“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, The Bible
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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, discrimination, and jealousy are only sub-categories of it.” ——Jose Barreiro
“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
“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
“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
“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 doesn’t make boys men, it makes men dead.” ——Ken Gillespie
“I am not against all wars–just whichever is current.” ——Ken Gillespie
“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 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
“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
“Misery, mutilation, destruction, terror, starvation and death characterize the process of war and form a principal part of the product.” ——Lewis Mumford
“The greatest protection against war is a well educated populace.” ——L. L. Castetter
“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
“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. Peace and not war is the father of all things.” ——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
“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
“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
“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
“Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.” ——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
“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 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 government 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
“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
“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 positive 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.
“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 Lucado
“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 accomplishments.” ——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
“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
“War is the business of barbarians.” ——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
“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” ——Nelson Mandela
“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
“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
“Some explanations of a crime are not explanations: they’re part of the crime.” ——Olavo de Carvalho
“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
“Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.” ——Otto von Bismarck
“War is a failure of human intelligence.” ——Patricia Sun
“No one has deputized America to play Wyatt Earp to the world.” ——Patrick J. Buchanan
“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
“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