Famous War Quotations

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"During the war an Italian girl saved my life. She hid me in her basement in Cleveland."
by Henny Youngman
"Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war."
by Ernest Hemingway
"It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war."
by John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another."
by Thomas Jefferson
"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."
by Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Money is the sinews of love, as of war."
by George Farquhar
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it."
by George Orwell
"[The presumed chancellor did not elaborate on foreign policy, but indicated she would strengthen relations with the United States, which have been strained over German opposition to the Iraq war.] That doesn't mean we have to agree on every issue, ... But there needs to be a good trustful relationship."
by Angela Merkel
"The best armor is to keep out of range."
by Italian Proverb
"The Establishment center ... has led us into the stupidest and cruelest war in all history. That war is a moral and political disaster -- a terrible cancer eating away at the soul of our nation."
by George McGovern
"The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm."
by Albert Camus
"The military don't start wars. Politicians start wars."
by William Westmoreland
"The sinews of art and literature, like those of war, are money."
by Samuel Butler
"The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction."
by Aesop
"The real theater of the sex war is the domestic hearth"
by Anonymous
"The principle feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things -- war and hunger and date rape -- liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things. It's a kind of natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don't have to be brave, smart, strong or even lucky to join it, you just have to be liberal."
by Anonymous
"The primacy of Turkey's role as a front-line ally in the war on terrorism is expected to assume even greater prominence and urgency as the global war on terrorism continues,"
by Richard Armitage
"The president thinks it's time for an offensive in the war on drugs and not a time for surrender."
by Mike McCurry
"The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals."
by Edward Abbey
"The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision."
by Henry Kissinger
"The United States calls on all indicted war criminals to surrender voluntarily, ... All will receive a fair trial in The Hague."
by Anonymous
"The terrorists who are attacking our way of life do not have armies, navies or air forces. They do not have capitals. They do not have high-value targets that the typical weapons of war can go in and attack."
by Anonymous
"The War on Terror is one of the most critical national security efforts in our history."
by Sue Kelly
"There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others."
by Niccolo Machiavelli
"There is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins. Nearly always one side stands more or less for progress, the other side more or less for reaction."
by George Orwell
"There was a lot pf prejudice back then. But I don't like to dwell on it. I'm just happy that the Tuskegee Airmen are being recognized contributing to the war effort back then."
by George Watson
"They have found out more history than they thought they had. They came upon reasons why people pushed to come here: war, famine and religious persecution."
by Michael Harris
"There's certainly a lot more to what the Supreme Court does than abortion rights. If we focus too much on abortion, we're missing questions about, say, executive authority over the war on terror. We're missing important questions about civil rights and equal protection. We're missing issues that could affect Americans, a larger percentage."
by Jeffrey Segal
"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."
by Ernest Hemingway
"Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war."
by Anonymous
"This war on terrorism is going to continue for an indefinite period of time."
by Tom Ridge
"Wars have never hurt anybody except the people who die."
by Salvador Dali
"War is hell."
by William Sherman
"War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it."
by Desiderius Erasmus
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
by John Stuart Mill
"War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow."
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
"War is a contagion."
by Franklin D. Roosevelt
"War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound; its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives."
by Friedrich Nietzsche
"We don't think that the death and destruction to the U.S. service people and to the Iraqi people can be justified in any way. We mark this date, and this particular number, because it does represent, we believe, an indication of just how wrong the U.S. policy in Iraq is, just how far off course this administration has taken us. And we basically see this as an opportunity to say to the people of this country, to say to the Bush administration and the Congress that these are too many of our young people who have died in this war."
by Leslie Cagan
"We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed."
by John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"We make war that we may live in peace."
by Aristotle
"We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace."
by Aristotle
"We're all going to go crazy, living this epidemic every minute, while the rest of the world goes on out there, all around us, as if nothing is happening, going on with their own lives and not knowing what it's like, what we're going through. We're living through war, but where they're living it's peacetime, and we're all in the same country."
by Larry Kramer
"we will stay, we will fight and we will win the war on terrorism."
by Laura Bush
"What's important is the people who have come on the march. We have built relationships with Muslims, Jews, Christians, blacks, whites. We want to dismiss the idea that it's a religious war, which it isn't."
by Anonymous
"What is going on in the political process is a transition from war to peace. After 22 years of war, we have won the war, virtually, and we have to win the peace."
by Anonymous
"You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."
by Jeannette Rankin
"Behind the scenes there is a secretive, undeclared war of revenge that's already under way."
by Lara Logan
"At this moment in our nation's history, there is no better time to honor those who made great sacrifices and endured great hardship on behalf of freedom. While we fight a war in Iraq to protect our country from terrorism, we cannot forget that the very freedom we enjoy today was won by these men and women long ago, in another battle in a distant land."
by Conrad Burns
"At the end of day, we need a credible institution that has ability to lead an international response to global problems like nuclear proliferation, the horrifying spread of HIV-AIDS, economic and political rebuilding in war-torn regions, and worldwide poverty."
by Norm Coleman
"But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and captains of his chariots and horsemen."
by Anonymous
"Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them."
by Abbie Hoffman
"But we are at war, and we here at THE DAILY SHOW will do our best to keep you informed of any late-breaking...humor we can find. Of course, our show is obviously at a disadvantage compared to the many news sources that we're competing with at a disadvantage in several respects. For one thing, we are fake. They are not. So in terms of credibility we are, well, oddly enough, actually about even. We're about even."
by Jon Stewart
"Especially with all the worries about the war, terrorism and the economy, companies need to find ways to build morale right now, ... The NCAA, and the betting pools in many offices, are a way to bring employees together, to build rapport. These are the kinds of things that allow people to work well together. It's a good expenditure for companies."
by John Challenger
"For Americans war is almost all of the time a nuisance, and military skill is a luxury like Mah-Jongg. But when the issue is brought home to them, war becomes as important, for the necessary period, as business or sport. And it is hard to decide which is likely to be the more ominous for the Axis -- an American decision that this is sport, or that it is business."
by D. W. Brogan
"Frankly, I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private industry."
by Joseph Heller
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
by Albert Einstein
"I had supposed until that time that it was quite common for parents to love their children, but the war persuaded me that it is a rare exception. I had supposed that most people liked money better than almost anything else, but I discovered that they liked destruction even better. I had supposed that intellectuals frequently loved truth, but I found here again that not ten per cent of them prefer truth to popularity."
by Anonymous
"I emphatically stated that, 'I believe 'the blessing of heaven is upon him,' and I am persuaded that he will win this election and prevail on the war against terror in order to keep America safe from her avowed enemies,"
by Pat Robertson
"I have a deep sympathy with war, it so apes the gait and bearing of the soul."
by Anonymous
"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children."
by Mahatma Gandhi
"In the war on terrorism, our enemies operate globally."
by Jeffrey Nadaner
"Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality."
by Jules de Gaultier
"It is easier for Pope Benedict, who grew up in the war generation with a special knowledge of German history, to understand what Jews feel."
by Abraham Lehrer
"Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up."
by James A. Baldwin
"Lots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war --for killing people. We received ours for entertaining other people. I'd say we deserve ours more."
by John Lennon
"One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society ... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam."
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
"One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority."
by Napoleon Bonaparte
"President Yeltsin and the Russian leadership are convinced that NATO's plans to expand to the east, if realized, could be the West's biggest strategic mistake since the end of the Cold War,"
by Sergei Yastrzhembsky
"Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people."
by Jawaharlal Nehru
"Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come."
by Carl Sandburg
"Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong."
by Ronald Reagan
"Of course, I cannot say what real success we had. The Russians have not told us. Still I imagined that I alone had caused the Russian attack to fail. Perhaps the official account of the Russian War Office will give me details after the war."
by Manfred Richthofen
"It (LSD) opened my eyes. We only use on-tenth of our brain. Just think of what we could accomplish if we could only tap that hidden part! It would mean a whole new world if the politicians would take LSD. There wouldn't be any more war or poverty or famine."
by Anonymous
"So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour."
by Anonymous
"More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars."
by Franklin D. Roosevelt
"My point was simply that the war on global terrorism is going to be a long one, and we need to adapt as our enemy adapts,"
by Richard Myers
"It doesn't require any particular bravery to stand on the floor of the Senate and urge our boys in Vietnam to fight harder, and if this war mushrooms into a major conflict and a hundred thousand young Americans are killed, it won't be U. S. Senators who die. It will be American soldiers who are too young to qualify for the senate."
by George McGovern
"It is easier to make war than to make peace."
by Anonymous
"I moved around my whole life, internationally, with my dad who was in international sales after World War II,"
by Kenneth Wright
"I think that we have all overestimated the rate of achievement in the Dayton Accords for things such as return of refugees, bringing war criminals to justice, and freedom of movement. Nevertheless, there are positive trends that show promise for the future."
by Alija Izetbegovic
"For morality life is a war, and the service of the highest is a sort of cosmic patriotism which also calls for volunteers."
by Anonymous
"Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice."
by Anonymous
"I do not believe that the men who served in uniform in Vietnam have been given the credit they deserve. It was a difficult war against an unorthodox enemy."
by William Westmoreland
"Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues."
by Thomas Hobbes
"Any time the intelligence committee pursued a line of inquiry that brought us close to the role of the White House in all of this in the use of intelligence prior to the war, our efforts have been thwarted time and time again, ... The very independence of the United States Congress as a separate and coequal branch of the government has been called into question."
by Jay Rockefeller
"I would die for my country, but I could never let my country die for me."
by Neil Kinnock
"Blessed be the LORD my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight: / My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me."
by Anonymous
"[If the foregoing was simply insensitive, George W. Bush's comparison of the first U.S. war against Iraq, when his dad was commander in chief, and the current U.S. war against Iraq is damning. In] Misunderestimated: The President Battles Terrorism, John Kerry and the Bush Haters ... I think freedom will prevail, so long as the U.S. and its allies don't ... do what many Iraqis still suspect might happen, and that is cut and run early, like what happened in '91."
by Bill Sammon
"The first casualty when war comes is truth."
by Hiram Johnson
"The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions."
by Robert Lynd
"The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war."
by George Hyman Rickover
"All's fair in love and war."
by F. E. Smedley
"There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever."
by Thomas A. Edison
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
by Dwight David Eisenhower, 1953
"To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war."
by Sir Winston Churchill
"To hold a pen is to be at war."
by Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire
"To conquer the enemy without resorting to war is the most desirable. The highest form of generalship is to conquer the enemy by strategy."
by Ancient Chinese Warlord
"No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now."
by Richard M. Nixon
"Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war."
by Lucius Annaeus Seneca


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