“Love life – be a peacemaker.” ——Gary Amirault
“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.” ——Barbara Bush (1925- )
“The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.” ——George Orwell, Polemic, May 1946, Second Thoughts on James Burnham
“War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.” ——Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929)
“War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.” ——Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929)
“You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” ——Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973)
“Neither enemy faces, nor the mothers that love them, come to mind when one is thinking of nothing but endeavouring to survive. Philosophising about war is useless under fire.” ——Linda Berdoll, Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife, 2004
“War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It’s peace that’s wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.” ——Lois McMaster Bujold, The Vor Game, 1990
“Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.” ——Mao Tse-Tung (1893-1976)
“I think the mark of a great ruler, is not his ability to make war but to achieve peace.” ——Monica Fairview, Darcy Cousins, 2010
“The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.” ——Omar Bradley (1893-1981), Speech to Boston Chamber of Commerce, 1948
“Either war is obsolete or men are.” ——R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), New Yorker, January 8, 1966
“It is well that war is so terrible – otherwise we would grow too fond of it.” ——Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), statement at the Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862
“One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once ‘The Unnecessary War.'” ——Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), The Second World War, 1948
“The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky.” ——Solomon Short
“Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.” ——Will Rogers (1879-1935)
“Why would the US try to win a war? War is an assembly line of death that is highly profitable for politicians and weapons manufacturers. An ongoing war is a conveyer belt of cash. Once your war is won, the assembly line has stopped and the big money is gone.” ——Jarod Kintz
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the [public] is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” ——Edward Bernays
“Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.” ——George Washington
“The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.” ——Thomas Jefferson
“The military caste did not originate as a party of patriots, but as a party of bandits.” ——Henry Louis Mencken
“They sell us the president the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars.” ——Jackson Browne, Lives In The Balance
“There is no moral difference between a Stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. They both kill innocent people for political reasons.” ——Tony Benn
“The role of the U.S. in the new world corporate order is going to be to export security. That means endless wars and weapons in space. The Pentagon will send our kids off to foreign lands to suppress opposition to corporate globalization. How will we ever end America’s addiction to war and violence as long as our communities are dependent on military spending for jobs?” ——Bruce Gagnon
“The corporate cabal has shipped most decent jobs overseas for more profit. What is left for security reasons is the military industrial complex manufacturing weapons of mass destruction and security apparatus to protect them from the enemies being created by their pilfering the world of its materials and security machinery to prevent our own citizens from overthrowing this evil cabal of businessmen, politicians, generals and lobbyists.” ——Tzedek Emet
“Weapons are the tools of violence; all decent men detest them. Weapons are the tools of fear; a decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity and, if compelled, will use them only with the utmost restraint. Peace is his highest value. If the peace has been shattered, how can he be content? His enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself. He doesn’t wish them personal harm. Nor does he rejoice in victory. How could he rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?” ——Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching (trans. Stephen Mitchell)
“War on the other hand is such a terrible thing, that no man, especially a Christian man, has the right to assume the responsibility of starting it.” ——Leo Tolstoy
“The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery.” ——Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
“Killing in the name of peace, does not bring peace.” ——Gary Amirault
“Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide.” ——Henri Barbusse
“It seems to me we have grown distressingly used to war… War and the military have become a part of our environment, like pollution. Violence is our most important product. We have been spending nearly $80 billion a year on the military, which is more than the profits of all American business, or, to make another comparison, is almost as much as the total spending of the federal, state, and local governments for health, education, old age and retirement benefits, housing, and agriculture. These millions of Americans who have a vested interest in the expensive weapons systems spawned by our global military involvements are as much a part of the military-industrial complex as the generals and the corporation heads.” ——Sen. J. William Fulbright, Pentagon Propaganda Machine, Vintage Books, 1971
“If we don’t stop behaving like the British Empire, we will end up like the British Empire.” ——Pat Buchanan
“History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.” ——Abba Eban
“I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” ——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
“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
“Any excuse will serve a tyrant.” ——Aesop
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” ——Alexander Hamilton
“O peace! how many wars were waged in thy name.” ——Alexander Pope
“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
“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 Greeley
“The real triumph of civilization is the extent to which coercion is banished from human relations.” ——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
“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
“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
“Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” ——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
“Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man.” ——Bertrand Russell
“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
“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
“It is not only the living who are killed in war.” ——Isaac Asimov
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” ——Isaac Asimov
“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 carefully nurture a spirit of detachment toward the wars we pay for.” ——James Carroll
“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
“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 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
“In any war, the first casualty is common sense, and the second is free and open discussion.” ——James Reston
“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
“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-Jacques 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
“I’m afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security.” ——Jim Garrison
“A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished.” ——Johan Christoph Schiller