War and Peace Quotes

Old News

The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight. – A. J. P. Taylor
Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin
The chain reaction of evil--wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. ~General Smedley Butler
Imperialism is an institution under which one nation asserts the right to seize the land or at least to control the government or resources of another people. ~John T. Flynn
The great error of nearly all studies of war... has been to consider war as an episode in foreign policies, when it is an act of interior politics... ~Simone Weil
We may extend our dominion over the whole continent...but be assured it will be at the price of our free institutions. ~Rep. William Waters Boyce
I hate war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatreds it arouses... ~Harry Emerson Fosdick
Before the war is ended, the war party assumes the divine right to denounce and silence all opposition to war as unpatriotic and cowardly. ~Senator Robert M. La Follette
After every ''victory'' you have more enemies. ~Jeanette Winterson
Wars are inevitable...as long as we believe that wars are inevitable. The moment we don't believe it anymore it is not inevitable. ~Lydia Sicher
The winds that blow our billions away return burdened with themes of scorn and dispraise. ~Garet Garrett
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
[T]he essence of so-called war prosperity; it enriches some by what it takes from others. It is not rising wealth but a shifting of wealth and income. ~Ludwig von Mises
Our children are not born to hate, they are raised to hate. ~Thomas della Peruta
Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war. ~Donald Rumsfeld
Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same. ~Marie Beyle
I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war...suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the same old lessons on its own. ~Phillip Caputo
Although tyranny...may successfully rule over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it destroys first of all the national institutions of its own people. ~Hannah Areddt
I hate those men who would send into war youth to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die. ~Mary Roberts Rinehart
Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism. ~George Washington
The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. ~Major Ralph Peters, US Military
For me war has become a flat, black depression without highlights, a revulsion of the mind and an exhaustion of the spirit. ~Ernie Pyle
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official... ~Theodore Roosevelt
The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all. ~Tacitus
War creates peace like hate creates love. ~David L. Wilson
War's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at. ~William Cowper
Military glory--that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood--that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy... ~Abraham Lincoln
Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. ~Hugo Black, Supreme Court Justice
I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in. ~George McGovern
War is fear cloaked in courage. ~General William Westmoreland
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"
Never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. ~Sir Winston Churchill
What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero
We are the ones responsible to determine whether the war that our marines, soldiers and airmen are fighting in is worth the cause... ~Scott Ritter
I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit. ~Thucydides
The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. ~Frederick Douglass
Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it. ~Noam Chomsky
It is far easier to make war than peace. ~Georges Clemenceau
The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions. ~Robert Lynd
Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions. ~Ulysses S. Grant
It would be easier to subjugate the entire universe through force than the minds of a single village. ~Voltaire
Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin
Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. ~James Madison
War doesn't make boys men, it makes men dead. ~Ken Gillespie
An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot. ~Thomas Paine
Modern war appears as a struggle led by all the State apparatuses and their general staffs against all men old enough to bear arms... ~Simone Weil
Every nation has its war party. It is not the party of democracy. It is the party of autocracy. It seeks to dominate absolutely. ~Senator Robert M. La Follette
It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners. ~Albert Camus
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it. ~Edward R. Murrow
Wars teach us not to love our enemies, but to hate our allies. ~W. L. George
The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject. ~Marcus Aurelius
The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero
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 Jaques Rousseau
The dangerous patriot...drifts into chauvinism and exhibits blind enthusiasm for military actions. ~Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps
I've been immersed in it too long. My spirit is wobbly and my mind is confused. The hurt has become too great. ~Ernie Pyle
It is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else. ~Theodore Roosevelt
Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificually induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear. ~General Douglas MacArthur
For what can war, but endless war, still breed? ~John Milton
The statesman who yields to war fever...is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. ~Sir Winston Churchill
Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people... ~Hugo Black, Supreme Court Justice
Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood. ~Mahatma Gandhi
Let not your zeal to share your principles entice you beyond your borders. ~Marquis de Sade
Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change if we want to save life from self-destruction. ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The demands of internal growth are incomparably more important to us...than the need for any external expansion of our power. ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn
It is always more valuable to report the truth. ~Jean-Paul Sartre
Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act. ~George Orwell
What an immense mass of evil must result...from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen. ~Leo Tolstoy
Peace is constructed, not fought for. ~Brent Davis
Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils. ~Thucydides
We say that we care about the war, but we don’t even really know what we’re fighting for. ~Scott Ritter
In this war – as in others – I am less interested in honoring the dead than in preventing the dead. ~Butler Shaffer
It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood...War is hell. ~General William Tecumseh Sherman
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. ~Voltaire
The worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being. ~Ellen Key
some men...in order to prevent the supposed intentions of their adversaries, have committed the most enormous cruelties... ~Clearchus, in Xenophon
[War] might be avoidable were more emphasis placed on the training to social interest, less on the attainment of egotistical grandeur. ~Lydia Sicher
Look at you in war...There has never been a just one, never an honorable one, on the part of the instigator of the war. ~Mark Twain
About the quote: from "The Mysterious Stranger," published 1910.
If, finally, violence meets with violence, we have confirmation of the age old adage that war though it kills many men, makes many more men evil. ~Fritz Medicus
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so... ~Robert A. Heinlein
Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice. ~Lord Acton
Military justice is to justice what military music is to music. ~Groucho Marx
In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. ~Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ~Margaret Mead
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. ~James Madison
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. ~Issac Asimov
About the quote: The character Salvor Hardin speaks these words in Asimov's "Foundation."
The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature. ~James Madison
...Violence as a way of gaining power...is being camouflaged under the guise of tradition, national honor [and] national security... ~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
As long as we can talk with people, as long as one can keep the guns quiet, one has a chance. ~Lydia Sicher
It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them. ~Alfred Adler
We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children. ~Jimmy Carter
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be. ~Thomas Jefferson
The dangerous patriot...is a defender of militarism and its ideals of war and glory. ~Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps
To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war. ~Winston Churchill
War is the continuation of politics by other means. ~Karl Von Clausewitz
Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley
Is it not a strange blindness on our part to teach publicly the techniques of warfare and to reward with medals those who prove to be the most adroit killers? ~Marquis de Sade
The next war ... may well bury Western civilization forever. ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. ~William Ellery Channing
...Uncalled-for aggression arouses the hatred of the civilian population... ~Jean-Paul Sartre
War is at best barbarism. Its glory is all moonshine...War is hell. ~General William Tecumseh Sherman
The voice of protest...is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum...is bidding all men...obey in silence the tyrannous word of command. ~Charles Eliot Norton
The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor. ~George Orwell About the quote: This quote is spoken by the character of Emmanuel Goldstein in Orwell's novel, "1984."
The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. ~Frederick Douglass
The war...was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forebearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides. ~Robert E. Lee
Where is the justice of political power if it...marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills? ~Kahlil Gibran
We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
Respect for the rights of others means peace. ~Benito Juárez
War is not a word, it's an acronym for "Wasting Another's Resources." ~Ramman Kenoun
Let us become inspired by inherent beauty, and not impassioned by manufactured hate. ~Nima Shirali, Middle Eastern Reconciliation Forum
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. ~Edward Abbey
War remains the decisive human failure. ~John Kenneth Galbraith
That we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. ~Theodore Roosevelt
All nations want peace, but they want a peace that suits them. ~Admiral Sir John Fisher
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. ~Thomas Jefferson
The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding. ~Albert Camus
Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. ~Albert Einstein
All mankind...being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions. ~John Locke
Today the real test of power is not capacity to make war but capacity to prevent it. ~Anne O'Hare McCormick
Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right. ~H.L. Mencken
One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one. ~Agatha Christie
I hate war...for the dictatorships it puts in the place of democracies, and for the starvation that stalks after it. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. ~Voltaire
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. ~Thomas Jefferson
To all those who walk the path of human cooperation war must appear loathsome and inhuman. ~Alfred Adler
War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. ~General Smedley Butler
War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. ~Lois McMaster Bujold
We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom. ~Stephen Vincent Benét
Chauvinism is a proud and bellicose form of patriotism...which identifies numerous enemies who can only be dealt with through military power... ~Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps
The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure. ~Lyndon B. Johnson
Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. ~James Madison
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. ~Ronald Reagan
What is more immoral than war? ~Marquis de Sade
When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest...and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war ~Plato
There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. ~General Smedley Butler
War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality. ~Senator John McCain
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
Dulce bellum inexpertis (War is delightful to the inexperienced). ~Erasmus, the 16th-century scholar
Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it. ~William Penn
Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer? ~Kahlil Gibran
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
We first fought...in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change. ~Serj Tankian
People do not make wars; governments do. ~Ronald Reagan
Any forces that would impose their will on other nations will certainly face defeat. ~General Vo Nguyen Giap (Vietnam)
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing. ~Ronald Reagan
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president...is morally treasonable to the American public. ~Theodore Roosevelt
To declare that the end justifies the means, to declare that the government may commit crimes, would bring terrible retribution. ~Justice Louis D. Brandeis
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. ~Thomas Jefferson
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. ~James Madison
Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ~George Orwell
Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens. ~Plato
The Department of Defense is the behemoth...With an annual budget larger than the gross domestic product of Russia, it is an empire. ~The 9/11 Commission Report
Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. ~Theodore Roosevelt
This world of ours...must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
War is the business of barbarians. ~Napoleon Bonaparte
The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor. ~George Orwell About the quote: This quote is spoken by the character of Emmanuel Goldstein in Orwell's novel, "1984."
War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder. ~Alexander Berkman
One day the end of the world will come as a result of a 'justified' war. ~Mikhail Gofman, Antiwar.com reader
Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we. ~George W. Bush
There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat. ~Jimmy Carter
After each war there is a little less democracy to save. ~Brooks Atkinson
Our modern states are preparing for war without even knowing the future enemy. ~Alfred Adler
War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley
A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over...is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen. ~G. K. Chesterton
War is organized murder and torture against our brothers. ~Alfred Adler
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter... ~Winston Churchill
Chauvinism is a proud and bellicose form of patriotism...which equates the national honor with military victory. ~Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps
Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain. ~Marquis de Sade
War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings. ~Ludwig von Mises
Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. ~George Orwell
Criticism in a time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government. ~Sen. Robert Taft, (R) Ohio
In times of peace, the war party insists on making preparation for war. As soon as prepared for, it insists on making war. ~Senator Robert M. La Follette
In the eyes of empire builders men are not men but instruments. ~Napoleon Bonaparte
There is neither rank nor station nor prerogative in the republic of the grave. ~John James Ingalls
There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. ~Mahatma Gandhi About the quote: This quote is also often credited to a peace activist A.J. Muste.
Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
Cruelty must be whitewashed by a moral excuse, and pretense of reluctance. ~George Bernard Shaw
...no mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology. ~Ronald Reagan
Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
It is finer to bring one noble human being into the world and rear it well...than to kill ten thousand. ~Olive Schreiner
The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. ~George Orwell
The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people. ~Frank Kent
The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. ~Albert Camus
In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. ~Jose Narosky
What a cruel thing is war...to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world. ~Robert E. Lee
...to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day. ~Theodore Roosevelt
If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest. ~Thomas Jefferson
War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood. ~Alexander Berkman
There is but one evil, war. All the other proclaimed evils such as hate, greed, descrimination, and jealousy are only sub-categories of it. ~Jose Barreiro
Emphasis on military prowess is an indication of philosophical poverty. ~Henk Middelraad
War brings out the most negative emotional human responses on both sides. ~Henk Middelraad
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
Don't regard yourself as a guardian of freedom unless you respect and preserve the rights of people you disagree with... ~Gerard K. O'Neill
Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. ~James Bryce
Don't talk to me about atrocities; all war is an atrocity. ~Lord Kitchener (Horatio Herbert)
War is a way of shattering to pieces...materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and...too intelligent. ~George Orwell About the quote: This quote is spoken by the character of Emmanuel Goldstein in Orwell's novel, "1984."
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom. ~Ludwig von Mises
The State thrives on war – unless, of course, it is defeated and crushed – expands on it, glories in it. ~Murray Rothbard
Old men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. ~Herbert C. Hoover
The greater the state, the more wrong and cruel its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded. ~Leo Tolstoy
How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men? ~Lao Tzu
Most wars are started by well-fed people with time on their hands to dream up half-baked ideologies or grandiose ambitions... ~Thomas Sowell
Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. ~Ludwig von Mises
There were no international terrorists in Iraq until we went in. It was we who gave the perfect conditions in which Al Qaeda could thrive. ~Robin Cook. About the quote: Cook is Britain's former foreign secretary. He resigned from the British Cabinet over the Iraq War.
Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things. ~Russell Baker
A people free to choose will always choose peace. ~Ronald Reagan
Any excuse will serve a tyrant. ~Aesop
War vies with magic in its efforts to get something for nothing... ~Lewis Mumford
Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. ~Mark Twain
Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise. ~Sir Francis Bacon
The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. ~James Madison
Let us form a new religion, that which would be called 'humanity', with 'peace' as its prophet. ~Nima Shirali, Middle Eastern Reconciliation Forum
All men having power ought to be mistrusted. ~James Madison
All war is based on deception. ~Sun Tzu
Think of war as a game of Russian roulette. It is a game of chance with your life as the grand prize. ~Ramman Kenoun
What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise. ~Barbara Jordan
Dictators have always played on the natural human tendency to blame others and to oversimplify. ~Gerard K. O'Neill
Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong. ~James Bryce
Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism. ~Dorothy Thompson
Even the most piddling life is of momentous consequence to its owner. ~James Wolcott. About the quote: in his article “From Fear to Eternity” in Vanity Fair, March 2005
There are no politics in war. Politics is the luxury of the safe-at-home. War is a lottery of survival. ~John Cory
War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures. ~Congressman Ron Paul
In war, the army is not merely a pure consumer, but a negative producer... ~Lewis Mumford. About the quote: from "Technics and Civilization"
The reality right now is that the most dangerous opinion in the world is the opinion of a U.S. serviceman. ~Lance Cpl. Devin Kelly (USMC)
We carefully nurture a spirit of detachment toward the wars we pay for. ~James Carroll. About the quote: The Boston Globe, 9/21/04
The world cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and to seek peace like intellectual pygmies. ~Basil O'Connor
All government wars are unjust. ~Murray Rothbard
The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. ~Herman Goering
We must not only cease our present desire for the growth of the state, but we must desire its decrease, its weakening... ~Leo Tolstoy
Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself. ~Lao Tzu
Wars have ever been but another aristocratic mode of plundering and oppressing commerce. ~Richard Cobden
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. ~Thomas Jefferson
As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand. ~Josh Billings
Tyrants seldom want pretexts. ~Edmund Burke
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
To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public. ~Noam Chomsky
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector. ~Plato
Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it. ~Friedrich Hebbel, German poet and dramatist
The state has, in order to control us, introduced division into our thinking, so that we come to distrust others and look to the state for protection. ~Butler Shaffer
Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich. ~Sir Peter Ustinov
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. ~Louis D. Brandeis
Peace...is the product of Faith, Strength, Energy, Will, Sympathy, Justice, Imagination, and the triumph of principle. ~Dorothy Thompson
We believed ourselves indestructable... watching only the madmen outside our frontiers, and we remained defenseless against our own madmen. ~Jacobo Timerman
There is no morality in war. Morality is the privilege of those judging from the distance. War is only death and destruction... ~John Cory
That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true... ~Thomas Paine
We Americans have no commission from God to police the world. ~Benjamin Harrison.About the quote: from an 1888 address to Congress
In war, there are no winners. ~Ramman Kenoun
...The very nature of interstate war puts innocent civilians into great jeopardy, especially with modern technology. ~Murray Rothbard
Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew. ~John Greenleaf Whittier
A belligerent state permits itself every such misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual. ~Sigmund Freud
It's more humane to cure your enemies than to kill them. ~Hugh Mann
There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance. ~Goethe
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. ~Edward Everett
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements. ~Senator James W. Fulbright
Coercive practices that threaten our neighbor(s) also threaten us. ~Butler Shaffer
We need a type of patriotism that recognizes the virtues of those who are opposed to us. ~Francis John McConnell
A man who kills on his own is a murderer. A man who kills at his government's request is a national hero. ~Ramman Kenoun
National defense is the usual pretext for the policy of fleecing the people. ~Senator John Taylor About the quote: US Senator, lived from 1753-1824
We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
War is the tool of small-minded scoundrels who worship the death of others on the altar of their greed. ~John Cory
The State acquires power... and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of giving up any of it. The State never abdicates. ~Frank Chodorov
No great dependence is to be placed on the eagerness of young soldiers for action...fighting is agreeable to those who are strangers to it. ~Vegetius
To the wicked, everything serves as pretext. ~Voltaire
I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security. ~Jim Garrison
The only security for the American people today, or for any people, is to be found through the control of force rather than the use of force. ~Norman Cousins
In order to rally people, governments need enemies...if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us. ~Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk
We must get away from the idea that America is to be the leader of the world in everything. ~Francis John McConnell
The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny... ~David Hume
The coward threatens when he is safe. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If this phrase of the 'balance of power' is to be always an argument for war, the pretext for war will never be wanting, and peace can never be secure. ~John Bright
Mankind deserves sacrifice - but not of mankind. ~Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
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
War is the cemetery of futures promised. ~John Cory
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. ~Michael Servetus
Phony pretexts repeated often enough become real reasons. Things that...are not true become true in the public mind simply through endless repetition. ~Lenny Bloom
They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason. ~Ernest Hemingway About the quote: from "Notes on the Next War," published in Esquire Magazine, 1935.
War is eternity jammed into frantic minutes that will fill a lifetime with dreams and nightmares. ~John Cory
In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people... ~Leo Tolstoy
'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded. ~Friedrich August von Hayek
Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means. ~Ronald Reagan
Economically considered, war and revolution are always bad business. ~Ludwig von Mises
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. ~Jeanette Rankin
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
Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~John Adams
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it. ~Alexis de Tocqueville
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. ~John Stuart Mill
The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people. ~Ron Paul
Force always attracts men of low morality. ~Albert Einstein
War is just a racket...I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. ~General Smedley Butler
War technology is science in the service of obscene anatomical vandalism. ~Stan Goff
There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. ~General Smedley Butler
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy? ~Mahatma Gandhi
The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad. ~James Madison
Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure. ~Abraham Lincoln
Our nation is somewhat sad, but we’re angry. There’s a certain level of blood lust, but we won’t let it drive our reaction. We’re steady, clear-eyed and patient, but pretty soon we’ll have to start displaying scalps. ~George W. Bush
It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear. ~General Douglas MacArthur
Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. ~John 8:32
When fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression. ~H.L. Menken
To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace. ~Tacitus About the quote: This quote is attributed to Calgacus in the Roman historian Tacitus' "Agricola."
War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support. ~Colin Powell
Vietnam was the first war ever fought without censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind. ~General William Westmoreland
Vietnam was the first war ever fought without censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind. ~General William Westmoreland
The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations. ~Ambrose Bierce
War, n: A time-tested political tactic guaranteed to raise a president’s popularity rating by at least 30 points. It is especially useful during election years and economic downturns. ~Chaz Bufe
I learned nothing from war. War is not an activity for human beings; war is for criminals—rape, robbery and murder. ~Roman Podabedov (Russian anti-tank gunner)
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. ~Howard Zinn
War is a racket. ~Smedley Butler
We have to show the American People that war is not patriotic. ~Justin Raimondo
If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army. ~Frederick the Great
They talk about conscription as a democratic institution. Yes; so is a cemetary. ~Rep. Meyer London
Either war is obsolete, or men are. ~R. Buckminster Fuller
Are bombs the only way of setting fire to the spirit of a people? Is the human will as inert as the past two world-wide wars would indicate? ~Gregory Clark
I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in. ~George McGovern
If I'm fighting for freedom here, and I go home and I'm opressed, what does that mean? ~Pv2 Frederick Phoenix, MP, US Army
War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men. ~Georges Clemenceau
Nothing except a battle lost can be half as melancholy as a battle won. ~Duke of Wellington
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. ~James Baldwin
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. ~John F. Kennedy
Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck. ~Guy de Maupassant
War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle. ~Thomas Carlyle
To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace. ~Tacitus About the quote: This quote is attributed to Calgacus in the Roman historian Tacitus' "Agricola."
Why should you ask blood be spilled for a cause that is not in the interest of the American people? ~Rep. Wally Herger
All wars are fought for money. ~Socrates
Tis nobler to lose honor to save the lives of men than it is to gain honor by taking them. ~David Borenstein
Man is the only animal that is cruel. It kills just for the sake of it. ~Mark Twain
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. ~Abraham Lincoln
The first casualty when war comes is the truth. ~Sen. Hiram Johnson
This war is not necessary. We are truly sleepwalking through history. ~Sen. Robert Byrd
The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure. ~Lyndon B. Johnson
They talk about conscription as a democratic institution. Yes; so is a cemetery. ~Rep. Meyer London
Washington...has become an alien city-state that rules America, and much of the rest of the world, in the way that Rome ruled the Roman Empire. ~Richard Maybury
Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness. ~George Washington
Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~John Adams
A belligerent state permits itself every such misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual. ~Sigmund Freud
War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. ~Thomas Mann
The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions. ~Robert Lynd
In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons. ~Herodotus
Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency. ~General Douglas MacArthur
After each war there is a little less democracy to save. ~Brooks Atkinson
I want to scare the hell out of the rest of the world. ~General Colin Powell
If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator. ~George W. Bush
Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of men. ~Pope John Paul II
If peace...only had the music and pagaentry of war, there'd be no wars. ~Sophie Kerr
God hates violence. He has ordained that all men fairly possess their property, not seize it. ~Euripides
Every man thinks god is on his side. ~Jean Anouilh
All the gods are dead except the god of war. ~Eldridge Cleaver
The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wars should be over in three days or less...and the American people must be all for it from the outset. ~Evan Thomas
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
The supreme excellence is to subde the armies of your enemies without even having to fight them. ~Sun Tzu
From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step. ~Denis Diderot
The time has come to stop beating our heads against stone walls under the illusion that we have been appointed policeman to the human race. ~Walter Lippmann
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world. ~George Washington
We must recognize the chief characteristic of the modern era--a permanent state of what I call violent peace. ~Admiral James D. Watkins
The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force. ~Thomas Jefferson
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
Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man has a right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has quarrel with mine, although I have none with him? ~Blaise Pascal
An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war. ~Montesquieu
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. ~John F. Kennedy
Most quarrels are inevitable at the time; incredible afterwards. ~E. M. Forster
It is the youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow...that are the aftermath of war. ~Herbert C. Hoover
There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse. ~Golda Meir
The military doesn't start wars. The politicians start wars. ~General William Westmoreland
It is the merit of a general to impart good news, and to conceal the truth. ~Sophocles
In war, truth is the first casualty. ~Aeschylus
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. ~Oscar Wilde
Man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid...There is no harm in a well-fed lion. It has no ideals, no sect, no party... ~George Bernard Shaw
"My country right or wrong" is like saying, "My mother drunk or sober." ~G. K. Chesterton
History is littered with wars which everybody knew would never happen. ~Enoch Powell
At least we're getting the kind of experience we need for the next war. ~Allen Dulles
War is the greatest plague that can affect humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it. ~Martin Luther
How vile and despicable war seems to me! I would rather be hacked to pieces than take part in such an abominable business. ~Albert Einstein
Have you ever thought that war is a madhouse and that everyone in the war is a patient? ~Oriana Fallaci
War is the unfolding of miscalculations. ~Barbara Tuchman
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders. ~Winston Churchill
Hate is able to provoke disorders, to ruin a social organization, to cast a country into a period of bloody revolutions; but it produces nothing. ~Georges Sorel
We are all familiar with the argument: Make war dreadful enough, and there will be no war. And we none of us believe it. ~John Galsworthy
War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus. ~Antoine De Saint-Exupery
War is the health of the State. ~Randolph Bourne
War is the Health of the State. ~Randolph Bourne
War would end if the dead could return. ~Stanley Baldwin
There are no warlike people--just warlike leaders. ~Ralph Bunche
Name me an emperor who was ever struck by a cannonball. ~Charles V of France
As for being a General, well, at the age of four with paper hats and wooden swords, we're all Generals. Only some of us never grow out of it. ~Sir Peter Ustinov
You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or who says it. ~Malcolm X
To wage war, you need first of all money; second, you need money, and third, you also need money. ~Prince Montecuccoli
Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later. ~Benjamin Franklin
A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it. ~William Ralph Inge
You can wipe out your opponents. But if you do it unjustly you become eligible for being wiped out yourself. ~Ernest Hemingway
No weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one. ~Ernest Hemingway
You can't have this kind of war. There just aren't enough bulldozers to scrape the bodies off the streets. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Atomic Age is here to stay--but are we? ~Bennett Cerf
You've got to forget about this civilian. Whenever you drop bombs, you're going to hit civilians. ~Barry Goldwater
We must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. ~Ronald Reagan
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. ~Albert Einstein
Let us not deceive ourselves; we must elect world peace or world destruction. ~Bernard M. Baruch
It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not pay with their own. ~H. G. Wells
Only the winners decide what were war crimes. ~Gary Wills
True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else. ~Clarence Darrow
If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat. ~Simone de Beauvoir
A time will come when a politician who has willfully made war and promoted international dissension will be...surer of the noose than a private homicide. ~H. G. Wells
It takes twenty years or more of peace to make a man; it only takes twenty seconds of war to destroy him. ~King Baudouin I of Belgium
The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war. ~E. B. White
In peace, sons bury their fathers; in war, fathers bury their sons. ~Herodotus
When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise. ~Winston Churchill
One more such victory and we are undone. ~Pyrrhus of Epirus
The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. ~H. L. Mencken
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. ~H. L. Mencken
Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. ~Alexander Hamilton
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. ~Plato
The obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people. ~Ron Paul
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force...Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. ~George Washington
It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world. ~George Washington
I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone. ~H. L. Mencken
America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. ~John Quincy Adams
Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. ~Ronald Reagan
Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another... ~Sigmund Freud
The coward threatens when he is safe. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
People who talk of outlawing the atomic bomb are mistaken — what needs to be outlawed is war. ~Leslie Richard Groves
Peace has its victories no less than war, but it doesn't have as many monuments to unveil. ~Kin Hubbard
A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit. ~Thomas Jefferson
How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words! ~Samuel Adams
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
Most wars are started by well-fed people with time on their hands to dream up half-baked ideologies or grandiose ambitions, and to nurse real or imagined grievances. ~Thomas Sowell
The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. ~Ludwig von Mises
Economically considered, war and revolution are always bad business. ~Ludwig von Mises
War can really cause no economic boom, at least not directly, since an increase in wealth never does result from destruction of goods. ~Ludwig von Mises
War is the Health of the State. ~Randolph Bourne
Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism. ~Ludwig von Mises
The attainment of the economic aims of man presupposes peace. ~Ludwig von Mises
History has witnessed the failure of many endeavors to impose peace by war, cooperation by coercion, unanimity by slaughtering dissidents…. A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets. ~Ludwig von Mises
Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted. ~Thomas Jefferson
Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto. ~Thomas Jefferson
There never was a good war or a bad peace. ~Benjamin Franklin
Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. ~James Madison
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. ~Thomas Jefferson
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. ~H.L. Mencken
America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. ~John Quincy Adams
When the tyrant 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
When the tyrant 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
After each war there is a little less democracy to save. ~Brooks Atkinson
An eye for an eye makes us all blind. ~Mahatma Gandhi
In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful. ~Leo Tolstoy
The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure. ~George Washington
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. ~Justice Louis D. Brandeis
The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes. ~Carl P. G. von Clausewitz
All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. ~Voltaire
You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it. ~Noam Chomsky
War doesn't make boys men, it makes men dead. ~Ken Gillespie
I am not against all wars--just whichever is current. ~Ken Gillespie
They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and lives of their people. ~Thomas Jefferson About the quote: From a letter to president Monroe, 1823.
No one has deputized America to play Wyatt Earp to the world. ~Patrick J. Buchanan
I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people. ~Edmund Burke
I think war is a dangerous place. ~George W. Bush
War’s a brain spattering windpipe splitting art. ~Lord Byron
It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society. ~Murray Rothbard
The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions. ~Robert Lynd
It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty. ~John C. Calhoun
The only defensible war is a war of defense. ~G. K. Chesterton
All wars come to an end, at least temporarily. But the authority acquired by the state hangs on; political power never abdicates. ~Frank Chodorov
The pertinent question: if Americans did not want these wars should they have been compelled to fight them? ~Frank Chodorov
The State acquires power... and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of giving up any of it. The State never abdicates. ~Frank Chodorov
The more laws, the less justice. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero
The sinews of war are infinite money. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero
Politics is the womb in which war develops. ~Carl P. G. von Clausewitz
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. ~James Madison About the quote: This quote is from the period he served as a US Congressman (he represented Virginia from 1789-1797).
Wars have ever been but another aristocratic mode of plundering and oppressing commerce. ~Richard Cobden
Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have. ~Davy Crockett
A standing army is a standing menace to liberty. ~Voltairine de Clayre
When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
War settles nothing. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you kill one person you are a murderer. If you kill ten people you are a monster. If you kill ten thousand you are a national hero. ~Vassilis Epaminondou
Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock. ~Sigmund Freud
When American presidents prepare for foreign wars, they lie. ~Robert Higgs
Since the end of the nineteenth century, if not earlier, presidents have misled the public about their motives and their intentions in going to war. ~Robert Higgs
Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues. ~Thomas Hobbes
What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood. ~Aldous Huxley
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government. ~Thomas Jefferson
We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest. ~Thomas Jefferson
I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind. ~Thomas Jefferson
The most successful war seldom pays for its losses. ~Thomas Jefferson
Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought! ~Helen Keller
Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction! ~Helen Keller
Nothing good ever comes of violence. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. ~George Orwell
Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. ~George Orwell
One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression. ~Howard Zinn
War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings. ~Ludwig von Mises
Will . . . the threat of common extermination continue?. . . Must children receive the arms race from us as a necessary inheritance? ~Pope John Paul II
War--after all, what is it that the people get? Why--widows, taxes, wooden legs and debt. ~Samuel B. Pettengill
No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic. ~A. J. P. Taylor
No war is inevitable until it breaks out. ~A. J. P. Taylor
Almost all war making states borrow extensively, raise taxes, and seize the means of combat- including men--from reluctant citizens... ~Charles Tilly
All warfare is based on deception. ~Sun Tzu
There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare. ~Sun Tzu
I hate it when they say, ‘He gave his life for his country.’ They don’t die for the honor and glory of their country. We kill them. ~Rear Admiral Gene R. LaRocque
War has become a spectator sport for Americans. ~Rear Admiral Gene R. LaRocque
We all have to be concerned about terrorism, but you will never end terrorism by terrorizing others. ~Martin Luther King III
Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it. ~General Douglas MacArthur
Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. ~James Madison
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. ~James Madison
The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war. ~James Madison
The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. ~James Madison
War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. ~Thomas Mann
Our poverty will be brought home to us to its full extent only after the war. ~Joseph A. Schumpeter
War is the statesmans game, the priests delight, the lawyers jest, the hired assassins trade. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley
This president failed so miserably in diplomacy that we are now forced to war. ~Tom Daschle
The opposite of war is not peace, it's creation. ~Jonathan Larson
The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Is it security you want? There is no security at the top of the world. ~Garet Garrett
With no notice to the American people...this country entered the war...Stranger than the fact was the passive acceptance of it. ~Garet Garrett
What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness god has given us in this world... ~Robert E. Lee
What a cruel thing war is...to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors. ~Robert E. Lee
Either war is obsolete, or men are. ~R. Buckminster Fuller
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. ~Ronald Reagan
It is not only the living who are killed in war. ~Isaac Asimov
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. ~General Omar N. Bradley
Wars frequently begin ten years before the first shot is fired. ~K. K. V. Casey
Where is the indignation about the fact that the US and USSR have thirty thousand pounds of destructive force for every human being in the world? ~Norman Cousins
There is nothing that war has ever achieved that we could not better achieve without it. ~Henry Havelock Ellis
The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. ~David Friedman
War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man. ~Napoleon Hill
The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution. ~John F. Kennedy
We have war when at least one of the parties to a conflict wants something more than it wants peace. ~Jeane J. Kirkpatrick
One does not create a human society on mounds of corpses. ~Louis Lecoin
In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. ~Jose Narosky
A visitor from Mars could easily pick out the civilized nations. They have the best implements of war. ~Herbert V. Prochnow
The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes...can no longer be of concern to great powers alone. ~John F. Kennedy
[War] can no longer be of concern to great powers alone. ~John F. Kennedy
We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. ~General Omar N. Bradley
There are no warlike people, just warlike leaders. ~Ralph Bunche
Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice. ~Spinoza
Conflict cannot survive without your participation. ~Dr. Wayne Dyer
I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace. ~George W. Bush About the quote: From a speech at the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development in Wash. DC, 6/18/02.
You are not going to get peace with millions of armed men. The chariot of peace cannot advance over a road littered with cannon. ~David Lloyd
When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration? ~Benjamin Franklin
All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. ~Benjamin Franklin
Mankind is becoming a single unit, and that for a unit to fight against itself is suicide. ~Havelock Ellis
I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private individuals. ~Joseph Heller
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. ~Michael Servetus
What a country calls its vital... interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war. ~Simone Weil
Petroleum is a more likely cause of international conflict than wheat. ~Simone Weil
War is never a solution; it is an aggravation. ~Benjamin Disraeli
Force without judgement falls on its own weight. ~Horace
Dress it as we may...huzza it, and sing swaggering songs about it, what is war, nine times out of ten, but murder in uniform? ~Douglas Jerrold
War should be made a crime, and those who instigate it should be punished as criminals. ~Charles Evans Hughes
Yes, we love peace, but we are not willing to take wounds for it, as we are for war. ~John Andrew Holmes
I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
We have all taken risks in the making of war. Isn't it time that we should take risks to secure peace? ~J. Ramsay MacDonald
We shall never be able to effect physical disarmament until we have succeeded in effecting moral disarmament. ~J. Ramsay MacDonald
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. ~Albert Einstein
During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism. ~Howard Thurman
How far can you go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without? ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
We have guided missiles and misguided men. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle...your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am a steadfast follower of the doctrine of non-violence which was first preached by Lord Buddha, whose divine wisdom is absolute... ~Dalai Lama
[Iraqis] know we own their country...It's a good thing, especially when there's a lot of oil out there we need. ~U.S. Brig. General William Looney
It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. ~Albert Einstein
I went into the Army believing that if you want peace you must prepare for war. I now believe that if you prepare thoroughly for war you will get it. ~Sir John Frederick Maurice
[Iraqis] know we own their country. We own their airspace... We dictate the way they live and talk. And that's what's great about America right now. ~U.S. Brig. General William Looney
...the role of the military is to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place. ~George W. Bush
Force is the weapon of the weak. ~Ammon Hennacy
The price of empire is America’s soul, and that price is too high. ~Sen. J. William Fulbright (Ark.)
There is nothing politically right that is morally wrong. ~Daniel O'Connell
Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war. ~Donald Rumsfeld
O peace! how many wars were waged in thy name. ~Alexander Pope
If we don’t stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, we’re going to have a serious problem coming down the road. ~George W. Bush
I can tell you this: If I’m ever in a position to call the shots, I’m not going to rush to send somebody else’s kids into a war. ~George H. W. Bush
In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. ~Jose Narosky
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
War is the most striking instance of the failure of intelligence to master the problem of human relationships. ~Harry Elmer Barnes
We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living. ~General Omar N. Bradley
The tragedy of war is that it uses man’s best to do man’s worst. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick
The 1st panacea of a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the 2nd is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; a permanent ruin. ~Ernest Hemingway
The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster. ~Ludwig von Mises
War...is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror. ~Ludwig von Mises
War...is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror. ~Ludwig von Mises
Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father of all things. ~Ludwig von Mises
To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war. ~Ludwig von Mises
War can really cause no economic boom, at least not directly, since an increase in wealth never does result from destruction of goods. ~Ludwig von Mises
The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war. ~Ludwig von Mises
Sovereignty must not be used for inflicting harm on anyone, whether citizen or foreigner. ~Ludwig von Mises
Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism. ~Ludwig von Mises
Modern society, based as it is on the division of labor, can be preserved only under conditions of lasting peace. ~Ludwig von Mises
Men are fighting...because they are convinced that the extermination of adversaries is the only means of promoting their own well-being. ~Ludwig von Mises
If men do not now succeed in abolishing war, civilization and mankind are doomed. ~Ludwig von Mises
The root of the evil is not the construction of new, more dreadful weapons. It is the spirit of conquest. ~Ludwig von Mises
If some peoples pretend that history or geography gives them the right to subjugate other races, nations, or peoples, there can be no peace. ~Ludwig von Mises
Wars of aggression are popular nowadays with those nations convinced that only victory and conquest could improve their material well-being. ~Ludwig von Mises
Only one thing can conquer war--that attitude of mind which can see nothing in war but destruction and annihilation... ~Ludwig von Mises
Whoever wants peace among nations must seek to limit the state and its influence most strictly. ~Ludwig von Mises
The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight. ~A. J. P. Taylor
War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means. ~Carl P. G. von Clausewitz
We...are not really free if we can't control our own government and its policies. And we will never do that if we remain ignorant. ~Charley Reese
War: A wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization. ~General Omar N. Bradley
The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war. ~James Madison
There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact. ~Donald Rumsfeld
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. ~John F. Kennedy
If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another...after the war is on. ~Senator Robert M. La Follette
Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak... ~John Adams
Power always thinks...that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. ~John Adams
Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too. ~Marcus Aurelius
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government. ~Thomas Jefferson
Oh! it is excellent to have a giant's strengh; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant. ~William Shakespeare
Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it. ~Mark Twain
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Putting aside all the fancy words and academic doubletalk, the basic reason for having a military is to do two jobs --to kill people and to destroy. ~General Thomas S. Power
The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero
Freedom is to understand, and to be unbounded by that freedom. ~Juan C. Mustelier
"Rules of engagement" are a set of guidelines for murder. ~Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
War is the ultimate tool of politics. ~R. Buckminster Fuller
The failure to dissect the cause of war leaves us open for the next installment. ~Chris Hedges
Rulers who want to unleash war know very well that they must procure or invent a first victim. ~Elias Canetti
The soldier's main enemy is not the opposing soldier, but his own commander. ~Ramman Kenoun
The occupation and robbery of a nation occurs under the illusion of freeing its citizens from brutal oppression. ~Ramman Kenoun
A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves. ~German proverb
The truth is that neither British nor American imperialism was or is idealistic. It has always been driven by economic or strategic interests. ~Charley Reese
The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. ~H. L. Mencken
The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. ~Albert Camus
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. ~William Pitt
It's quite fun to fight 'em, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling. ~Lt. Gen. James Mattis, USMC About the quote: Comments from 2/1/05 conference in San Diego, California. Lt. Mattis commanded troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. ~Voltaire
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. ~Tacitus
Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn About the quote: This quote is often mis-attributed to Mikhail Gorbachev, who merely quoted the remark from Solzhenitsyn's Nobel prize Harvard address.
The chief qualification of a mass leader has become unending infallibility; he can never admit an error. ~Hannah Arendt
An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot. ~Thomas Paine
Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it. ~Noam Chomsky
Conflict is the criminals' paradise; it is the only time when killing is allowed, theft is tolerated, and rape is forgiven. ~Ramman Kenoun
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
Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear. ~General Douglas MacArthur
The politicians in this world... have at their command weapons of mass destruction far more complex than their own thinking processes. ~Charley Reese
Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: ‘War is bad in that it begets more evil than it kills.' ~Immanuel Kant
Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism. ~Ludwig von Mises
War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. ~Thomas Mann
To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war. ~Ludwig von Mises
All wars come to an end, at least temporarily. But the authority acquired by the state hangs on; political power never abdicates. ~Frank Chodorov
I believe in only one thing: liberty, but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone. ~H. L. Mencken
A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets. ~Ludwig von Mises
It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell. ~General William Tecumseh Sherman
Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms. ~Congressman Ron Paul
War is the gambling table of governments, and citizens the dupes of the game. ~Thomas Paine
War is a way of shattering to pieces...materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses... too intelligent. ~George Orwell
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie: deliberate, continued, and dishonest; but the myth: persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. ~John F. Kennedy
Humanity is quite a unique species, since it is the only one with the means to wipe itself out. ~Ramman Kenoun
He whom many fear, has himself many to fear. ~Publilius Syrus
Those who do not move, do not notice their chains. ~Rosa Luxemburg
My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military. ~General Smedley Butler (USMC, Ret.)
The enormous gap between what US leaders do...and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments... ~Michael Parenti
Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty. ~Anne Louise Germaine de Stael
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ~George Orwell
It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives. ~Dorothy Thompson
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. ~John Adams
A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. ~John F. Kennedy
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. ~John F. Kennedy
A hospital alone shows what war is. ~Erich Maria Remarque
Vietnam should remind conservatives that whenever you put your faith in big government for any reason, sooner or later you wind up an apologist for mass murder. ~Karl Hess
During war, the laws are silent. ~Quintus Tullius Cicero
Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man. ~Bertrand Russell
Whether or not patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, national security can be the last refuge of the tyrant. ~Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe About the quote: from 1/14/05
If God is just, I tremble for my country. ~Thomas Jefferson
Every move we make in fear of the next war in fact hastens it. ~Gregory Bateson
Societies can be sunk by the weight of buried ugliness. ~Daniel Goleman
No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. ~Alexis de Tocqueville
Wars based on principle are far more destructive...the attacker will not destroy that which he is after. ~Alan Watts About the quote: from the book "The Way of Zen"
We Americans have no commission from God to police the world. ~Benjamin Harrison About the quote: from an 1888 address to Congress
Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both. ~Abraham Flexner
I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends. ~Abraham Lincoln
The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. ~Charles-Louis De Secondat About the quote: From "The Spirit of Laws," 1748
It is for us to refuse loyalty when injustice holds sway. ~Henry T. Laurency About the quote: from "The Philosopher's Stone"
Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction. ~George W. Bush About the quote: from a speech on 10/3/03
These people are trying to shake the will of the Iraqi citizens, and they want us to leave...I think the world would be better off if we did leave... ~George W. Bush (on Iraqi Insurgency)
We cloak ourselves in cold indifference to the unnecessary suffering of others--even when we cause it. ~James Carroll About the quote: The Boston Globe, 9/21/04
Peace and not war is the father of all things. ~Ludwig von Mises
Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. ~Ludwig von Mises
War is a defeat for humanity. ~Pope John Paul II About the quote: from 1/1/2000
Wars generally do not resolve the problems for which they are fought and therefore...prove ultimately futile. ~Pope John Paul II About the quote: from 1/1/2000
The fact that certain planets are uninhabited may very well derive from the fact that their nuclear scientist are more advanced than ours. ~Salon Gahlin, Swedish author
When [men] go to war, what they want is to impose on their enemies the victor's will and call it peace. ~St. Augustine About the quote: From "The City of God"
One reason the United States finds itself at the edge of a foreign policy disaster is its underinformed citizenry, a key weakness in democracy. ~Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke About the quote: from "America Alone"
If [America] becomes militant, it will be because its people choose to become such; it will be because they think that war and warlikeness are desirable. ~William Graham Sumner About the quote: from 1903
O, it is excellent To have a giant’s strength! But it is tyrannous To use it like a giant. ~William Shakespeare About the quote: from "Measure for Measure," Act II, Scn. ii
Peace is the virtue of civilization. War is its crime. ~Victor Hugo
Killing someone is the ultimate crime, while on the other hand, killing someone in uniform is fulfillment of duty. ~Ramman Kenoun
The best defense is no offense. ~Dr. Ivan Eland
Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained. ~Mahatma Gandhi
Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play. ~Joseph Goebbels
One can...never create [freedom] by an invading force. ~Maximilien Robespierre
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. ~James Madison About the quote: This quote is from the period he served as a US Congressman (he represented Virginia from 1789-1797).
The right to revolt has sources deep in our history. ~William O. Douglas About the quote: Supreme Court Justice Douglas lived 1898-1980.
We may never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
To preserve our independence...We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. ~Thomas Jefferson
All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting. ~George Orwell About the quote: This quote comes from "Homage to Catalonia," Orwell's 1936 eyewitness account of the Spanish Civil War.
If a war be undertaken...before the resources of peace have been tried and proved vain to secure it, that war has no defense, it is a national crime. ~Charles Eliot Norton
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. ~Nelson Mandela
All it takes is a single act of aggression to permanently wound a nation's reputation. ~Ramman Kenoun
The tyrant always talks as if he's preserving the best interests of his people when he actually acts to undermine them. ~Ramman Kenoun
It’s one thing to fight for what you believe in, another thing to fight for what others believe in. ~James Wolcott About the quote: in his article “From Fear to Eternity” in Vanity Fair, March 2005
The lies the government and media tell are amplifications of the lies we tell ourselves. To stop being conned, stop conning yourself. ~James WolcottAbout the quote: in his article “From Fear to Eternity,” Vanity Fair, March 2005Misery, mutilation, destruction, terror, starvation and death characterize the process of war and form a principal part of the product. ~Lewis Mumford About the quote: from "Technics and Civilization"
We have met the enemy and he is us. ~Walt Kelly About the quote: Cartoonist, notably of "Pogo." lived 1913-1973.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. ~Edward Abbey About the quote: A naturalist and author, Abbey lived from 1927-1989.
Our ‘neoconservatives’ are neither new nor conservative, but old as Bablyon and evil as Hell. ~Edward Abbey About the quote: A naturalist and author, Abbey lived from 1927-1989.
Patriotism lies not in blind obedience to authority, but in the desire to search for the truth. ~Ramman Kenoun
When we fill our souls up with creativity, artistry and intelligence ...we have a better chance at avoiding the behavior that leads to destruction. ~Rick DellaRatta About the quote: Rick DellaRatta is founder of the group Jazz for Peace.
The only antidote to the poison of war is the public's courage to disagree with their leader. ~Ramman Kenoun
What political leaders decide, intelligence services tend to seek to justify. ~Henry Kissinger About the quote: from page 303 of his book, "Diplomacy"
There are many terrorist states in the world, but the United States is unusual in that it is officially committed to international terrorism. ~Noam Chomsky About the quote: from his book "Necessary Illusions" (p. 270)
Politics and crime are the same thing. ~Michael Corleone (from "The Godfather: Part III")
About the quote: This line is spoken by Al Pacino's character in the Francis Ford Coppola film "The Godfather: Part III," script by Coppola and Mario Puzo.
Humanity should question itself, once more, about the absurd and always unfair phenomenon of war... ~Pope John Paul II
In war, we always deform ourselves, our essence. ~Chris Hedges
Wars are the hobbies of half-informed children who have somehow come into possession of the levers of power. ~Fred Reed About the quote: You can read Fred Reed's articles on LewRockwell.com: http://www.lewrockwell.com/reed/reed-arch.html
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 Greely About the quote: Andrew Greely is a columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times. You can read his articles at http://www.suntimes.com/index/greeley.html
War...should only be declared by the authority of the people...instead of the government which is to reap its fruits. ~James Madison
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. ~Edward Abbey
Why, the Government is merely...a temporary servant...Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. ~Mark Twain
The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many. ~Dick Cheney About the quote: Speaking to the Discovery Institute after the first Gulf War, on 8/14/1992, when he was Secretary of Defense.
Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service... ~John Adams
It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true. ~Henry Kissinger
Those who suppress freedom always do so in the name of law and order. ~John V. Lindsay
Governments use national animosities, foreign wars and the glamour of empire-making, in order to...divert rising sentiment against domestic abuses. ~J. R. Hobson
Brute force is not our salvation, especially as directed by State central planning and done with little regard for the innocents... ~Anthony Gregory About the quote: Anthony Gregory is a writer and musician from Berkeley, CA. You can read his articles at www.lewrockwell.com
Criticism in time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government. ~Robert Taft
Under conditions of peace the warlike man attacks himself. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
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 About the quote: as written in a letter to Thomas Jefferson. You can read more about this in Thomas E. Woods, Jr's article "Presidential War Powers" on www.LewRockwell.com.
Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is. ~George W. Bush About the quote: Speaking on the war in Kosovo.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised "for the good of its victims" may be the most oppressive. ~C. S. Lewis
Killing a man in defense of an idea is not defending an idea; it is killing a man. ~Jean -Luc Godard
Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other. ~Thomas Jefferson
A time will come when a politician who has willfully made war and promoted international dissension will be...surer of the noose than a private homicide. ~H. G. Wells
If you make peaceful change impossible... you make violent revolution inevitable. ~John F. Kennedy
Not only is war a form of legalized murder, but it is mass serial killing. ~Sarah Bellum
In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. ~Thich Nhat Hanh About the quote: Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk
There is nothing that war has ever achieved that we could not better achieve without it. ~Henry Havelock Ellis
War creates peace like hate creates love. ~David L. Wilson
War in the end is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of soldiers by politicians, and of idealists by cynics. ~Chris Hedges
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. ~Johan Christoph Schiller
Today the real test of America's power and wisdom is not our capacity to make war but our capacity to prevent it. ~Dale Turner About the quote: from an article in The Seattle Times, 1/11/03.
The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other--instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals. ~Edward Abbey About the quote: A naturalist and author, Abbey lived from 1927-1989.
Our "neoconservatives" are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell. ~Edward Abbey About the quote: A naturalist and author, Abbey lived from 1927-1989.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~Abraham Lincoln
War...is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer. ~Thomas Jefferson
It takes more courage to get out of a war than it does to get into one. ~Mark Couturier
Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing. ~Ayn Rand
One keeps healthy in wartime...by a vigorous assertion of values in which war has no part. ~Randolph Bourne
Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. ~Ronald Reagan
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry. ~Thomas Paine
A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang. ~Benjamin Franklin About the quote: Speaking to Benjamin Vaughan, 14 March 1785.
Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong. ~James Bryce
You cannot win a War on Terrorism. It’s like having a war on jealousy. ~David Cross About the quote: Cross is a comedian, most well known for his roles on the television series "Arrested Development" and "Mr. Show." This quote is from his 2002 comedy album.
The real triumph of civilization is the extent to which coercion is banished from human relations. ~Anthony Gregory About the quote: Anthony Gregory is a writer and musician from Berkeley, CA. You can read his articles at www.lewrockwell.com
The maintenance of the right of criticism in the long run will do the country...more good than it will do the enemy. ~Robert Taft
Iraq was a war of choice, not necessity. ~Senator Barbara Boxer
About the quote: From a speech delivered Wed. July 6, 2005.
Tis nobler to lose honor to save the lives of men than it is to gain honor by taking them. ~David Borenstein
if you support any offensive war, consider yourself just as culpable of murder as the most insane serial killer. ~Sarah Bellum
If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest. ~Thomas Jefferson
About the quote: in a letter to William Short, 28 July 1791.
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it. ~Alexis de Tocqueville
Wars are inevitable... as long as we believe that wars are inevitable. The moment we don't believe it anymore it is not inevitable. ~Lydia Sicher
...History shows that ... (people) can be deflected from their natural tendencies by artful propaganda, bogus crises, or other political trickery. ~Robert Higgs
About the quote: Robert Higgs is a Senior Fellow in Political Economy for The Independent Institute.
The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor. ~Ronald Reagan
About the quote: From a speech on nuclear weapons, March 23, 1983.
How does one prevail in war? Both sides have already lost. ~Logan Kodysz
Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional. ~Max Lucade
For it isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. ~Mahatma Gandhi
Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. ~Thomas Alva Edison
Politicians' Logic: Something must be done, this is something, therefore we must do it. ~Yes, Prime Minister (UK TV Show) About the quote: http://www.yes-minister.com/polterms.htm
War: first, one hopes to win...in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost. ~Karl KrausAbout the quote: Satirical writer and journalist. (1874–1936)Be loyal to your country always, and to the government only when it deserves it. ~Mark Twain
When the largest industry in the world is no longer War, I will accept Darwin's theory of Evolution. ~Dale S. Mugford
You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or says it. ~Malcolm X
Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is. ~George W. Bush
About the quote: The future president said this in regard to Kosovo in April 1999.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. ~Thomas Jefferson
No one has ever succeeded in keeping nations at war except by lies. ~Salvador de Madariaga
War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses. ~Thomas Jefferson
It is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error. ~Robert H. Jackson
The real fabric of American society is not all those flags you see on people's cars...it's in the Bill of Rights and in our constitutional form of government. ~John Adams (composer) About the quote: This quote is not from founding father John Adams, but from the Pulitzer Prize-winning modern composer and conductor of the same name (2001).
Democracies become dictatorships if we do not listen to the voice of the people. ~Tom Van Meurs
Our enemies are innovative and resourceful...They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we. ~George W. Bush
About the quote: From remarks by the president at the signing of The Defense Appropriations Act for 2005 (8/5/04)
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your governmant when it deserves it. ~Mark Twain
The terrorist is the one with the small bomb. ~Brendan Behan
Suspicion must always fall on those who attempt to silence their opponents. ~Ian Buckley
Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths...I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? ~Barbara BushAbout the quote: Mrs. Bush spoke these words on ABC's "Good Morning America," March 18, 2003.So long as the deceit ran along quiet and monotonous, all of us let ourselves be deceived, abetting it unawares or maybe through cowardice... ~William Faulkner
About the quote: from his book "As I Lay Dying"
If you want war, nurish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most frightful tyrants to which men ever are subject... ~William Graham Sumner
The world should take notice when someone...with a fanatic mind and with powerful means, receives his marching orders from Heaven. ~Rodrigue TremblayAbout the quote: From Trembaly's "The New American Empire." Tremblay is a Professor of Economic Science at the University of Montreal."When goods don't cross borders, soldiers will." ~Fredric Bastiat
The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. ~Thomas Jefferson
All wars eventually act as boomerangs and the victor suffers as much as the vanquished. ~Eleanor Roosevelt About the quote: from "My Day," February 7, 1939
Working for peace in the future is to work for peace in the present moment. ~Thich Nhat Hahn
That meddling in other people's affairs...formerly conducted by the most discreet intrigue is now openly advocated under the name of intervention. ~T.S. Eliot
Justice itself tends to be corrupted by political passion. ~T.S. Eliot
Where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. ~Lord Acton
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the party that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections. ~Lord Acton
Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak... Non-violence is hard work. ~Cesar Chavez
It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position... ~Thucydides
About the quote: Thucydides was a Athenian historian, born in the 5th century, BC. Here, he is quoting the Athenian general Nikias on the proposed invasion of Sicily during the Peloponnesian War.
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
Only fools seek power, and the greatest fools seek it through force. ~Lao Tsu
Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. ~Thomas Merton
About the quote: (1915-1968)
A tyrant has succeeded in his search for absolute power when his own people fear to question his actions. ~Ramman Kenoun
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. ~Abraham Lincoln
Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. ~Michael Gillespie
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. ~James Madison About the quote: This quote is from the period he served as a US Congressman (he represented Virginia from 1789-1797).
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate power of the society but the people themselves. ~Thomas Jefferson About the quote: Originally in a letter to William C. Jarvis, 1820. Can be found in volume of "Writings" (New York, NY: Library of America) p.493
This I hope will be the age of experiments in government, and that their basis will be founded in principles of honesty, not of mere force. ~Thomas Jefferson
About the quote: in a letter to John Adams, 1796.
A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. ~James Madison
Freedom is whatever the president says it is, pending revision. ~James Bovard About the quote: http://jimbovard.com/blog/2006/01/17/credo-from-attention-deficit-democracy/
Historically, the most terrible things -- war, genocide and slavery -- have resulted from obedience, not disobedience. ~Howard Zinn
Good leaders serve the interests of their people, while unfit leaders exploit their citizens to serve their own. ~Ramman Kenoun
How is it possible for people to consider themselves supporters of the troops when they approve of an event that throws those troops into...peril? ~Ramman Kenoun
When people have friends and customers in other lands, they tend to take a dim view of their government dropping bombs on them. ~Terry Liberty Parker
Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. ~Thomas Alva Edison About the quote: (1847-1931)
Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. ~Thomas Alva Edison
About the quote: (1847-1931)
No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people. ~Eugene Debs
About the quote: (1855-1926)
1. Wisdom is better than weapons of war. ~Ecclesiastes 9:15
He that is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death. ~Thomas Paine
Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt
We must pursue peaceful end through peaceful means. ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war. ~Albert Einstein
War comes from our being immature, fearful, and injured, and not being able to concieve of other ways of solving problems. ~Patricia Sun
About the quote: Patricia Sun is an internationally renowned philosophical psychologist.
War is a failure of human intelligence. ~Patricia Sun
About the quote: Patricia Sun is an internationally renowned philosophical psychologist.
[War] comes from an immature style of thinking where creativity and overview is scarce. ~Patricia Sun About the quote: Patricia Sun is an internationally renowned philosphical psychologist.
War may be only temporary, but its toll remains permanently. ~Ramman Kenoun
All forms of violence, especially war, are totally unacceptable as means to settle disputes between and among nations, groups and persons. ~Dalai Lama
Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are...savages. ~Thomas Alva Edison
The greatest crime since World War II has been US foreign policy. ~William Ramsey Clark
About the quote: William Ramsey Clark was US Attorney General under Lyndon B. Johnson
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Power is usurped from the people, first by implementing fear, then it is maintained by slandering as 'unpatriotic' those who refuse submission. ~Ramman Kenoun
Distorted history boasts of bellicose glory . . . and seduces the souls of boys to seek mystical bliss in bloodshed and in battles. ~Alfred Adler
In any war, the first casualty is common sense, and the second is free and open discussion. ~James Reston About the quote: American Journalist (1909-1995), best known for his work with the NY Times.
Democracy can only spring from within a nation itself, only from the hearts and minds of its people. ~Charles Lindbergh
In a time of war, truth is always replaced by propaganda. ~Charles Lindbergh
Democracy is not an incident that happens overnight, nor a gift that America can give to the world. It is a culture which needs peace to evolve. ~Shirin Ebadi About the quote: Ebadi is Nobel Peace Laureate of Iran. This quote is excerpted from the 5/5/06 Washington Post's "Diplomatic Dispatches," by Nora Boustany.
It is frightening how the actions of a single leader can have such drastic effects on the prestige of an entire nation. ~Ramman Kenoun
If we don't stop behaving like the British Empire, we will end up like the British Empire. ~Pat Buchanan About the quote: From Buchanan's 5/9/06 article "Why Are We Baiting Putin?"
If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace. ~John Lennon
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. ~Julia Ward HoweAbout the quote: Julia Howe was the "founder" of Mother's Day.

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