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War

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“The pleasure of being with you is in the clash of personality, the intellectual battle, the war of ideas. To survive you one must have a strong brain, an assertive ego, a dynamic character. In your luncheon-parties, in old days, the remains of the guests were taken away with the débris of the feast. I have often lunched with you in Park Lane and found myself the only survivor.”
Frank Harris (1856–1931) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oscar Wilde, letter to Frank Harris, June 13, 1897, in The Letters of Oscar Wilde (1962) p. 608.
“We might win the first battle for Japan, but we won't win the second. The war is lost to us. Therefore we must forget about 'face,' we must surrender as quickly as we can, and we must begin to consider at once how best to preserve our country.”
Mitsumasa Yonai (1880–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Henry Hitch Adams, Years to victory (1973), p. 448.
“When did you become a shivering old woman," Okonkwo asked himself, "you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.”
Chinua Achebe (1930–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow me. This is war, not peace. It is battle declared against the world, the flesh, and the devil. In me said Christ, "ye have peace,"—not in the world; there is no promise of it there.”
Anna Shipton (1815–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every battle, every war - is fought for things worth dying for.”
Arthur M. Jolly (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; Forward into battle see His banners go!”
Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Onward, Christian Soldiers", st. 1 (1871)
“Just like Battle Royale, it's supposed to communicate war's horrors to young teenagers.”
Suzanne Collins (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beyond the war years the grim and tortured struggle of Negroes to win their own freedom is an epic of battle against frightful odds. If we have failed to do enough, it was not the will for freedom that was weak, but the forces against us which were too strong.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Poster À tous les Français (To All Frenchmen), 3 August 1940.
“No war, or battle's sound Was heard the world around. The idle spear and shield were high up hung.”
John Milton (1608–1674) said by 1674 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One battle doesn't make a campaign but critics treat one book, good or bad, like a whole goddamn war.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A big man on a horse scared me out of my wits. He bellowed, "I'm General Genghis Kahn Schmitz. There's a war going on! And it's time that you knew Every lad in this land has his duty to do. We're marching to battle. We need you, my boy! We're about to attack. We're about to destroy The Perilous Poozer of Pompelmoose Pass! So get into line. You're a Private, First Class.”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I actually adore that kind of hate mail, because if all you have to fight me with is prejudice then I have already won the battle, and eventually I'm gonna win this war. I wrote about hate mail on my website, and posted all that I had received, along with the names and e-mail addresses of the guilty...(this) actually prompted an incredible number of the haters to recant and apologize.”
Margaret Cho (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This conflict started August 2d when the dictator of Iraq invaded a small and helpless neighbor. Kuwait -- a member of the Arab League and a member of the United Nations -- was crushed; its people, brutalized. Five months ago, Saddam Hussein started this cruel war against Kuwait. Tonight, the battle has been joined.”
George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was not a country in the world that had not fought a battle in the war of all Earth against the invaders from Mars. All was forgiven. All living things were brothers, and all dead things were even more so.”
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This Party of ours has been on the defensive for too long. The time has come to counter-attack...The intellectual counter-attack is as important as the counter-attack in Parliament and in the constituencies. If we can win the battle of ideas, then the war will already be half-won.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Federation of Conservative Students Conference (24 March 1975)
“Most books, after all, are ephemeral; their specifics, several years later, inspire about as much interest as daily battle reports from the Hundred Years' War.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“During the Peninsula War, I heard a Portuguese general address his troops before a battle with the words, "Remember men, you are Portuguese!”
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wellington's reply when asked, late in his life, what was the most inane remark he had ever heard, as quoted in Journals of Alec Guinness (February 1998) by Alec Guinness
“How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dugout? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried the bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?”
Smedley Butler (1881–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In Cuba, there is no fear of a racial war. Men are more than whites, mulattos or Negroes. Cubans are more than whites, mulattos or Negroes. On the field of battle, dying for Cuba, the souls of whites and Negroes have risen together into the air.”
José Martí (1853–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The defeated are those who never fail. Defeat means that we lose a particular battle or war. Failure does not allow us to go on fighting.”
Paulo Coelho (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To protect Germany's sea trade and colonies, in the existing circumstances, there is only one means: Germany must have a battle fleet so strong that, even for the adversary with the greatest sea-power, a war against it would involve such dangers as to imperil its position in the world.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You can't make war against terror. Terror is a technique of battle. It's a tactic that has been employed since time immemorial. You can conduct clandestine action against terrorists, and that must be done.”
John le Carré (1931–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who slew my father I drove into exile, punishing their deed by due process of law, and afterwards when they waged war upon the republic I twice defeated them in battle.”
Augustus (63 BC–14) said by 14 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.”
James Baldwin (1924–1987) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Search of a Majority: An Address" (Feb 1960)
“I would think to myself [...] that the battle for the mind of Ronald Reagan was like the trench warfare of World War I: Never have so many fought so hard for such barren terrain.”
Peggy Noonan (born 1950) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What I Saw In the Revolution : A Political Life in the Reagan Era (1990), p. 268
“By the time mortal races leave their home planets, many of their gods have already amalgamated with one another. Small tribal godlets are often thrust together through shared execrations. All Death-Honor-and-War gods, for example, are identical. The people may fly different flags, but their gods are happy to drink blood from both sides of the battle.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wut's words to them whose faith an' truth On war's red techstone rang true metal; Who ventered life an' love an' youth For the gret prize o' death in battle?”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“About one of Durrani's generals, Jahan Khan, in Mathura. Battle tactics and war manoeuvres of the Sikhs, DS Saggu”
Ahmed Shah Durrani (1722–1772) said by 1772 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My father was a Republican and he hated Roosevelt. And that's sort of been the battle of my life, I think. You have to understand I grew up a Republican conservative. I hated Castro. And I put my money where my mouth was because I went to war, but I understood pretty quickly that this was another place, another culture and we would never fit in there.”
Oliver Stone (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Working together, America's military, Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi people have won a major battle in the war on terrorism.”
Paul Ryan (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ye that follow the vision Of the world's weal afar, Have ye met with derision And the red laugh of war; Yet the thunder shall not hurt you, Nor the battle-storms dismay; Tho' the sun in heaven desert you, "Love will find out the way.”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only a fool loves war. Or a man who has never seen it. The trouble is that the survivors forget about the horrors and remember only the battle lust. They pass on that memory, and other men hunger for it.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It would be a fine thing if war could be conducted as a game where no lives were lost. At the end of a battle combatants could meet [...] and drink and talk.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are closest to life when we are vying with death ... The blood runs hot, the air smells sweet, the sky becomes an unbearably beautiful blue. Battle is intoxicating. That is why the ghastly vileness of war has always been so popular.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Trojan War without Homer was nothing more than a battle over trade routes.”
B. W. Powe (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hush your highness, don't you breathe No, baby, hold me in your arms, I'm shivering But what's all this for? If I was the battle, baby, you have won the war”
Courtney Love (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Simply, all what we did is that we avoided the country a big crisis and a battle between Egyptians. Beware, instead of Egyptians fighting each other, no, you can fight us, and we protect all. how many would fight us? but Egyptians fighting each other would be a big war, thousands may die, and maybe miliions.”
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (born 1954) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks by el-Sisi during a military conference (28 April 2013).
“Simply, all what we did is that we avoided the country a big crisis and a battle between Egyptians. Beware, instead of Egyptians fighting each other, no, you can fight us, and we protect all. how many would fight us? but Egyptians fighting each other would be a big war we couldn't have had the ability to deal with.”
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (born 1954) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks by el-Sisi during a military conference (28 April 2013).
“The results of a battle pained him as much as if he was receiving the wounds himself, for I have often heard him express himself in pained accents while talking over some of the scenes of the war; he was not the man to assume a character for feelings he did not possess ; he was as guileless in some respects as a child. How could one avoid liking such a man?”
David Dixon Porter (1813–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Praise be to the Lord, my rock, who trains my fingers for battle and my hands for war.”
Ricardo Sanchez (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Simplicity is the cure for violence. For example, if we postulate an imaginary oracle that could predict the outcome of any battle, we could eliminate war. The predicted loser would have no incentive but to concede to the demands of the predicted winner.”
Curtis Yarvin (born 1973) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Liquidity As Information", interfluidity (January 18, 2007).
“The permanent contest for political power that democracy creates is an extreme case of limited war, in which no weapons at all are allowed, and battle is resolved by counting heads.”
Curtis Yarvin (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the end of the war there were no psychoanalysts or other counselors to see if you were going to get out of the terrifying experience of battle without psychological damage. ...some men had such deep ...damage that they ended up in veterans' nursing homes, where they were almost forgotten. Others... just tried to obliterate from their minds the episodes of inhumanity that they had experienced.”
Henri Levaufre wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ah, my friend, if you and I could only Get out of the war alive and then immortal and ageless all of our days, I would never again fight among the foremost Or send you into battle where men win glory. But as it is, death is everywhere In more shapes that we can count, And since no mortal is immune or can escape, Let's go forward, either to give glory To another man, or get glory from him.”
Stanley Lombardo (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“‘He doesn't understand. The navy is my life. My only life, now. The war will not last for ever, but until it ends I shall stand in the line-of-battle as I have been entrusted to!’”
Douglas Reeman (1924–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This war didn’t start when magic came back, Inan. You are only seeing the end of a battle countless have given their lives for. By winter’s dawn, we will have wiped the scourge of maji from this land. Even your wretched father couldn’t achieve that.”
Tomi Adeyemi (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I realized that my battle to survive this war would have to be fought inside of me.”
Immaculée Ilibagiza (born 1972) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Immaculee Ilibagiza, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. Goodreads (February 2006)
“Because the American people have traditionally taken a warlike, but not military, attitude to battle, and because they have always coupled a certain belligerence - no American likes being pushed around - with a complete unwillingness to prepare for combat, the Korean War was difficult, perhaps the most difficult in their history.”
T. R. Fehrenbach (1925–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not easy to capture a terrorist sanctuary like this (in Mali) ... but we (Chadian armed forces) are aware that this is just one battle in the war.”
Mahamat Déby Itno (born 1984) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahamat Déby Itno (2013) cited in: "Chad's new leader - Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno" in BBC News, 22 April 2021.