Henry Ford

“ I hate war, because war is murder, desolation and destruction, causeless, unjustifiable, cruel and heartless to those of the human race who do not want it, the countless millions, the workers. I hate it none the less for its waste, its uselessness and the barriers it raises against progress, and the development of the world, human and material. ”

“ If I can but see the world and America is the brain of the world and the brain the guide of all moving toward that day when war shall cease, when nations shall not burden the workers with the enormous expense of huge armaments and then destroy the workers with those very armaments, I shall be content to end my days where I began, an humble worker in a peaceful world. ”

“ I will do everything in my power to prevent murderous, wasteful war in America and in the whole world; I will devote my life to fight this spirit which is now felt in the free and peaceful air of the United States, the spirit of militarism, mother to the cry of 'preparedness' preparedness, the root of all war. ”

“ The world has followed the United States for generations in all that goes for progress. Let us have disarmament; let us show that we mean peace when we say the word, and the world will follow in that, too.
"I feel, and I have the world's history and the spirit of a world's people back of me, that the 'preparedness' now being preached is nothing but a criminal waste, a call to slaughter, and a disgrace to a nation that has been the guiding star of the world towards liberty, happiness and peace. ”

“ In all the history of civilization I cannot find one man who has justified war, who did not publicly brand it as the curse of man and the work of Cain. Yet these same men are often the very ones who call for the 'preparedness' that brings on war. What can we think of men who cry aloud against murder and yet fly eagerly to place in the hands of their children, or more frequently the children of their more humble brothers, the implements of murder? ”

“ If these men who brought on the war were insane, we could comprehend the cause of the war. But when we think that all is done coldly, deliberately by these militaristic parasites, and that millions of men are torn from the life that is theirs by right of birth, and driven to slaughter by the system of murder that envelopes these nations, we are crushed by the enormous crime. ”

“ Why, if the United States is threatened by another nation, have we lived in peace for 100 years? Our army and navy never was able to stop the 'paper invasions' that the war-breeders talked of, and yet we have lived unmolested, happy and at peace with all races of men. ”

“ The very thought of this makes me feel that I know of nothing to which I would rather give my life, nothing that would give me a more certain feeling that I was doing a man's work, nothing that would make me feel more content in the knowledge that I had done a great duty that had been placed before me, than to use that which I have to help bring to an end 6,000 years of this unjustified hatred, ruthless waste, destruction and murder. ”

“ I realize only too well that since the beginning of history the overpowering, unanswerable weapon of wealth always, down to this very day, has been on the side of slaughter, and this, I know, has stood as the great barrier to the peace that men have craved since civilization was born. ”

“ His mind is a constructive mechanism that abhors destruction, and war is destruction. He is a man of peace, for he realizes the true meaning of war wanton, unnecessary and unreasoning destruction, death and disruption of all that peace has builded. ”

“ The present war's end will, I believe and hope, see the end of the military spirit and the military castes in all Europe; the death of the military party in Germany; and those very workers who are today performing wonders of arms against the whole of Europe under the eyed of an emporer and a Fatherland may be the very ones who will end that reign of militarism. ”

“ The writers of military treatises showing how Japan, or Germany, or any other nation could invade the United States, under the guise of history and 'military probabilities,' are trying to fill the minds of the people with fear by the use of their high-sounding nonsense that is what the whole thing is, nonsense. ”

“ The people of the United States have been compelled to throw a billion dollars into a junk pile, and these men would have another billion go the same way. If one-tenth of what has been spent on preparation for war had been spent on the prevention of war, the world would always have been at peace. ”

“ We who can, ought to help in the right direction. It's a pathetic sight and positive fact that most men who pose as standing for the best things in life and who pray to God in churches on Sundays for peace (the very pillars of the church, they are called) are busiest nowadays in obtaining the orders that will enable them to convert their factories into workshops for making shot and shell for destroying mankind and defeating the finest and loftiest things in the world homes, happiness, prosperity. ”

“ World Big Enough to Give Peace to All "Surely the world is big enough for all to live in at peace with all. If nations want colonies they can have them without killing their sons and devastating homes and lives. ”

“ The building of armament by the United States is not only a waste of itself and a war-breeding policy, it is worse still, it is an example that the nations of Latin America and all the world have followed, adding the burden and the danger to the peoples in those lands. ”

“ Entire World United in Demand for Peace "This I would make a world work, for all the world cries for peace, and there can be no peace while there remains one set of these militaristic parasites who encourage war and who damn all whose ideas of patriotism and love of their fellowmen does not call for arming brother against brother. ”

“ Edison Won't Aid in Destroying Human Life "They have called in Thomas Edison to help their war plans. Let me say that Thomas Edison never has and, in my opinion, never will use his great brain to make anything which would destroy human life or human property. ”

“ I believe that this same worker is going to end the conditions that allow the man he places above him to give that murderous order; to cause him to seek the life of a brother worker in another land and send that brother searching in turn for his blood. ”

“ Isolation is Thorough Protection of United States "The isolation of the United States is a perfect safeguard against successful invasion, and if this fact would not prevent a landing of hostile armies the very vastness of the country and the enormous population would make such an attempt futile. ”

“ There is sorrow in millions of homes, a dozen nations are paralyzed and filled with mangled, crippled men and boys who by the laws of nature can only produce children who will in some way bear, in part, the burden and mark of their parents' suffering. ”

“ Nowadays men are prone to think they have nothing to do with and cannot control their own destinies. It is everybody's business to know how the moneys of the country are spent and how the wisdom and judgment of the chief executives is directed, and the sooner we come to understand this the sooner will be stopped the wanton waste of money for murderous and destructive agencies, such as warships, guns and arms. ”

“ To my mind this is the last and most remote means that could possibly be suggested to gain the national or world-wide end that most sober-minded men wish to obtain.
"When men think and work, they do right, and the voice of the people, I do believe, in every land under the sun, cries out against war. The trouble is that they do not make enough noise, and the yell of the few who, for monetary gain, want war just at this particular time, seems to prevail. ”