Quotes about war

"Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues."

Hobbes, Thomas on war   

"War has been the most convenient pseudo-solution for the problems of twentieth-century capitalism. It provides the incentives to modernization and technological revolution which the market and the pursuit of profit do only fitfully and by accident, it makes the unthinkable (such as votes for women and the abolition of unemployment) not merely thinkable but practicable. What is equally important, it can re-create communities of men and give a temporary sense to their lives by uniting them against foreigners and outsiders. This is an achievement beyond the power of the private enterprise economy when left to itself."

Hobsbawm, E. J. on war   

"I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars."

Hoffman, Abbie on war
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"Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die."

Hoover, Herbert Clark on war
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"Here dead lie we because we did not choose to live and shame the land from which we sprung. Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose; but young men think it is, and we were young."

Housman, A. E. on war   

"War seems to be one of the most salutary phenomena for the culture of human nature; and it is not without regret that I see it disappearing more and more from the scene."

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm Von on war   

"A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy."

Huxley, Aldous on war   

"The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy with the least harm to ourselves; and this of course is to be effected by stratagem."

Irving, Washington on war   

"What we believe is more important than our material existence, therefore warfare is a legitimate extension of values."

Johnson, Edward on war   

"Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today."

Kennedy, John F. on war
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"Oh, the brave Music of a distant drum!"

Khayyam, Omar on war   

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"War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow."

King Jr. Martin Luther on war   

"If any question why we died, tell them, because our fathers lied."

Kipling, Rudyard on war   

"The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums."

Koestler, Arthur on war   

"Where do all the women who have watched so carefully over the lives of their beloved ones get the heroism to send them to face the cannon?"

Kollwitz, KaThe on war   

"How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print."

Kraus, Karl on war
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"War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost."

Kraus, Karl on war   

"Those who have been immersed in the tragedy of massive death during wartime, and who have faced it squarely, never allowing their senses and feelings to become numbed and indifferent, have emerged from their experiences with growth and humanness greater than that achieved through almost any other means."

KuBler-Ross, Elisabeth on war   

"The more prosperous and settled a nation, the more readily it tends to think of war as a regrettable accident; to nations less fortunate the chance of war presents itself as a possible bountiful friend."

Lapham, Lewis H. on war   

"The war is dreadful. It is the business of the artist to follow it home to the heart of the individual fighters -- not to talk in armies and nations and numbers -- but to track it home."

Lawrence, D. H. on war   

"Of course in war all madnesses come out in a man, that is the fault of war not of a man or a nation."

Lawrence, Frieda on war   

"I see that old flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy ever haul them down."

Macarthur, Douglas on war   

"In war there is no substitute for victory."

Macarthur, Douglas on war   

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"I have known war as few men now living know it. It's very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes."

Macarthur, Douglas on war   

"There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others."

Machiavelli, Niccolo on war
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"War is thus divine in itself, since it is a law of the world. War is divine through its consequences of a supernatural nature which are as much general as particular. War is divine in the mysterious glory that surrounds it and in the no less inexplicable attraction that draws us to it. War is divine by the manner in which it breaks out."

Maistre, Joseph De on war   

"Wars are carried out by large organizations; Peace is brought one by one."

Manor, Rachel on war   

"Blunders are an inescapable feature of war, because choice in military affairs lies generally between the bad and the worse."

Massie, Allan on war   

"Men are at war with each other because each man is at war with himself."

Meehan, Francis on war
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"War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands."

Mencken, H. L. on war   

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their own free choice -- is often the means of their regeneration."

Mill, John Stuart on war
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"I regard almost all quarrels of princes on the same footing, and I see nothing that marks man's unreason so positively as war. Indeed, what folly to kill one another for interests often imaginary, and always for the pleasure of persons who do not think themselves even obliged to those who sacrifice themselves for them!"

Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley on war   

"War is the supreme drama of a completely mechanized society."

Mumford, Lewis on war   

"War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to make it."

Mussolini, Benito on war   

"In war, there are no unwounded soldiers."

Narosky, Jose on war
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"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."

Nietzsche, Friedrich on war   

"What the horrors of war are, no one can imagine. They are not wounds and blood and fever, spotted and low, or dysentery, chronic and acute, cold and heat and famine. They are intoxication, drunken brutality, demoralization and disorder on the part of the inferior... jealousies, meanness, indifference, selfish brutality on the part of the superior."

Nightingale, Florence on war   

"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it."

Orwell, George on war
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"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."

Orwell, George on war   

"What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns."

Owen, Wilfred on war