Quotes about force

"The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood."

Bismarck, Otto Von on force   

"Force is not a remedy."

Bright, John on force   

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"The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered."

Burke, Edmund on force   

"Force is legitimate where gentleness avails not."

Corneille, Pierre on force   

"The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations."

Friedman, David on force   

"Civilization is nothing more than the effort to reduce the use of force to the last resort."

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y on force   

"Why slap them on the wrist with feather when you can belt them over the head with a sledgehammer."

Hepburn, Katharine on force
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"Coercion may prevent many transgressions; but it robs even actions which are legal of a part of their beauty. Freedom may lead to many transgressions, but it lends even to vices a less ignoble form."

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm Von on force   

"Force works on servile natures, not the free."

Johnson, Ben on force   

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"Be careful: they have arms, and no alternatives."

Kapuscinski, Ryszard on force
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"Some people draw a comforting distinction between force and violence. I refuse to cloud the issue by such word-play. The power which establishes a state is violence; the power which maintains it is violence; the power which eventually overthrows it is violence. Call an elephant a rabbit only if it gives you comfort to feel that you are about to be trampled to death by a rabbit."

Kaunda, Kenneth on force   

"Whatever needs to be maintained through force is doomed."

Miller, Henry on force   

"Force without forecast is to little avail."

Proverb on force   

"Force is that which rules the actions without regulating the will."

Saying on force   

"Where force is necessary, there it must be applied boldly, decisively and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with a maneuver, a blow with an agreement."

Trotsky, Leon on force   

"Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravitation."

Trotsky, Leon on force   

"A man convinced against his will; is of the same opinion still."

Unknown, Source on force   

"Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it."

Weil, Simone on force   

"Who were the fools who spread the story that brute force cannot kill ideas? Nothing is easier. And once they are dead they are no more than corpses."

Weil, Simone on force