quotations about war
We are not isolationists except in so far as we seek to isolate ourselves completely from war. Yet we must remember that so long as war exists on earth there will be some danger that even the Nation which most ardently desires peace may be drawn into war.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Address at Chautauqua, August 14, 1936
There whil'st the world prov'd prodigal of breath, the headless trunks lay prostrated in heaps; this field of funerals sacred unto death, did paint out horror in most hideous shapes: whil'st men unhors'd, horses unmast'red, stray'd, some call'd on those whom they most dearly lov'd, some rag'd, some groan'd, some sigh'd, roar'd, promis'd, pray'd, as blows, falls, faintness, pain, hope, anguish mov'd.
SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER
The Tragedy of Croesus
Short of changing human nature ... the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.
RICHARD NIXON
Real Peace
Using hunger and thirst as a weapon of war is a crime, a shameful thing.
MARIO ZENARI
"Pope Francis Confronts 'Piecemeal' World War III in the Middle East", National Catholic Register, February 2, 2016
Anyone who thinks must think of the next war as they would of suicide.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
speech at the National Conference on the Cause and Cure of War, January 21, 1941
Waging endless wars abroad (in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Syria) isn't making America--or the rest of the world--any safer, it's certainly not making America great again, and it's undeniably digging the U.S. deeper into debt. In fact, it's a wonder the economy hasn't collapsed yet. Indeed, even if we were to put an end to all of the government's military meddling and bring all of the troops home today, it would take decades to pay down the price of these wars and get the government's creditors off our backs. Even then, government spending would have to be slashed dramatically and taxes raised. You do the math.
JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
"Beware the Dogs of War: Is the American Empire on the Verge of Collapse?", Global Research, April 12, 2017
The moral reality of war is divided into two parts. War is always judged twice, first with reference to the reasons states have for fighting, secondly with reference to the means they adopt.... The two sorts of judgment are logically independent. It is perfectly possible for a just war to be fought unjustly and for an unjust war to be fought in strict accordance with the rules. But this independence, though our views of particular wars often conform to its terms, is nevertheless puzzling. It is a crime to commit aggression, but aggressive war is a rule-governed activity. It is right to resist aggression, but the resistance is subject to moral (and legal) restraint. [This] dualism ... is at the heart of all that is most problematic in the moral reality of war.
MICHAEL WALZER
Just and Unjust Wars
A nice war is a war where everybody who is heroic is a hero, and everybody more or less is a hero in a nice war. Now this war is not at all a nice war.
GERTRUDE STEIN
Wars I Have Seen
Many causes produce war. There are ancient hatreds, turbulent frontiers, the "legacy of old forgotten, far-off things, and battles long ago." There are new-born fanaticisms. Convictions on the part of certain peoples that they have become the unique depositories of ultimate truth and right.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Address at Chautauqua, August 14, 1936
Now that I've seen what war is ... I know that everybody, if one day it should end, ought to ask himself: "And what shall we make of the fallen? Why are they dead?" I wouldn't know what to say. Not now, at any rate. Nor does it seem to me that the others know. Perhaps only dead know, and only for them is the war really over.
CESARE PAVESE
The House on the Hill
War had become nothing more than slaughtering soldiers from a safe distance. When this failed to produce victory, civilians too became targeted for annihilation. It took more than a century, two world wars and the invention of the ultimate weapon, the atomic bomb, before the impact of this change started to become fully realized: war had become 'total war'. Warfare in the twentieth century is now an industry. It is bureaucratized, to the extent that its main decisions are being taken anonymously and committed to paper by people far removed from the actual killing zones.
HYLKE TROMP
"On the Nature of War and the Nature of Militarism"
In every trade save war men of talent and vigor prosper. In war they die.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
The Crossing
When war is perceived to be a win-win economic situation for all parties, the prospect of it occurring increases dramatically.
ROGER ARNOLD
"When War Is a Win-Win Scenario", The Street, April 12, 2017
I've fought for and against pretty much every cause there is. There will always be war of some kind. At first it was over fertile soil and good water, then precious metal and then the most popular version of human disagreement, "My God is better than your God." Whether you draw your faith from Jeremiah and Jesus, Allah and Muhammad or Brahma and Buddha, it doesn't matter. Someone will tell you you're wrong, and he'll fight you over it. Me, I believe in aliens, and to hell with all earthly gods. In the grand scheme of a trillion planets in the universe we're just not that damn important anyway. And humans are rotten to the core.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Camel Club
War, in one form or another, appeared with the first man. At the dawn of history, its morality was not questioned; it was simply a fact, like drought or disease -- the manner in which tribes and then civilizations sought power and settled their differences. And over time, as codes of law sought to control violence within groups, so did philosophers and clerics and statesmen seek to regulate the destructive power of war. The concept of a "just war" emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when certain conditions were met: if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense; if the force used is proportional; and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence. Of course, we know that for most of history, this concept of "just war" was rarely observed. The capacity of human beings to think up new ways to kill one another proved inexhaustible, as did our capacity to exempt from mercy those who look different or pray to a different God.
BARACK OBAMA
Nobel Lecture, December 10, 2009
War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight,
The lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Queen Mab
The god of war is impartial: he hands out death to the man who hands out death.
HOMER
The Iliad
The art of war is at once comprehensive and complicated; ... it demands much previous study; and ... the possession of it, in its most improved and perfect state, is always a great moment to the security of a nation. This, therefore, ought to be a serious care of every government; and for this purpose, an academy, where a regular course of instruction is given, is an obvious expedient, which different nations have successfully employed.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
speech to Congress, December 7, 1796
War is a most uneconomical, foolish, poor arrangement, a bloody enrichment of that soil which bears the sweet flower of peace.
M. E. W. SHERWOOD
An Epistle to Posterity
For wide, ah! wide is the woe when the foeman has mounted the wall;
There is havoc and terror and flame, and the dark smoke broods over all,
And wild is the war-god's breath, as in frenzy of conquest he springs,
And pollutes with the blast of his lips the glory of holiest things!
AESCHYLUS
The Seven Against Thebes