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War

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“Asimov: Well, I liked Star Wars. I thought Battlestar Galactica was such a close imitation of Star Wars, emphasizing the less attractive portions, that I was a little impatient with it.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our chiefs said 'Done,' and I did not deem it; Our seers said 'Peace,' and it was not peace; Earth will grow worse till men redeem it, And wars more evil, ere all wars cease.”
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Song of Defeat — first appeared, in part, in George William Russell's Sketches and Snapshots (1910)
“History is full of religious wars; but, we must take care to observe, it was not the multiplicity of religions that produced these wars, it was the intolerating spirit which animated that one which thought she had the power of governing.”
Montesquieu (1689–1755) said by 1755 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I acknowledge that history is full of religious wars: but we must distinguish; it is not the multiplicity of religions which has produced wars; it is the intolerant spirit animating that which believed itself in the ascendant.”
Montesquieu (1689–1755) said by 1755 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A dark old world was devastated by wars between conflicting religions. A dark modern world faces wars between conflicting economic and political fanaticisms in which are intertwined race hatreds.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The thing about the Star Wars expanded universe that most impresses me is how the need for endless sequels has taken what was way back in the late Disco a fairly upbeat series where the good guys eventually prevailed and turned into a crapsack setting that's grimmer than the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Congo Wars I & II and the Mongol Conquests combined.”
James Nicoll (born 1961) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bujold list message (2011)
“Whence come wars, and fighting, and factions? whence but from the body and the lusts of the body? For wars are occasioned by the love of money, and money has to be acquired for the sake and in service of the body; and in consequence of all these things, the time which ought to be given to philosophy is lost.”
Socrates (470–399 BC) said by 399 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If religions are diseases of the human psyche, as the philosopher Grintholde asserts, then religious wars must be reckoned the resultant sores and cankers infecting the aggregate corpus of the human race. Of all wars, these are the most detestable, since they are waged for no tangible gain, but only to impose a set of arbitrary credos upon another’s mind.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nobody can doubt that the entire range of applied science contributes to the very format of a newspaper. But the headline is a feature which began with the Napoleonic Wars. The headline is a primitive shout of rage, triumph, fear, or warning, and newspapers have thrived on wars ever since.”
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I told the Commonwealth Commissioners I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars... I told them I was come into the covenant of peace which was before wars and strife were.”
George Fox (1624–1691) first seen 1651 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement of 1651 at Derby Gaol, quoted in Quaker Faith and Practice, Britain Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
“When, when, Peace, will you, Peace? I’ll not play hypocrite To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the death of it?”
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are still waging Peloponnesian wars. Our control of the material world and our positive science have grown fantastically. But our very achievements turn against us, making politics more random and wars more bestial.”
George Steiner (1929–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.”
John Knowles (1926–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was a teenager when that [referring to WW2] started and of course wars are fought by teenagers. Do you realize that? They really should be fought by the politicians and the old people who start these wars.”
James Clavell (1921–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To justify or condone Israel's wars against the Arabs is to render Israel a very bad service indeed and to harm its own long-term interest. Israel's security, let me repeat, was not enhanced by the wars of 1956 and 1967; it was undermined and compromised by them.”
Isaac Deutscher (1907–1967) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Arab-Israeli War", New Left Review (23 June, 1967)
“Finance and industry must be socialized somehow. If we refuse to do it from the bottom we shall have to do it from the top, and doing it from the top means the emergence of many Prussias — with wars upon wars.”
Henry Gantt (1861–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Henry Gantt cited in: Leon Pratt Alford (1934) Henry Laurence Gantt, leader in industry. p. 265. Highlighted section quoted in: Henry Mintzberg (1994) The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. p. 169.
“We are not in the time of separation; we are in the time of unification. There will not be an Armageddon or anything. Wars have come to an end from now on. They should forget about wars.”
Adnan Oktar (born 1956) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 23 April 2013.
“When I was growing up reading history books as a young student, it seemed all wars had a winner. Yet in today's wars, it is increasingly clear that no one wins. Everyone loses.”
António Guterres (born 1949) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres: My Vision for Revitalizing the United Nations, Newsweek (9 January 2017)
“Communists, when in control of a nation, have murdered more than 3.6 times the number of people killed in combat in all wars, including the two world wars.”
Rudolph Rummel (1932–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just as Obama co-opted and muted liberal opposition to Bush’s wars and record arms spending, Trump has co-opted and muted conservative opposition to Obama’s wars.”
Medea Benjamin (born 1952) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Twitter (30 June 2020)
“Star Wars is Chinese Taoism. -- Star Wars is Taoism in American garb (2015), China Daily, Beijing”
Thorsten J. Pattberg (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cultural products which present foreign wars as the heroic effort of a master race to ennoble mankind are, to the degree they are successful as art, objectively in the interests of imperialists, who are people who make foreign wars against other races for profit.”
Meredith Tax (1942–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There will be wars. Fought for the same reason most wars in ancient times were fought for: food. They’d use religion or glory or whatever as an excuse, but it was always about food. Farmlands and people to work that land.”
Andy Weir (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You have a tendency to think of wars as being fought in arenas set aside for fighting. But when you go through these farms and little towns, you realize wars are fought in people's backyards, stores, streets, and cities. It was all so very real then. It's real to me today.”
Lynn Compton (1921–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From an economic justice angle, we’ve been spending a ton of our money on these endless wars. Our approach to that is to run candidates that are pro-peace and are also ready to create a peace economy hopefully when we get out of those wars and lead better by example for ourselves.”
Alexandra Rojas (born 1995) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Democratic Insurgents: An Interview with Justice Democrats Director Alexandra Rojas", The Globe Post (October 11, 2018)
“Personally, I am not prejudicially against wars, as long as wars have international legality, as long as they have an objective, this objective is verified, as long as they are the last resort, and above all as long as we do not play with words, that is, we do not fool people.”
Marco Travaglio (born 1964) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From the television program Anno Zero, 28 September 2006.
“[On Bogdan III cel Orb] he Was not much like his father. He also wanted to wage wars, but these were wars out of whims and not out of defense needs. (p. 142)”
Ion Heliade Rădulescu (1802–1872) said by 1872 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Bogdan wars did not have the seal of paternal heroism; against the Turks he did not exchange even a spear. His motto against Poland was: "Love me or I'll cut you"; while his wars against Muntenia, and those of Muntenia against Moldavia may resemble those of the Italian and Greek cities of antiquity. (p. 142)”
Ion Heliade Rădulescu (1802–1872) said by 1872 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We sell them weapons, because the disease of power has spread everywhere, and they throw away every resource, even human lives, to wage and win wars, wars of misery.”
Vittorino Andreoli (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wars and rumors of wars are extremely profitable for the real rulers of this country and the media that support them. Against all considerations of national interest and without a shred of constitutional authority, the Bush administration attacked Iraq, a highly civilized, independent, stable country with 6,000 years of proud history.”
Willis Carto (1926–2015) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: U.S. Takes More Steps Toward War with Iran", American Free Press, Issue #45, November 5, 2007
“Wars and rumours of wars.”
The Bible (active around 812) bartlett, Public domain source
“England in all her wars has always gained one battle - the last!”
Eleftherios Venizelos (1864–1936) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The World Crisis, The Aftermath : Chapter XVIII (Greek Tragedy), Churchill, Butterworth (1929), p. 381.
“We can't be afraid to use our military, but sending our sons and daughters should be the very last resort. I've seen what wars do to our kids. I've seen their broken bodies, know all about the horrors that live in their heads, and the enormous effects of trauma. We cannot commit American troops to battle without a real and tangible objective.”
Donald Trump (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most wars are not won in a single battle, what I’m looking forward to is changing the course this country is on. I don’t know if that happens in this election cycle or not.”
Ted Cruz (born 1970) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In an interview with 's Off Message podcast. (July 18, 2016)
“Unlike most wars, which make rotten fiction in themselves — all plot and no characters, or made-up characters — Vietnam seems to be the perfect mix: the characters make the war, and the war unmakes the characters. The gods, fates, furies had a relatively small hand in it. The mess was man-made, a synthetic, by think tank out of briefing session.”
Wilfrid Sheed (1930–2011) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Fun-House Mirror" (1972), pp. 107-108
“A civil war is going to break out inside the Republican Party along the old trench lines of the Goldwater-Rockefeller wars of the 1960s, a war for the heart and soul and future of the party.”
Pat Buchanan (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have a particular aversion to stalemates. I prefer winning wars to prolonging them.” She sighed, momentarily drained, tired, old. “I’ve been at war a long time, y’know? After a while even losing a war can start to look preferable to prolonging it.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“During a single week of July 1967, 164 Americans were killed and 2100 were wounded in city riots in the United States. We are truly fighting a two-front war and doing badly in both. Each war feeds on the other and, although the President assures us that we have the resources to win both wars, in fact we are not winning either.”
J. William Fulbright (1905–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think it's going to be remembered as the last major war on planet Earth, if we're lucky, if we maintain our foreign policy properly. … It will be remembered as the last time major countries had to put people in the field and put them in harm's way. It may be the last of all human nature wars, which is a nice way to remember any kind of a war, as the last one.”
Tom Clancy (1947–2013) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the 1991 Gulf War
“It is probably well that we had the war when we did. We are better off now than we would have been without it, and have made more rapid progress than we otherwise should have made... But this war was a fearful lesson, and should teach us the necessity of avoiding wars in the future.”
Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) said by 1885 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“War is barbaric. Trump has proven himself to be a loose cannon who doesn’t seem to have very many social graces. But Bush was no better. I wish the conversation was about the barbarism of war... Where is the movement to oppose U.S. wars, instead of liberal handwringing over botched messages of condolence?”
Cindy Sheehan (born 1957) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘Bush Was No Better’ Than Donald Trump, Daily Beast (23 November 2017)
“Men thought of war—always the next one—as a great cleansing, as the last war that ever need to be fought. But it was not so, I could see now: men fought wars because of the legacy of the brute inside them, and any justification was a mere rationalization supplied by our oversized brains.”
Stephen Baxter (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Another War soon gets begun, A dirtier, a more glorious one; Then, boys, you'll have to play, all in; It's the cruellest team will win. So hold your nose against the stink And never stop too long to think. Wars don't change except in name; The next one must go just the same, And new foul tricks unguessed before Will win and justify this War.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wonder when I hear people scoffing at the four freedoms and wondering whether wars, after all, ever really settle anything. Do we, even now, understand the revolutionary nature of this war? Are we putting everything to the test; will it help win the war? Are we clear on the enormity of our task? Do we realize the size of the stakes?”
James Reston (1909–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She recognized a new depth in him, a candor. The war was about vanity, he said. It was about old men who couldn't look in the mirror anymore and so they sent the young out to die. War was a get-together of the vain. They wanted it simple - hate your enemy, know nothing of him. It was, he claimed, the most un-American of wars, no idealism behind it, only about defeat.”
Colum McCann (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Instead of it (World War I) being a war to end wars - it (the Paris Peace Conference) is a Peace to end Peace.”
Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner (1854–1925) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A remark to his private secretary, Lord Sandon, in May 1919. From Terence H. O'Brien, Milner, Viscount Milner of St James and Cape Town 1954-1925 (1979) p. 335.
“Naturally, the little wars were dressed up in ritual and significance. War spear challenge was followed by war dance, and invocation of demons, the one-eyed snake and diverse totems. I bowed to none of these, having seen early the vulgarity and impotence of the tribal pantheon. Generally men create gods in their own image.”
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some talk of the “history wars” raging in Australia. The word “war” is mistaken. Controversy, not war, will continue for a long time to come. It is in the nature of history and of most intellectual activities, and the more so in a nation where the main strands of history – Aboriginal and European – are utterly different.”
Geoffrey Blainey (born 1930) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Geoffrey Blainey: I can see parts of our history with fresh eyes", The Australian (February 21, 2015)
“It is the problem of accurately measuring the relative power of nations which goes far to explain why wars occur. War is a dispute about the measurement of power. War marks the choice of a new set of weights and measures.”
Geoffrey Blainey (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The less free the people within any two nations are, the bloodier and more destructive the war between them; the greater their freedom, the less likely such wars occur. Free people do not make war on each other.”
Rudolph Rummel (1932–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source