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War

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“Born of war, both Bolshevism and Fascism drew their basic education from war. They transferred to politics the lessons of the trenches: familiarity with violence, the simplicity of extreme passions, the submission of the individual to the collectivity, and finally the bitterness of futile or betrayed sacrifices.”
François Furet (1927–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And he knows the consequences: “War ruins everything, even the bonds between brothers. War is irrational; its only plan is to bring destruction: It seeks to grow by destroying.”
Michael T. Flynn (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think all men recognize that in time of war the citizen must surrender some rights for the common good which he is entitled to enjoy in time of peace. But, sir, the right to control their own government according to constitutional forms is not one of the rights that the citizens of this country are called upon to surrender in time of war.”
Robert M. La Follette Sr. (1855–1925) said by 1925 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mr. President, our government, above all others, is founded on the right of the people freely to discuss all matters pertaining to their government, in war not less than in peace, for in this government the people are the rulers in war no less than in peace.”
Robert M. La Follette Sr. (1855–1925) said by 1925 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The universal conviction of those who yet believe in the rights of the people is that the first step toward the prevention of war and the establishment of peace, permanent peace, is to give the people who must bear the brunt of war's awful burden more to say about it.”
Robert M. La Follette Sr. (1855–1925) said by 1925 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Essence of War is Violence. Moderation in War is Imbecility.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The American people want a balanced budget. They want Congress to stop this barbaric practice of perpetual deficit spending. It really, if you think about it, is a form of taxation without representation. We fought a war over that issue and we won that war.”
Mike Lee (born 1971) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tea Party Senator Mike Lee: We Need to Change the Way We Spend Money in Washington (April 12, 2011)
“And there is no time. There is a war on. Always there is a war on.”
Glen Cook (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are exhausted [in Antwerp] and have endured so much that this war seems without purpose.. ..[and that it seemed] strange that Spain, which provides so little for the needs of this country .. ..has an abundance of means to wage an offensive war elsewhere.”
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) first seen 1627 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to Pierre Dupuy, Sept. / Oct. 1627; as quoted by Simon Schrama, in Rembrandt's eyes, Alfred A. Knopf - Borzoi Books, New York 1999, p. 248
“In each succeeding war there is a tendency to proclaim as something new the principles under which it is conducted. Not only those who have never studied or experienced the realities of war, but also professional soldiers frequently fall into the error. But the principles of warfare as I learned them at West Point remain unchanged.”
John J. Pershing (1860–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The laws of war, do they say? As if war were not the destruction of all laws.”
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“War has been represented as necessary to prevent the too rapid increase of the population, but war mows down the flower of the young men, while it spares the men disgraced by nature. Hence it tends to the degeneration of the species.”
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Possibly 20,000,000 were killed in the war against the Nazis and from Nazi occupation, but many more millions were killed in Stalin’s simultaneous war on his own people.”
Rudolph Rummel (1932–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sounds like preparation for war,” remarked Singh, yet again forced to contemplate the difference between Singapore policing’s idea of a tough day at the office, an outbreak of jaywalking perhaps, and the Indian equivalent. “Sometimes it is exactly like war,” said Patel in a quiet voice and Singh had a sudden glimpse into the abyss.”
Shamini Flint (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Maybe -- I am not affirming it -- these (NGO people) are carrying out some criminal actions to draw attention against me, against the government of Brazil. There is a war going on in the world against Brazil, an information war.”
Jair Bolsonaro (born 1955) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On 21 August 2019, claiming that NGOs were starting the fires in the Amazon rainforest. Bolsonaro says Brazil lacks means to fight Amazon fires, backtracks on NGO accusations. France 24 (22 August 2019).
“I have learned not only that the colors and the sounds of war are the same, but the fears of war are the same. You know, there is a fear of dying.”
Zainab Salbi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our war with the capitalist world will be a just and progressive war. The Red Army will act decisively, seeking complete defeat and destruction of the enemy, transferring combat operations to the territory of the enemy.”
Lev Mekhlis (1889–1953) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Red Army personnel, 13 May 1940
“I see a future for us only in a Great War in which we lastingly cripple an opponent, France or Russia. Unless there should be a great war, the only way out of our dilemma will be through internal commotion, preferably revolutions in France or Russia.”
Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Waldersee in his diary, 15 October 1885, quoted in Scott A. Silverstone, From Hitler's Germany to Saddam's Iraq
“People are telling me that I am regarded by the Chancellor (and indeed in wider circles) as the leader of the so-called War Party, and by no means favorably, as the Chancellor is most anxious to avoid war. I shall soon begin myself to believe that I am a thoroughly bad man! What will be brought up against me next?”
Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Waldersee in his diary, 15 May 1887
“To say I desire war is absurd. I only wish one thing: that our enemies renounce completely the idea of attacking us. I know too well what war is and am convinced that it is my duty as an honest man to wish that it be used only as a last resort, as much in the interests of my Fatherland as in the interests of the entire world.”
Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Waldersee, quoted in the Le Petit Parisien newspaper, c. 1888
“The war [World War 1] gave me a certainty of belief. I grew aware of the bankruptcy of theories, of the theories of intellectuals as well as artists. L'art pour l'art and other grave problems no longer gave me a headache; they seemed to me so much bosh hand interested me as little as platonic love.”
Maurice de Vlaminck (1876–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A war has begun. This war will continue. We will fight, we are not scared of anyone. Kafirs and Kapurush are scared of fighting and they die. Those who fight remain alive.”
Mamata Banerjee (born 1955) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Whom is Mamata Banerjee referring to as Kafir?”: Suvendu Adhikari 23 January 2024
“After this with kingly energy and determination, he girded up his loins for a war of religion, and invaded Hindustan, and carried away many prisoners of war and other plunder; and in every country, which he conquered, he founded mosques, and he endeavoured to ruin and desolate the territories of Raja Jaipal who, at that time, was the ruler of Hindustan.”
Sabuktigin (942–997) said by 997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Tabaqat-i-Akbari translated by B. De, Calcutta, 1973, Vol. I, p. 3.
“After this with kingly energy and determination, he girded up his loins for a war of religion, and invaded Hindustãn, and carried away many prisoners of war and other plunder; and in every country, which he conquered, he founded mosques, and he endeavoured to ruin and desolate the territories of Rãjã Jaipãl who, at that time, was the ruler of Hindustãn.”
Nizamuddin Ahmad (1551–1621) said by 1621 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About Amîr Subuktigîn (AD 977-997) The Tabqãt-i-Akbarî translated by B. De, Calcutta, 1973, Vol. I, p. 3.
“Before the war [World War I] the anti-Semitic movement was of no political importance in Germany.”
Konrad Heiden (1901–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Russian GDP equals that of Italy – it should not be an existential threat to the West. We must shake ourselves free from the Kremlin’s masterful fiction and confront the truth that we are in an asymmetric war. This is a war that we can win, and it matters that we do. We are sleepwalking through the end of our era of peace. It is time to wake up.”
Eerik-Niiles Kross (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The United States has the luxury of being very far from the front. Unfortunately, information war isn’t geographical — so, America, welcome to the war.”
Eerik-Niiles Kross (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he Civil War’s victors ended up blaming themselves, or at least allowing the defeated South to foist the blame on them. Postwar Southerners never accepted the results of military defeat in the war, and they resisted Reconstruction (and much more effectively than they had resisted the Union armies)...”
Allen C. Guelzo (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[F]or all the economic destruction levied on the South by the war, the people who ran the economic show before the war were still running it afterwards. Former slaveholders were thus free to use cotton profits to maintain a version of the plantation system and force the freedpeople into peonage; peonage, in turn, gave white Democrats the power to control black voting...”
Allen C. Guelzo (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why do you fight this war?” The alien mind howled out its war slogan—as incomprehensible as an astrologer’s jargon.”
Keith Laumer (1925–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That was the primary conundrum when fighting in the Korengal Valley: distinguishing between the real enemy and the imagined enemy; between fighters and people who were aiding and abetting. It made a difficult war nearly impossible, and an ugly war almost indescribably brutal.”
Salvatore Giunta (born 1985) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bombing a hospital is among the gravest of war crimes. The IDF reportedly blowing up one of the few places the injured and wounded can seek medical treatment and shelter during a war is horrific.”
Ilhan Omar (born 1982) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: tweet (12:12 PM · Oct 17, 2023)
“[I]n the early eighties, I was turned aside once again, by the emergency of the “second cold war” and by the heavy demands of the peace movement. I do not regret this: I am convinced that the peace movement made a major contribution to dispersing the cold war, which had descended like a polluting cloud on every field of political and social life.”
E. P. Thompson (1924–1993) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘Preface and Acknowledgements’ (December 1990), Customs in Common: Studies in Traditional Popular Culture (1993), p. ix
“So much money is wasted in the drug war. I've had two congressman, Orange County congressman, tell me that there are lots of people in Washington who now believe that the drug war is not winnable but that it is imminently fundable… Where President Eisenhower once talked about the Military-Industrial Complex, we now have the Prison-Industrial Complex. It's the same thing, the same disease.”
James P. Gray (born 1945) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hey, Wheres the Stoners, Druids and Ferret-Lovers?” O.C. Weekly (Feb. 24, 2004)
“When progressives remain silent and don’t talk about why the war in Syria is illegal, then into the void step in neocons like Lindsey Graham. Any wonder that our nation remains mired in endless war. Let’s have the guts to stand for responsible withdrawal.”
Ro Khanna (born 1976) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Twitter post (December 30, 2018)
“Atomic war is inevitable. It will destroy half of humanity: it is going to destroy immense human riches. It is very possible. The atomic war is going to provoke a true inferno on Earth. But it will not impede Communism.”
J. Posadas (1912–1981) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: War is Not the End of the World (1972).
“This isn't your war... It’s Putin’s war for power and money.”
Boris Nemtsov (1959–2015) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In 2014, as quoted in "‘It’s Putin’s war for power and money’ What the Nemtsov Report says about the Russia’s role in Ukraine’s war" (13 May 2015), by Andrey Kozenko, Meduza
“I know what needs to be done... We need to write a report "Putin. War", publish it in huge numbers and hand it out on the streets. We will tell how Putin unleashed this war. That's the only way to defeat propaganda.”
Boris Nemtsov (1959–2015) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Nemtsov Report Details Human and Financial Costs of War in Ukraine" (12 May 2015), The Moscow Times
“The great War was certainly not caused by financial interests. ... All the international financiers that I know are terrified of war and revolution, and anxious for things to work as smoothly as possible.”
Gilbert Murray (1866–1957) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Shirland Quin (7 November 1932), quoted in Gilbert Murray, An Unfinished Autobiography, eds. Jean Smith and Arnold Toynbee (1960), p. 114
“It wasn’t just that Biden voted for the Iraq war on the Senate floor five months before it began. During the lead-up to that vote, in August 2002, as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he presided over sham hearings—refusing to allow experts who opposed an invasion to get any words in edgewise—while a cavalcade of war hawks testified in the national spotlight...”
Norman Solomon (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It would of course be a grave injustice to Mr. Roosevelt to say that he is a militarist in the sense that Mussolini is a militarist. Mussolini is a lover of war. Mr. Roosevelt is not. But he is a lover of the instruments of war. There was a time when he favored universal military training-the corrosive curse of Europe.”
John Thomas Flynn (1882–1964) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The War Boom Begins,” Harper's Magazine (July 1937)
“Probably one of the most completely misunderstood of all modern institutions is militarism. While military organizations take their origin in man's lust for war, militarism is something more than a mere war machine. By militarism I mean that institution in which the nation maintains large national armies and navies in time of peace, usually raised on the principle of conscription.”
John Thomas Flynn (1882–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This ego-maniac firebrand is running through a world full of war-explosives, applying his torch wherever he may, hoping for nothing so much as a new world war from which alone he sees his hopes of glory and power.”
Earl Browder (1891–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Soon, U.S. service members will begin deploying to Afghanistan to fight in a war that began before they were born. As we face this watershed moment, it’s past time to change our approach to the longest war in our country’s history”
Tom Udall (born 1948) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 5 March 2019
“The scourge of our present society, particularly in the African-American community, is the war on drugs. I’ll repeat again as a challenge to my colleagues on this stage, that if they really want to do something about the inner cities, if they really want to do something about what’s happening to the health of the African-American community, it’s time to end this war.”
Mike Gravel (1930–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, the first thing that you would do is to realize that terrorism is not a war. Our war on terrorism makes no sense. We've had -- (interrupted by applause) -- we've had terrorism since the beginning of civilization, and we'll have it to the end of civilization.”
Mike Gravel (1930–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“George Bush's oil war was a mistake. We need to stop killing Americans and Iraqis. Been around since the beginning of time. It's not a war. It should be a police action based on global intelligence. It's the most serious problem facing humanity today.”
Mike Gravel (1930–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In war, the cost in civilian lives is incalculable, not to mention the many military personnel whose lives are destroyed. Then there is the cost to the environment and the cost to human potential as our scientists waste their lives planning and researching even more horrific weapons which increasingly, in modern war, kill more civilians than combatants.”
Mairead Maguire (born 1944) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Disturbing Expansion of the Military-Industrial Complex, Common Dreams, (14 October 2014)
“The First World War, the Second World War, the establishment of Communism, the rise of Hitler, were also systematically planned and executed by Zionists.”
V. T. Rajshekar (1932–2024) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dalit Voice, 16-1-1993., quoted in Elst, Koenraad (1999). Update on the Aryan invasion debate New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
“It is not our war, a lot of pressure has been applied to me to take a different course and that pressure included what happened last night. I'm not going to change my mind, I'm not going to yield, it is not in our national interest to join this war and we will not do so. I know where I stand.”
Keir Starmer (born 1962) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Starmer resists pressure from Donald Trump to join 2026 Iran war, quoted in "Starmer says he's 'not going to yield' to pressure from Trump on Iran war", BBC News (15 April 2026)