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War

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“The battle of the sexes is no myth. Success at sexual reproduction is at the heart of the evolutionary process. But greater success for her often means less success for him. The upshot? An eternal war—and an astounding diversity of strategies.”
Olivia Judson (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even if you find yourself as a woman in a man’s world, it is not for you to feel that there’s a battle you are fighting with the men. A lot of us women, we miss it. We think that we are in some kind of war and we have to go out there and fight the men and prove that we can do it, that is not so. Rather, I think we should see ourselves as co-developers in the nation’s progress.”
Itunu Hotonu (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nag Bhat I led an army of 30,000-40,000 men mostly consisting of cavalry and infantry. He was a great military commander and organised his army by dividing his cavalry in parts on the ﬂanks. The battle hardened infantry was positioned in the center with reserve cavalry and possibly war elephants in the back as a rearguard.”
Nagabhata I (750–780) said by 780 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our battle [summer]]. May it be our first and our last. So-called. After all, we have not had any of the horrors of war.”
Mary Boykin Chesnut (1823–1886) first seen 1861 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: July 9, 1861
“We may have won one battle, but the war on plastics in Malawi and across the world is far from over”
Gloria Majiga-Kamoto (born 1991) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who believe that war permits moral corruption are mistaken, for power, wealth, and weapons lead to widespread tyranny if not governed by values and ethics. The essence of struggle is a battle between righthood and falsehood, good and evil, justice and oppression.”
Ahmed al-Sharaa (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From the heart of Aleppo, I declare to the world that our war with tyrants has ended, and our battle against poverty has already begun.”
Ahmed al-Sharaa (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[...] For years now, a fierce cultural war has been waged by a more or less openly fascist right-wing faction: a battle whose aim is nothing less than state revisionism. In other words, it aims to erase the history that tells us what fascism really was, and what the criminal neo-fascism of the second half of the twentieth century was.”
Tomaso Montanari (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A curious, dreamlike sensation stole over Gertrude at finding herself once again in a roomful of people; and as an old war-horse is said to become excited at the sound of battle, so she felt the social instincts rise strongly within her as the familiar, forgotten pageant of nods and becks and wreathed smiles burst anew upon her.”
Amy Levy (1861–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A theology at war with the laws of physical nature would be a battle of no doubtful issue. The laws of our spiritual nature give still less chance of success to the system which would thwart or stay them.”
William Ellery Channing (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village, stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against each other.”
Thomas Carlyle (attributed) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by Emma Goldman in her essay, "Patriotism: A Menace to Liberty", chapter five of Anarchism and Other Essays (2nd revised edition, 1911).
“Give me an army of West Point graduates, I'll win a battle. Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war!”
George S. Patton (misattributed) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mike Province, founder and president of The Patton Society calls this an urban legend and in the Texas A&M Battalion (2 October 2006) is quoted as saying "I've gotten e-mails and questions regarding that quote for sever…
“Nag Bhat I led an army of 30,000-40,000 men mostly consisting of cavalry and infantry. He was a great military commander and organised his army by dividing his cavalry in parts on the ﬂanks. The battle hardened infantry was positioned in the center with reserve cavalry and possibly war elephants in the back as a rearguard.”
Nagabhata I (750–780) said by 780 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rawal M. S. & Rawal Y. S. (2019). Saffron swords. Garuda Prakashan.
“No war or battle's sound Was heard the world around.”
John Milton (1608–1674) said by 1674 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“In the lost battle, Borne down by the flying, Where mingles war's rattle With groans of the dying.”
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) said by 1832 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Yet spirit immortal, the tomb cannot bind thee, But like thine own eagle that soars to the sun Thou springest from bondage and leavest behind thee A name which before thee no mortal hath won. Tho' nations may combat, and war's thunders rattle, No more on thy steed wilt thou sweep o'er the plain: Thou sleep'st thy last sleep, thou hast fought thy last battle, No sound can awake thee to glory again.”
Leonard Heath bartlett, Public domain source
“I think that I have now said enough about the war, which is past now for over twenty-five years. I bow in reverence before the memory of the men who lost their lives in this war on both sides, and I think that we all hope that we never shall have such a war again.”
Karl Dönitz (1891–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We Germans carried our hatred from the First World War to the Second World War, and now you are about to carry the hatred about the murder of 5 million people on to another World War.”
Hans Fritzsche (1900–1953) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Leon Goldensohn, April 6, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" - by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004
“Ludicrous concepts…like the whole idea of a "war on terrorism". You can wage war against another country, or on a national group within your own country, but you can't wage war on an abstract noun. How do you know when you've won? When you've got it removed from the Oxford English Dictionary?”
Terry Jones (1942–2020) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Observer, (23 February 2003).
“Israel is at war. We didn’t want this war. It was forced upon us in the most brutal and savage way. But though Israel didn’t start this war, Israel will finish it.”
Benjamin Netanyahu (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All of this self-serving is driving America and its vassals to war with Russia, which might also mean with China. The war would be nuclear and be the end of the West, an act of self-genocide. The US national security establishment is so crazed that Trump’s efforts to get off the war track and onto a peace track are characterized as treason and a threat to US national security.”
Paul Craig Roberts (born 1939) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Self-Genocide of the West, Foreign Policy Journal (26 December 2018)
“The kind of slaughter and violence that we have seen in this war, was in my experience very rare during the Russo-Japanese war. In modern war, the whole people are mobilized. Hence the majority of the troops correspond to the people as a whole. An army in which scandals and atrocities occur in great numbers, must surely reflect a decline in public morality?”
Shunroku Hata (1879–1962) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "Singapore, 1941-1942" - Page 269 - by Louis Allen - History - 1993
“War is destructive. The idea that you can do something constructive with war is becoming this facile, dangerous, intellectually lax political interpretation of military counter-insurgency theory. I want to hear [President Barack Obama] say that doesn't work. That war is never constructive.”
Rachel Maddow (born 1973) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: San Francisco Chronicle (27 March 2009)
“I am against a League war in present circumstances, because the anti-League powers are strong. The analogy is not King v. Barons, but the War of the Roses. If the League were strong enough I should favour sanctions, because the effect would suffice, or the war would be short and small. The whole question is quantitative.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Kingsley Martin shortly before the Italo-Abyssinian War (7 August 1935), quoted in Kingsley Martin, Editor: A Second Volume of Autobiography, 1931-45 (1968), p. 207
“For the first time in modern history a Third World state has successfully fought a defensive war — the longest such war between regular armies since the Second World War — without being under the umbrella of a particular military pact or the influence of a particular great power; and without suffering any shackles on its will and independence, or abandoning its principles and policies.”
Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy.”
Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement by Justice Jackson on War Trials Agreement (12 August 1945)
“War is no longer made by simply analysed economic forces if it ever was. War is made or planned now by individual men, demagogues and dictators who play on the patriotism of their people to mislead them into a belief in the great fallacy of war when all their vaunted reforms have failed to satisfy the people they misrule.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An aggressive war is the great crime against everything good in the world. A defensive war, which must necessarily turn to aggressive at the earliest moment, is the necessary great counter-crime. But never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have to remind ourselves of this at every moment: that we are in a war, a cold war as they call it; a war where there is no front line, no continuous bombardment, but where the two adversaries — this tiny champion of the Caribbean and the immense imperialist hyena — are face to face and aware that one of them is going to end up dead in the fight.”
Che Guevara (1928–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Rainbow is making room for the young Americans. Twenty years ago, our young people were dying in a war for which they could not even vote. Twenty years later, young America has the power to stop a war in Central America and the responsibility to vote in great numbers. Young America must be politically active in 1984. The choice is war or peace. We must make room for young America.”
Jesse Jackson (1941–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The United States while they wish for war with no nation, will buy peace with none, it being a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, so war is better than tribute.”
James Madison (1751–1836) first seen 1815 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message delivered to Dey Omar Agha, by Isaac Chauncey and William Shaler , summarizing the Treaty with Algiers (1815), and U.S attitudes and actions in the Barbary Wars, in refusing to pay ransom or tribute to pirates o…
“No individual gets up and says, I'm going to take this because I want it. He'd say, I'm going to take it because it really belongs to me and it would be better for everyone if I had it. It's true of children fighting over toys. And it's true of governments going to war. Nobody is ever involved in an aggressive war; it's always a defensive war -- on both sides.”
Noam Chomsky (born 1928) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview by Tor Wennerberg, November 1998 .
“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 (1882–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The war of 1914-18 was imperialist (that is, an annexationist, predatory, war of plunder) on the part of both sides; it was a war for the division of the world, for the partition and repartition of colonies and spheres of influence of finance capital.”
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Members of the generation that came of age after World War II-Korean War who join in a relaxation of social and sexual tensions, and who espouse anti-regimentation, mystic-disaffiliation, and material-simplicity values, supposedly as a result of cold-war disillusionment. Coined by Jack Kerouac.”
Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Definition of "Beat Generation" offered to Random House publishers in 1959, after being asked him if there was anything he'd like to add to the definition they were preparing for the American College Dictionary: "Certai…
“This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games. All games are basically hostile. Winners and losers. We see them all around us: the winners and the losers. The losers can oftentimes become winners, and the winners can very easily become losers.”
William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The War Universe", taped conversation, first published in Grand Street, No. 37 (1991)
“If the people raise a howl against my barbarity & cruelty, I will answer that War is War & not popularity seeking. If they want peace, they & their relations must stop War.”
William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“During the Vietnam War, which lasted longer than any war we've ever been in -- and which we lost -- every respectable artist in this country was against the war. It was like a laser beam. We were all aimed in the same direction. The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high.”
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vonnegut at 80" Interview with David Hoppe Alternet (2003)
“During the war, in hundreds of Iliums over America, managers and engineers learned to get along without their men and women, who went to fight. It was the miracle that won the war — production with almost no manpower. In the patois of the north side of the river, it was the know-how that won the war. Democracy owed its life to know-how.”
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Revolutionary War. To say that we are causing a revolution in order to obtain war, is to say something which we cannot maintain. We do have not the strength. We find ourselves face to face with formidable coalitions, but the fasci of action have this object, to create that state of mind which will impose war upon the country.”
Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Man of the War” speech in Malan (25 January 1915) p. 23
“It's an excursion that will keep us out of a war, and the war is going to be, uh -- I mean, for them it's a war. For us, it's turned out to be easier than we thought.”
Donald Trump (born 1946) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A 'little excursion' or 'war'? It's 'both,' Trump says: ANALYSIS" ABC News (March 13, 2026)
“Real war was the thousands of Chinese refugees dying of cholera in the sealed stockades at Pootung, and the bloody heads of Communist soldiers mounted on pikes along the Bund. In a real war no one knew which side he was on, and there were no flags or commentators or winners. In a real war there were no enemies.”
J. G. Ballard (1930–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“America today is a confused society, caught up in a terror war, a culture war, and a media war, where honesty and professional standards have vanished.”
Bill O'Reilly (commentator) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Look, Chief—is it really necessary to kill everybody here? I don’t relish it.” “Don’t get chicken, son,” admonished Ardmore with an edge in his voice. “This is war—and war is no joke. There is no such thing as a humane war.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“War is capitalism with the gloves off and many who go to war know it but they go to war because they don't want to be a hero. It takes courage to sit down and be counted.”
Tom Stoppard (1937–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“President Bush said in his speech Monday night that the war in Iraq is "the central front in the war on terror." It's not the central front in the war on terror, but it has unfortunately become the central recruiting office for terrorists.”
Al Gore (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From time immemorial, people have talked about peace without achieving it. Do we simply lack enough experience? Though we talk peace, we wage war. Sometimes we even wage war in the name of peace. . . . War may be too much a part of history to be eliminated—ever.”
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Is World Peace on the Horizon?", in The Watchtower (April 15, 1991)
“Given the results of the government's War on Poverty and the War on Drugs, we can assume that a War on Abortion will lead within five years to men having abortions.”
Harry Browne (1933–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was born in 1953, a child of the Cold War era, raised amid the constant fear of a conflict with the potential to destroy humanity. Whatever other dangers may exist, no such fear exists today. Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war. That is a prize beyond value.”
Tony Blair (born 1953) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Martin Bentham, "You're the boss, Tony", The Sun (28 May 1997), p. 2.
“Stop the War and Stop the Genocide, read the banners being waved in the demonstrations in Rome and here in Bari. For Peace. Against War. Who is not? But how can you stop those bent on genocide without making war?”
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Why Are We in Kosovo?", The New York Times (2 May 1999)