, and to conceal the truth.--Sophocles

Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice.--Spinoza

War technology is science in the service of obscene anatomical vandalism.--Stan Goff

Mankind deserves sacrifice - but not of mankind.--Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

War would end if the dead could return.--Stanley Baldwin

When [men] go to war, what they want is to impose on their enemies the victor's will and call it peace.--St. Augustine, The City of God

One reason the United States finds itself at the edge of a foreign policy disaster is its underinformed citizenry, a key weakness in democracy.--Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone

We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.--Stephen Vincent Benét

The supreme excellence is to subde the armies of your enemies without even having to fight them.--Sun Tzu

There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.--Sun Tzu

All warfare is based on deception.--Sun Tzu

The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.--Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.--Tacitus

To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.--Tacitus

The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.--Tacitus

When people have friends and customers in other lands, they tend to take a dim view of their government dropping bombs on them.--Terry Liberty Parker

The Department of Defense is the behemoth...With an annual budget larger than the gross domestic product of Russia, it is an empire.--The 9/11 Commission Report

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official...--Theodore Roosevelt

It is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.--Theodore Roosevelt

...to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.--Theodore Roosevelt

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president...is morally treasonable to the American public.--Theodore Roosevelt

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.--Theodore Roosevelt

That we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.--Theodore Roosevelt

Working for peace in the future is to work for peace in the present moment.--Thich Nhat Hahn

In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them.--Thich Nhat Hanh

War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle.--Thomas Carlyle

Our children are not born to hate, they are raised to hate.--Thomas della Peruta

Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.--Thomas Hobbes

Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other.--Thomas Jefferson

War...is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer.--Thomas Jefferson

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.--Thomas Jefferson

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.--Thomas Jefferson

I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.--Thomas Jefferson

We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.--Thomas Jefferson

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.--Thomas Jefferson

War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.--Thomas Jefferson

Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.--Thomas Jefferson

The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to.--Thomas Jefferson

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.--Thomas Jefferson

They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and lives of their people.--Thomas Jefferson

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.--Thomas Jefferson

Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted.--Thomas Jefferson

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate power of the society but the people themselves.--Thomas Jefferson

This I hope will be the age of experiments in government, and that their basis will be founded in principles of honesty, not of mere force.--Thomas Jefferson

A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.--Thomas Jefferson

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.--Thomas Jefferson

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.--Thomas Jefferson

To preserve our independence...We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.--Thomas Jefferson

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.--Thomas Jefferson

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.--Thomas Jefferson

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.--Thomas Jefferson

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.--Thomas Jefferson

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.--Thomas Jefferson

War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.--Thomas Mann

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war.--Thomas Merton

Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with with infinitely more advantage than any victory with all its expence. --Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

War is the gambling table of governments, and citizens the dupes of the game.--Thomas Paine

An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.--Thomas Paine

That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true...--Thomas Paine

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry. --Thomas Paine

He that is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.--Thomas Paine

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.--Thomas Pynchon

Most wars are started by well-fed people with time on their hands to dream up half-baked ideologies or grandiose ambitions, and to nurse real or imagined grievances. --Thomas Sowell

I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit.--Thucydides

It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position...--Thucydides

Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils.--Thucydides

This president failed so miserably in diplomacy that we are now forced to war.--Tom Daschle

Democracies become dictatorships if governments do not listen to the voice of the people.--Tom Van Meurs

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.--Tony Benn

Justice itself tends to be corrupted by political passion.--T.S. Eliot

That meddling in other people's affairs...formerly conducted by the most discreet intrigue is now openly advocated under the name of intervention.--T.S. Eliot

Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions.--Ulysses S. Grant

In modern war there is no such thing as victor and vanquished...There is only a loser, and the loser is mankind.--U Thant , Burmese UN Secretary General

If you kill one person you are a murderer. If you kill ten people you are a monster. If you kill ten thousand you are a national hero.--Vassilis Epaminondou

No great dependence is to be placed on the eagerness of young soldiers for action...fighting is agreeable to those who are strangers to it.--Vegetius

Modern war and modern civilisation are utterly incompatible...one or the other must go.--Vera Brittain

Peace is the virtue of civilization. War is its crime.--Victor Hugo

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.--Voltaire

It would be easier to subjugate the entire universe through force than the minds of a single village.--Voltaire

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.--Voltaire

To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.--Voltaire

All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.--Voltaire

A standing army is a standing menace to liberty.--Voltairine de Clayre

The time has come to stop beating our heads against stone walls under the illusion that we have been appointed policeman to the human race.--Walter Lippmann

War is the only game in which both sides lose.--Walter Scott

We have met the enemy and he is us.--Walt Kelly

Freedom is not nurtured by nations preparing for war.--William Appleman Williams

The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.--William Colby, former CIA director

War's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at.--William Cowper

The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated.--William Ellery Channing

So long as the deceit ran along quiet and monotonous, all of us let ourselves be deceived, abetting it unawares or maybe through cowardice... --William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

If [America] becomes militant, it will be because its people choose to become such; it will be because they think that war and warlikeness are desirable.--William Graham Sumner

If you want war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most frightful tyrants to which men ever are subject...--William Graham Sumner

The right to revolt has sources deep in our history.--William O. Douglas

Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.--William Penn

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.--William Pitt

A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it.--William Ralph Inge

The greatest crime since World War II has been US foreign policy.--William Ramsey Clark

O, it is excellent To have a giant’s strength! But it is tyrannous To use it like a giant.--William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

The statesman who yields to war fever...is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.--Winston Churchill

When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.--Winston Churchill

Never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter.--Winston Churchill

War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.--Winston Churchill

Wars teach us not to love our enemies, but to hate our allies.--W. L. George

To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fibre of national life...--Woodrow Wilson

"When you invite people to think, you are inviting revolution." - Ivana Gabara

"War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself." - Author unknown

"For this, deep waters whelm the fruitful lea, Wars ravage, famine wastes, plague withers, nor Shall cease till men have chosen the better part." (George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul, June 3)

"I hate those men who would send into war youth to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die." Mary Roberts Rinehart

"Is it not a strange blindness on our part to teach publicly the techniques of warfare and to reward with medals those who prove to be the most adroit killers?" -  Marquis de Sade

"If Wars Can Be Started by Lies, They Can Be Stopped By Truth." Author Unknown

"We lost our Paradise in a mad rush to victories in wars around the world and "security" in atomic and hydrogen bombs and in a paroxysm of modernity which swept away much of our ancient cultural wisdom and family and social foundations." Jack D. Douglas

How strange and paradoxical -- that the pro-life movement is also usually at the forefront of the pro-war movements in America. Gary Amirault

More War Quotes:
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World of Wars

A War Prayer by Mark Twain. Preachers, profiteers and politicians make war appear to be glorious. This is the text of Mark Twain's powerful illustration and a link to a youtube video version.

War: Who is responsible? by Lawrence M. Vance. Points out that the American government has created a mindset that when a person puts on a military uniform, they are no longer responsible for their actions on the killing fields. This is wrong.

War is a Racket by Major General Smedley Darlington Butler

The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that refuse military service. - Albert Einstein.

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. David Friedman

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." -MATTHEW 5:9

"...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3, Jewish and Christian Bibles

Perhaps the world's largest collection of war, anti-war quotes:

Perhaps the world's largest war antiwar quotes

See also Power, Justice and Mercy Quotes