War & Peace Quotes

Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force.

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.

All war is deception.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be temped to risk his own destruction.

War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.

True pacifism is not unrealistic submission to an evil power...it is rather a courageous confrontation with evil by the power of love, in the faith that it is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflicter of it, since the latter only multiplies the existence of violence and bitterness in the universe, while the former may develop a sense of shame in the opponent, and thereby bring about a transformation and change of heart.

Of course the people dont want war...that is understood. But voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

Everyone's a pacifist between wars. It's like being a vegetarian between meals.

Warmaking doesn't stop warmaking. If it did, our problems would have stopped millennia ago.

To wage a war for a purely moral reason is as absurd as to ravish a woman for a purely moral reason.

War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.

Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me.'"

It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.

Peace is its own reward.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.

It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.