WAR QUOTES VI

quotations about war

It is idle to say that we are still able to carry on the war, if we cannot carry it on without renouncing, for the sake of revenue, the means of making war with effect. It is like a soldier selling his arms, to enable him to continue his march.

JAMES STEPHEN

War in Disguise


What weak, inglorious fools we mortals are
That war must be, or any need of war.
And yet, the better day is coming when
The teachings of the lowly Nazarene
Shall be the rule of nations--as of men;
The sword and bayonet shall be preserved,
By the fair children of a nobler race,
As relics only, of a barbarous past.

ANDREW DOWNING

"The Bluebird"

Tags: Andrew Downing


Alas for my country, thy evergreen valleys,
Are wet with a tide that is red,
Alas for thy hills for they shudd'ringly cover
War's sacrifice, bloody and dread!

MARY T. LATHRAP

"Man's Work in God's World"

Tags: Mary T. Lathrap


War and culture, those are the two poles of Europe, her heaven and hell, her glory and shame, and they cannot be separated from one another. When one comes to an end, the other will end also and one cannot end without the other. The fact that no war has broken out in Europe for fifty years is connected in some mysterious way with the fact that for fifty years no new Picasso has appeared either.

MILAN KUNDERA

Immortality

Tags: Milan Kundera


When conflicting rights arise between nations, one party must give way, or war must be the issue; a right, therefore, which is essential to the existence of the possessor, ought to prevail over one which is not of such vital importance.

JAMES STEPHEN

War in Disguise

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So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism--despotism during the campaign--is indispensable.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: Walter Bagehot


Of all evils of war the greatest is the purely spiritual evil: the hatred, the injustice, the repudiation of truth, the artificial conflict.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

Justice in War-Time

Tags: Bertrand Russell


To beat a retreat with the honors of war has always been the triumph of the ablest generals.

HONORÉ DE BALZAC

The Vicar of Tours

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War is a fevered god
who takes alike
maiden and king and clod.

HILDA DOOLITTLE

"Telesila"

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They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

"Notes on the Next War", Esquire, September 1935

Tags: Ernest Hemingway


What mother, with long-watching eyes
And white lips cold and dumb,
Waits with appalling patience for
Her darling boy to come?
Her boy! whose mountain grave swells up
But one of many a scar
Cut on the face of our fair land
By gory-handed war.

MARY ASHLEY TOWNSEND

A Georgia Volunteer

Tags: Mary Ashley Townsend


What happened in World War II was what happened in war generally, and that was whatever the initiating cause, and however clear the moral reason is for the war in which one side looks better than the other, by the time the war ends both sides have been engaged in evil.

HOWARD ZINN

Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches, 1963-2009

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The number of conflict photographers covering wars has dwindled 40% over the past 15 years ... but without them, we would never know the realities of war. Governments paint a heroic and rosy picture of war through their official photos and videos, but it's the front-line photographers that show us the realities of violence, injustice, and suffering.

MICHAEL ZHANG

"This is Why the World Needs War Photographers", Peta Pixel, January 15, 2016


NIXON: The only place where you and I disagree ... is with regard to the bombing. You're so goddamned concerned about civilians and I don't give a damn. I don't care. KISSINGER: I'm concerned about the civilians because I don't want the world to be mobilized against you as a butcher.

RICHARD NIXON & HENRY KISSINGER

attributed, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers


I cannot get accustomed to war; my brain refuses to understand and explain a thing that is senseless in its basis. Millions of people gather at one place and, giving their actions order and regularity, kill each other, and it hurts everybody equally, and all are unhappy -- what is it if not madness?

LEONID ANDREYEV

The Red Laugh

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When a war is waged by two opposing groups of robbers for the sake of deciding who shall have a freer hand to oppress more people, then the question of the origin of the war is of no real economic or political significance.

VLADIMIR LENIN

Pravda, April 26, 1917

Tags: Vladimir Lenin


The War went on far too long.... It was too vast for its meaning, like a giant with the brain of a midge. Its epic proportions were grotesquely out of scale, seeing what it was fought to settle. It was far too indecisive. It settled nothing, as it meant nothing. Indeed, it was impossible to escape the feeling that it was not meant to settle anything -- that could have any meaning, or be of any advantage, to the general run of men.

WYNDHAM LEWIS

Blasting and Bombardiering

Tags: Lewis Wyndham


Where are my many promised gifts and spoils of war? Where are my bold and silver cups?

AESCHYLUS

fragment, Perrhaibides


Scarcely one stone remaineth upon another; but in the midst of sorrow we have abundant cause of thankfulness, that so few of our brethren are numbered with the slain, whilst our enemies were cut down like the grass before the scythe.

ABIGAIL ADAMS

letter to John Adams, June 22, 1775

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No one should be surprised at the prominence given to war. We are dealing with early ages; nation-MAKING is the occupation of man in these ages, and it is war that makes nations. Nation-CHANGING comes afterwards, and is mostly effected by peaceful revolution, though even then war, too, plays its part. The idea of an indestructible nation is a modern idea; in early ages all nations were destructible, and the further we go back, the more incessant was the work of destruction. The internal decoration of nations is a sort of secondary process, which succeeds when the main forces that create nations have principally done their work. We have here been concerned with the political scaffolding; it will be the task of other papers to trace the process of political finishing and building. The nicer play of finer forces may then require more pleasing thoughts than the fierce fights of early ages can ever suggest. It belongs to the idea of progress that beginnings can never seem attractive to those who live far on; the price of improvement is, that the unimproved will always look degraded.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: Walter Bagehot