“War is a defeat for humanity.” ——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
“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: 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.” ——Ramman Kenoun
“Killing someone is the ultimate crime, while on the other hand, killing someone in uniform is fulfillment of duty.” ——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
“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 soldier’s main enemy is not the opposing soldier, but his own commander.” ——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
“One keeps healthy in wartime…by a vigorous assertion of values in which war has no part.” ——Randolph Bourne
“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
“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
“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
“The war…was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forbearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides.” ——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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“A people free to choose will always choose peace.” ——Ronald Reagan
“If you sacrifice liberty for security, you will lose both.” ——Ron Paul
“Terror is a tactic. We cannot 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 scientists are more advanced than ours.” ——Salon Gahlin, Swedish author
“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
“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)
“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
“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
“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
“All wars are fought for money.” ——Socrates
“If peace…only had the music and pageantry 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
“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 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
“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
“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.” ——Theodore Roosevelt
“Working for peace in the future is to work for peace in the present moment.” ——Thich Nhat Hanh
“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
“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
“Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.” ——Thomas Jefferson
“Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.” ——Thomas Jefferson
“I know of no safe depository of the ultimate power of the society but the people themselves.” ——Thomas Jefferson
“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” ——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
“Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infinitely more advantage than any victory with all its expense.” ——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
“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
“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
“Justice itself tends to be corrupted by political passion.” ——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
“A standing army is a standing menace to liberty.” ——Voltairine de Cleyre
“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
“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 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
“When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.” ——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
“If Wars Can Be Started by Lies, They Can Be Stopped By Truth.” ——Author Unknown
“How strange and paradoxical — that the pro-life movement is also usually at the forefront of the pro-war movements in America.” ——Gary Amirault