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War quotes

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“Coin is the sinews of war.” François Rabelais, “Gargantua and Pantagruel” - 1534

“All oppression creates a state of war.” Simone de Beauvoir, “The Second Sex” - 1949

“Force, and Fraud, are in warre the two Cardinall vertues.” Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan” - 1651

“He in peace is wounded, not in war.” William Shakespeare, “The Rape of Lucrece” - 1594

“In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it.” C. S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity” - 1952

“Civil war—what does that mean? Is there a foreign war? Is not all war between men, war between brothers?” Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” - 1862

“But when he 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, “The Republic”

“The distant rear of an army engaged in battle is not the best place from which to judge correctly what is going on in front.” Ulysses S. Grant, “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” - 1885

“Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true.” Ulysses S. Grant, “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” - 1885

“There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult—to begin a war, and to end it.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1840

“Success in warfare is gained by carefully accommodating ourselves to the enemy's purpose.” Sun Tzu, “The Art of War” - 5th century BC

“There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.” Sun Tzu, “The Art of War” - 5th century BC

“If people only realized what a war goes on in a child’s mind and heart in a situation of this kind, I think they would try to explain more than they do, but nobody told me anything.” Eleanor Roosevelt, “The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt” - 1961

“You’ll get more from being a peacemaker than a warrior.” Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story” - 2012

“It can therefore be said that politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.” Mao Zedong, “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung” - 1964

“We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.” Mao Zedong, “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung” - 1964

“Further, nothing, except sin, is contrary to an act of virtue. But war is contrary to peace. Therefore war is always a sin.” Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica” - 1274

“War is a contagion, whether it be declared or undeclared.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Quarantine Speech” - 5 October 1937

“The mere absence of war is not peace.” John F. Kennedy, “State of the Union Address” - 14 January 1963

“For it can never be that Warre shall preserve life, and Peace destroy it.” Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan” - 1651

“War is war. The only good human being is a dead one.” George Orwell, “Animal Farm” - 1945

“Listen up—there's no war that will end all wars . . . War breeds war.” Haruki Murakami, “Kafka on the Shore” - 2002

“the world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.” J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Return of the King” - 1955

“There’s never been a true war that wasn’t fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right.” Neil Gaiman, “American Gods” - 2001

“Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during the war.” C. S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity” - 1952

“So the whole war is because we can’t talk to each other.” Orson Scott Card, “Ender's Game” - 1985

“When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.” Sun Tzu, “The Art of War” - 5th century BC

“in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.” Sun Tzu, “The Art of War” - 5th century BC

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Winston Churchill, “The Second World War” - 1953

“Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him?” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.” George R. R. Martin, “A Storm of Swords” - 2000

“One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.” Kurt Vonnegut, “Slaughterhouse-Five” - 1969

“Every man should lose a battle in his youth, so he does not lose a war when he is old.” George R. R. Martin, “A Feast for Crows” - 2005

“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'.” Winston Churchill, “The Second World War” - 1953

“There is no such thing as foreign or civil war; there is only just and unjust war.” Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” - 1862

“In God's name cheerly on, courageous friends, to reap the harvest of perpetual peace by this one bloody trial of sharp war.” William Shakespeare, “Richard III” - 1597

“The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife, no more shall cut his master.” William Shakespeare, “Henry IV, Part 1” - 1597

“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might...” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“Its picture rises before us vivid and bright: the finely carved, dragon-shaped prow; the high, curving stem; the long row of shields, black and yellow alternately, ranged along the sides; the gleam of steel; the scent of murder.” Winston Churchill, “A History of the English-Speaking Peoples” - 1956

“Thus ended the great American Civil War, which must upon the whole be considered the noblest and least avoidable of all the great mass-conflicts of which till then there was record.” Winston Churchill, “A History of the English-Speaking Peoples” - 1956

“Without any coherent national organisation to repel from the land on which they had settled the ever-unknowable descents from the seas, the Saxons, now for four centuries entitled to be deemed the owners of the soil, very nearly succumbed...” Winston Churchill, “A History of the English-Speaking Peoples” - 1956

“It was Twelfth Night, and the Saxons, who in these days of torment refreshed and fortified themselves by celebrating the feasts of the Church, were off their guard, engaged in pious exercises, or perhaps even drunk. Down swept the ravaging foe....” Winston Churchill, “A History of the English-Speaking Peoples” - 1956

“At this point the march of invention brought a new factor upon the scene. Iron was dug and forged. Men armed with iron entered Britain from the Continent and killed the men of bronze. At this point we can plainly recognise across the vanished...” Winston Churchill, “A History of the English-Speaking Peoples” - 1956

“A group of pagan ruffians and pirates had gained possession of an effective military and naval machine, but they faced a mass of formidable veterans whom they had to feed and manage, and for whom they must provide killings. Such men make plans,...” Winston Churchill, “A History of the English-Speaking Peoples” - 1956

“Heroism by order, senseless violence, and all the pestilent nonsense that does by the name of patriotism—how I hate them!” Albert Einstein, “The world as I see it” - 1949

“Every one has friends who were killed in the War. Every one gives up something when they marry.” Virginia Woolf, “Mrs Dalloway” - 1925

“The warlike days are over. Blood is too precious a thing in these days of dishonourable peace, and the glories of the great races are as a tale that is told.” Bram Stoker, “Dracula” - 1897

“I had always felt that if there were a serious war I wished to be in a position to explain to my children why I did take part in it, and not why I did not take part in it.” Theodore Roosevelt, “Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography” - 1913

“The problem for us was to move forward to a decisive victory, or our cause was lost.” Ulysses S. Grant, “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” - 1885

“I felt that 15,000 men on the 8th would be more effective than 50,000 a month later.” Ulysses S. Grant, “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” - 1885

Related topics

peace death battle defeat victory democracy people blood violence strength life courage killing justice freedom weapons experience comfort politics certainty

Related authors

Sun Tzu (9)
Winston Churchill (8)
Ulysses S. Grant (6)
George R. R. Martin (5)
Mao Zedong (4)
William Shakespeare (3)
Alexis de Tocqueville (3)
Kurt Vonnegut (3)
Thomas Hobbes (3)
George Orwell (2)
C. S. Lewis (2)
Victor Hugo (2)
Theodore Roosevelt (2)
Eleanor Roosevelt (2)
Margaret Atwood (2)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (2)
George W. Bush (2)
François Rabelais (2)
Simone de Beauvoir (2)
Niccolò Machiavelli (2)

Related sources

The Art of War (9)
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (6)
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (6)
State of the Union Address (4)
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (4)
Democracy in America (3)
Slaughterhouse-Five (3)
Leviathan (3)
A Storm of Swords (3)
Mere Christianity (2)
Les Misérables (2)
The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (2)
The Blind Assassin (2)
Quarantine Speech (2)
Gargantua and Pantagruel (2)
The Second Sex (2)
The Prince (2)
We Must Accept War (2)
The Second World War (2)
Richard III (1)