Famous quotes
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“A family portrait not too stale to record Of a pleasant old buffer, nephew to a lord, Who believed that the bank was mightier than the sword, And that an umbrella might pacify barbarians abroad: Just like an old liberal Between the wars.”
William Plomer (1903–1973) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Father and Son: 1939", line 1
“With first-rate sherry flowing into second-rate whores, And third-rate conversation without one single pause: Just like a young couple Between the wars.”
William Plomer (1903–1973) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Father and Son: 1939
“A pleasant old duffer, nephew to a lord, Who believed that the bank was mightier than the sword, And that an umbrella might pacify barbarians abroad: Just like an old liberal Between the wars.”
William Plomer (1903–1973) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Father and Son: 1939
“It is a place rich in natural resources, having everything we need for national defense, a crucial place for the empire's self-reliance. The place is crucial too for our wars with China, Russia, and the U.S.”
Seishirō Itagaki (1885–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About sending troops to China's northeast. March 1931, from speech entitled "Manchuria and Mongolia from the Military Point of View". Quoted in "China in the World Anti-Fascist War" by Peng Xunhou - Page 23 - 2005.
“In one form or the other, the quest for human dignity has proved to be one of the most propulsive elements for wars, civil strife and willing sacrifice. Yet the entitlement to dignity, enshrined among the 'human rights', does not aspire to being the most self-evident, essential need for human survival, such as food, or physical health.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every day, almost as many men are killed at work as were killed during the average day in Vietnam. For men, there are, in essence, three male-only drafts: the draft of men to all the wars; the draft of Everyman to unpaid bodyguard; the draft of men to all the hazardous jobs—or ‘death professions.’”
Warren Farrell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To win wars, we had to train our sons to be disposable. We honored boys if they died so we could live. We called them heroes.”
Warren Farrell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Looting a conquered enemy enriches a few, impoverishes the nation and dishonors the entire army. Wars must be linked to battlefields. Do not carry them to innocent civilians. Honor their women, respect their religion, and protect their children and the infirm”
Tipu Sultan (1751–1799) first seen 1783 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Decrees of 1783, 1785 and 1787 carried the instruction to his militia. Cited in INNOVATIVE DEFENCE MANAGEMENT BY TIPU SULTAN by Gurusiddaiah. C, B. P. Mahesh Chandra Guru, Abhilash. M. S & Sreekantaiah
“See the long pomp in gorgeous glare display'd, The tinsel'd guards, the squadron'd horse parade; See heralds gay, with emblems on their vest, In tissu'd robes, tall, beauteous pages drest; Amid superior ranks of splendid slaves, Lords, Dukes and Princes, titulary knaves, Confus'dly shine their crosses, gems and stars, Sceptres and globes and crowns and spoils of wars.”
Joel Barlow (1754–1812) said by 1812 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Always our wars have been our confessions of weakness.”
Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I lived in the first century of world wars. Most mornings I would be more or less insane.”
Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The vested interests encourage the growth of imperialist wars and irrationality because both serve to divert the discontent of the masses away from their vested interests ( the uninvested surplus).”
Carroll Quigley (1910–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thus every Part was full of Vice, Yet the whole Mass a Paradise; Flatter'd in Peace, and fear'd in Wars, They were th' Esteem of Foreigners, And lavish of their Wealth and Lives, The Balance of all other Hives.”
Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733) said by 1733 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any information—even if you suspect your enemy is feeding it to you—is useful, son. More wars are lost to lack of information than are lost to lack of courage.”
Brandon Sanderson (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then they died. And other men came after them. Wars flamed up and burned out; the howling peoples dwelt in smashed cities and kindled their fires with books.”
Poul Anderson (1926–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That is forgotten, their wars and their deeds and their very speech. Wisdom lasts. It is what I have sought across the world.”
Poul Anderson (1926–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wars are generally a rich man's affair and a poor man's fight.”
Ilana Mercer first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sanctuary City Mayor Trashes An AMERICAN Hero, Robert E. Lee," The Abbeville Institute, May 25, 2017
“The effect of the discovery of printing was evident in the savage religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Application of power to communication industries hastened the consolidation of vernaculars, the rise of nationalism, revolution, and new outbreaks of savagery in the twentieth century.”
Harold Innis (1894–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Human paint, produce films and videos; they dance, dream and make music; they engage in political action, exchange goods, perform rituals, build houses start wars, act in plays, try to please patrons- and so on... They contain patterns, press the practitioners to "conform" and in this way mold their thought, their perception, their actions, and their discriminative abilities.”
Paul Karl Feyerabend (1924–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wars do not make heroes of everyone.”
Jane Yolen (1939–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wars may make heroes of men, but not all the time.”
Jane Yolen (1939–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Small boys everywhere know that in a fight between Superman, James Bond and the Terminator, James Bond would win. Well, it's the same story in Star Wars. In a fight between the Enterprise, Stingray, Thunderbird 2 and the Millennium Falcon, the Falcon would reign supreme. It just would. The end.”
Jeremy Clarkson (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Throughout its history, the CIA has resorted to every conceivable crime and machination to make the world safe for the Fortune 500, using false propaganda, economic warfare, bribery, rigged elections, sabotage, demolition, theft, collusion with organized crime, narcotics trafficking, death squads, terror bombings, torture, massacres, and wars of attrition.”
Michael Parenti (1933–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have carried out the attempted premeditated murder of an entire nation. We were caught in that criminal act and have been obstructed. Now we have to suffer the punishment.... In the Balkan Wars, Serbia not only doubled its territory, but also its external enemies.”
Dimitrije Tucović (1881–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: T. Gallagher, The Balkans in the New Millennium: In the Shadow of War and Peace, Routledge, 2006.
“Our people, small in numbers, have fought during their whole existence. [The British] have fought too, but the wars of our two people have been of different characters. Our country has been invaded many times, but we have always fought the enemies, we have driven them out and we have never mixed blood with them...”
Enver Hoxha (1908–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“profits made by the East India Company [...] in Bengal, financed [...] wars that the British waged across India in the period of their colonial expansion. (pg. 164)”
Amartya Sen (born 1933) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The expenses of the royal household, wars, and lavish public building were financed by tolls and the profits of the king's foreign trade monopoly, by conscription of labour and heavy taxation. The results were impoverishment of the masses, alienation of land, and the development of a proletariat.”
Eric Roll, Baron Roll of Ipsden (1907–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By "Revolution", we mean the ultimate establishment of an order of society which may not be threatened by such breakdown, and in which the sovereignty of the proletariat should be recognized and a world federation should redeem humanity from the bondage of capitalism and misery of imperial wars.”
Bhagat Singh (1907–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Bhagat Singh and His Ideology (1981) by Shiri Ram Bakshi
“If wars can be started with lies, they can be stopped by truth.”
Julian Assange (born 1971) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Fate Of Anti-War Journalism Lies in Upcoming Assange Hearings, Sam Carliner, (22 October 2021)
“If movement conservatism is less about hating the state than about fighting Godless modernism, this might explain why conservatives have always found actual or cultural wars to fight, but have never got around to shrinking or controlling the growth of government (though centrists like Eisenhower and Clinton did).”
Mark Riebling (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What concern of mine are your affairs? Or Coren’s? What kind of peace would there be in me or in my house if I took interest in the wars and feuds that you weave in the courts below? I do not understand such things. I understand only what lies within my walls.”
Patricia A. McKillip (1948–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...my commitment to Israel is because I am an active citizen. Although its neighbors have wanted to destroy Israel, they have defended democracy. Israel has only led defensive wars, Arafat has only gone to attack. They are murdering women and children in order to spread fear and terror. When Israel accidentally kills, it is not the intention to harm civilians like Arafat does.”
Carl I. Hagen (born 1944) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at a meeting in the independent Christian organisation Levende Ord in 2004, published in Dagbladet (14 July 2004)
“There is no field of activity for great men without the coming of great wars, great struggles and great revolutions.”
Arthur Desmond (1859–1929) said by 1929 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These movies belonged to the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries—that period of great, unsustainable, and hedonistic prosperity, driven by the burning of Earth’s reserves of perishable oil, which culminated in the False Tribulation, and the wars, and the plagues, and the painful dwindling of inflated populations to more reasonable numbers.”
Robert Charles Wilson (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[B]rutalizing wars and military life... are capable of turning decent fellows into ers who can shoot women and children down in cold blood.”
Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, the common enemy in North America is the Western consumer. The consumer has driven oil up to $50.00 a barrel so we have to have these wars. I think it's incumbent upon us to.”
Dan Aykroyd (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Obama was one of the most violent U.S. Presidents. He launched or sustained seven wars and left office with none resolved: a record. In his last year as President, 2016, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, he dropped 26,171 bombs. It’s an interesting statistic; it’s three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day, on mostly civilians.”
John Pilger (1939–2023) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "New Cold War & looming threats," Frontline: The Hindu (India) (21 December 2018)
“Armaments and wars, usually financed by budget deficits, are also a source of this kind of profits.”
Michał Kalecki (1899–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is entirely clear that there is only one way in which great wars can be permanently prevented, and that is the establishment of an international government with a monopoly of serious armed force.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Atomic Bomb and the Prevention of War" in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (1 October 1945)
“The wars fanned the wings of science, and science brought to mankind a thousand blessings, a thousand problems and a thousand perils.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: This Age of Government by Great Dictators, News of the World, 10 October 1937
“The so-called "peace" is an interval between wars.”
Lu Xun (1881–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a peace man. I haven't got any use for wars and there is no more humor in 'em than there is reason for 'em.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Daily Telegram (4 December 1931), as quoted in Will Rogers' Daily Telegrams (1979), p. 104; also in Will Rogers Speaks: Over 1,000 Timeless Quotations for Public Speakers (1995) edited by Bryan B. Sterling and Frances …
“A wise man does not try to hurry history. Many wars have been avoided by patience and many have been precipitated by reckless haste.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speeches of Adlai Stevenson (1952), p. 39
“Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them must share the guilt for the dead.”
Omar Bradley (1893–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words (1992) by Peace Pilgrim, p. 113
“Hemans gallows ought to be the fate of all such ambitious men who would involve their country in civil wars, and all the evils in its train that they might reign & ride on its whirlwinds & direct the Storm — The free people of these United States have spoken, and consigned these wicked demagogues to their proper doom.”
Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) first seen 1833 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Regarding the resolution of the Nullification Crisis, in a letter to Andrew I. Crawford (1 May 1833).
“All Wars are Follies, very expensive & very mischievous ones. When will Mankind be convinc’d of this, and agree to settle their Differences by Arbitration? Were they to do it even by the Cast of a Dye, it would be better than by Fighting & destroying each other.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) first seen 1783 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Mary Hewson (27 January 1783)
“Unfortunately, in the past, man has applied his vast resources and his most incisive capabilities only to the waging of great wars-, or in preparation for such warring-the space programs having been undertaken by all nations strictly on the basis of the wartime advantages to be gained by... spying and astro-ballistics”
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Iraq's talented people, rich culture, and tremendous potential have been hijacked by Saddam Hussein. His brutal regime has reduced a country with a long and proud history to an international pariah that oppresses its citizens, started two wars of aggression against its neighbors, and still poses a grave threat to the security of its region and the world.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My point is not that religion itself is the motivation for wars, murders and terrorist attacks, but that religion is the principal label, and the most dangerous one, by which a 'they' as opposed to a 'we' can be identified at all.”
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Earnest Freethinkers need not worry themselves so much about the persecutions of the past. Before the Liberal idea is dead or triumphant we shall see wars and persecutions the like of which the world has never seen.”
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In The Daily News (18 February 1905)