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War quotes

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

“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

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

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

“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

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

“No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

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

“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

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

“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

“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

“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

“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

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

“For what, for whom, must I kill and be killed?” Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

“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

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

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

“The enemy had been much demoralized by his defeats at Champion's Hill and the Big Black, and I believed he would not make much effort to hold Vicksburg.” Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

“Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory: (1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. (2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. (3) He will win whose army is animated by...” Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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

“Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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

“The art of war is of vital importance to the State.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“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

“They were adored by the Germans, who thought they were exactly what the Englishmen ought to be. They made war look stylish and reasonable, and fun.” Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

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

“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

“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

“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

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

“It is of the greatest important in this world that a man should know himself, and the measure of his own strength and means; and he who knows that he has not a genius for fighting must learn how to govern by the arts of peace.” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“And when all the world is overchargd with Inhabitants, then the last remedy of all is Warre; which provideth for every man, by Victory, or Death.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

“The war has made us a nation of great power and intelligence. We have but little to do to preserve peace, happiness and prosperity at home, and the respect of other nations. Our experience ought to teach us the necessity of the first; our power...” Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

“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

“All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and the shortest means to accomplish it.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

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

“Many of the boys I saw in hospitals are now leading happy and useful lives, but they carry with them, day after day, the results of the war. If we do not achieve the ends for which they sacrificed—a peaceful world in which there exists freedom...” Eleanor Roosevelt, The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt

“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

“Explain to me why it is more noble to kill ten thousand men in battle than a dozen at dinner.” George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit.” Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

“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

“As we gather tonight, our nation is at war, our economy is in recession, and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers. Yet the state of our Union has never been stronger.” George W. Bush, State of the Union Address

“But armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable.” Woodrow Wilson, We Must Accept War

“It wasn’t so easy, though, ending the war. A war is a huge fire; the ashes from it drift far, and settle slowly.” Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

“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

“In a cold as in a hot war it pays to know the enemy — not least because at some time in the future you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.” Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years

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Related topics

battle peace victory strength justice politics freedom death defeat democracy killing people blood weapons enemy courage life truth experience youth

Related authors

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

Related sources

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (6)
The Prince (2)
We Must Accept War (2)
The Art of War (9)
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)
The Second World War (3)
All Quiet on the Western Front (3)
The Second Sex (2)
Les Misérables (2)
The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (2)
Mere Christianity (2)
Gargantua and Pantagruel (2)
The Blind Assassin (2)
Quarantine Speech (2)