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War quotes

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

“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

“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 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

“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

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

“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

“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

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

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

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

“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

“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

“No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1840

“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

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

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

“For what, for whom, must I kill and be killed?” Leo Tolstoy, “War and Peace” - 1869

“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

“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” - 1885

“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

“We are determined to keep out of war, yet we cannot insure ourselves against the disastrous effects of war and the dangers of involvement.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Quarantine Speech” - 5 October 1937

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

“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

“Every thinking person fears nuclear war, and every technological state plans for it. Everyone knows it is madness, and every nation has an excuse.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

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

“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

“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” - 1996

“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

“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” - 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

“What we have found in Afghanistan confirms that, far from ending there, our war against terror is only beginning. Most of the 19 men who hijacked planes on September the 11th were trained in Afghanistan's camps, and so were tens of thousands of...” George W. Bush, “State of the Union Address” - 29 January 2002

“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

“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

“It must be added that the men who most respect embryonic life are the same ones who do not hesitate to send adults to death in war.” Simone de Beauvoir, “The Second Sex” - 1949

“Let my country die for me.” James Joyce, “Ulysses” - 1922

“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” - 1532

“now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship.” Erich Maria Remarque, “All Quiet on the Western Front” - 1929

“It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the material resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the incidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet the most economical and efficient way possible.” Woodrow Wilson, “We Must Accept War” - 2 April 1917

“Thus it will always happen that he who is not your friend will demand your neutrality, whilst he who is your friend will entreat you to declare yourself with arms.” Niccolò Machiavelli, “The Prince” - 1532

“Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.” Sun Tzu, “The Art of War” - 5th century BC

“All’s fair in love and war” J. K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” - 2007

“I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently,...” Erich Maria Remarque, “All Quiet on the Western Front” - 1929

“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows.” Charles Darwin, “On The Origin of Species” - 1859

“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” - 1885

“It never was a war, any more than there's war between man and ants.” H. G. Wells, “The War of the Worlds” - 1898

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

“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” - 29 January 2002

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is...” Dwight D. Eisenhower, “The Chance for Peace” - 1953

“But armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable.” Woodrow Wilson, “We Must Accept War” - 2 April 1917

Related topics

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

Related authors

Winston Churchill (9)
Sun Tzu (9)
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)
The Second World War (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)
All Quiet on the Western Front (2)