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War

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“Japan was provoked into attacking the Americans at Pearl Harbor. It is a travesty of history ever to say that America was forced into the war. Everyone knows where American sympathies were. It is incorrect to say that America was truly neutral even before America came into the war on an all-out basis.”
Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos (1893–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In my opinion it would be possible to agree upon a kind of truce in order to gain time for negotiation. I am against war. A war will make Germany dependent on Russia for raw materials and Germany will thus forego her position as a world power.”
Friedrich Thyssen (1804–1877) said by 1877 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 37 (Aug. 31, 1939 telegram message to Goering)
“After the declaration of war several people, who took no trouble to conceal their lack of enthusiasm for the regime, came to see me in Switzerland. They said, ‘how that war is declared, everyone must rally behind Hitler, for he represents Germany.’ To all such attempts to make me reverse my decision I replied, ‘No; for this man will plunge the German people into disaster.’”
Friedrich Thyssen (1804–1877) said by 1877 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“French generals must be regarded as comparatively young and bodily active, intelligent, energetic, experienced in war and well adapted for it, though but a few have, so far, shown themselves unusually clever and well acquainted with the handling of large bodies of troops, and though neither the Crimean nor the Italian war have developed any extraordinary military genius.”
Friedrich von Waldersee (1795–1864) first seen 1861 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by Friedrich Engels in Waldersee über die französische Armee, 1861
“War was senseless. And yet war came creeping steadily closer.”
Charles Sheffield (1935–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Like the "," the "" is phony, a front for the war on privacy, liberty, and democracy. Only counter-terrorists can defeat terrorists. May the armies of the animal, earth, and human liberationists rise and multiply in a perfect war against the oppressors of the earth.”
Steven Best (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“War has been the excuse people have made throughout history to take something away from others that didn't belong to them. And it's a never ending cycle. First one group takes away something from the other, then the other wants to take it back, only if they succeed, they take much more. And then it starts all over again. War is caused by greed.”
László Széchenyi (1879–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This means war. And who suffers most if powerful families go to war?” “Everyone else but them.”
Carol Berg (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We all know that war destroys mankind, and in spite of their differences in race, creed, and religion, women all across the world despise war because its fruit is nothing but destruction.”
Maaza Mengiste (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is war? You send soldiers out and, although nobody wants to say it, you know a certain number will be killed, and you hope there will be fewer than the casualties on the other side. War is dealing with human beings as objects. (2017)”
Maaza Mengiste (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They were right about one thing: the borderlands are a war zone today. But the Border Patrol is the army of the war-makers, and the migrant workers are their civilian victims...The borderlands are a lawless area within the United States where the Constitution and the Bill of Rights just don't apply.”
Elizabeth Martinez (1925–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The U.S. President's order to carry out a lethal drone strike violated the UN Charter's prohibition on the use of force. The assassination of General Qassim Suleimani represented an act of war against a country with whom the United States was not at war.”
William Barber II (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think China could play an important role to stop the war, if they wanted. It's up to China how they want to act concerning the war. But we shouldn't only rely on that, on China or any others … we should make sure we are stronger.”
Sanna Marin (born 1985) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin says Europe 'too dependent' on technologies, energy from authoritarian states abc news (December 2, 2022).
“If we dig behind the rhetoric, it becomes clear that Western support for right-wing coups had little to do with Cold War ideology, and certainly nothing to do with promoting democracy (quite the opposite!); the goal, rather, was to defend Western economic interests. The veil of the Cold War has obscured this blunt fact from view.”
Jason Hickel (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The war continues. Russia is sending new forces to our land to continue to destroy us, to destroy Ukrainians. We must do more to stop the war! The first and most important thing is weapons. Freedom must be armed no worse than tyranny.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (born 1978) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Norwegian Storting" (30 March 2022)
“The world has already seen many war crimes. At different times. On different continents. But it is time to do everything possible to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of such evil on earth.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ukrainians! All Europeans! And everyone in the world who believes that terror should have no place on earth. Why is the biggest source of terror in the world — Russia — still able to wage this war? And why can it wage the war so cruelly and cynically? There is only one reason — insufficient pressure on Russia. The response to the terror of this state is insufficient.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The scariest thing is that part of the world got used to the war in Ukraine. Exhaustion with the war rolls along like a wave. You see it in the United States, in Europe. And we see that as soon as they start to get a little tired, it becomes like a show to them: ‘I can’t watch this rerun for the 10th time.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (born 1978) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by Simon Shuster, in ‘Nobody Believes in Our Victory Like I Do.’ Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight, Time, (30 October 2023)
“There were millions of people in the streets protesting the war, but no one listened to us. It’s really amazing how quickly it went from sugar to shit and so obvious... Right wing blogs used to write about their contribution to the war, which was, I guess, typing.”
Tom Tomorrow (born 1961) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Beyond Chron Profile: Tom Tomorrow, by Jacob Schneider (March 31, 2006)
“While only a minority of people was taxed during World War II, the politicians got a taste of the huge revenues... by expanding the tax base. After the war... the income tax was steadily expanded until it applied to most Americans...”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My dear friends, I think you are in very big trouble. Whether you believe it or not, YOU ARE AT WAR. And you may lose this war very soon together with all your affluence and freedoms unless you start defending yourselves.”
Yuri Bezmenov (1939–1993) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Love Letter to America (1984)
“Hitlerism, we were instructed to believe, was thus merely the iron fist of the whole plutocratic, imperialistic world. A war between Nazi Germany and its capitalistic patrons was unthinkable, illogical. Now that just such a war had come, it seemed to us no less insane than the compact of friendship between the U.S.S.R. and Germany…”
Victor Kravchenko (1905–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If war is forced upon us, we shall fight and, with God's help, not perish. But to conjure up a war ourselves without having our honor or vital interests imperiled, this I would consider a sin against Germany's destiny, even if human foresight would predict a total victory.”
Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg (1856–1921) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Kaiser (6 March 1912), quoted in Konrad H. Jarauschl, ‘The Illusion of Limited War: Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg's Calculated Risk, July 1914’, Central European History, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Mar., 1969), pp. 59–60
“The Nazis understood early that revolutionizing warfare meant revolutionizing espionage. An Intelligence Service which had been mediocre during the First World War was replaced by one which before and during the Second World War achieved enormous triumphs. The Nazis worked on the basis of total espionage.”
Curt Martin Riess (1902–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And Mr. Triewald further says, that in the Summer of the Year 1742, be bad sent one of his Engines, calculated for a Sixty Gun Man of War, to France; which being approved of by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, the King of France has ordered all the Men of War to be furnished with the like Ventilators.”
Stephen Hales (1677–1761) said by 1761 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Milton Friedman and I had our differences about foreign policy. I tried, in vain, to persuade him to be against the first Gulf war. Even there, though, he publicly supported, in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, my economic argument against the war. He stated, ‘Henderson’s analysis is correct. There is no justification for intervention on grounds of oil.’”
David R. Henderson (born 1950) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Milton Friedman: A Tribute”, Antiwar.com (Nov. 20, 2006)
“How did it come about that only a few international oil companies held concessions to all of this region Middle East at the end of World War II? The answer lies in the bitter struggle of the United States government to gain an entrance for its nationals into the British-dominated Middle East, a struggle which very significantly shaped the structure of the industry as it emerged from World War II.”
Neil H. Jacoby (1909–1979) said by 1979 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's odd about war crimes. We seem to have tried people only if they've lost the war.”
William Calley (1943–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime. And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more. Ask yourself who is the real enemy? A young low level national guardsmen? Or the administration that is waging war in Ukraine, a non-NATO nation, against nuclear Russia without war powers?”
Marjorie Taylor Greene (born 1974) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tweet, as cited in "Marjorie Taylor Greene defends alleged Pentagon leaker as 'white, male, christian, and antiwar'" The Independent (April 14, 2023)
“Skottes out of Berwik and of Abirdene, At the Bannok burn war ye to kene, Thare slogh ye many sakles, als it was sene And now has king Edward wroken it, I wene, It es wrokin, I wene, wele wurth the while; War yit with the Skottes, for thai er ful of gile.”
Laurence Minot (1300–1352) first seen 1333 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Now for to tell yow will I turn/of the batayl of Banocburn', The Poems of Laurence Minot, 1333–1352, eds. Thomas Beaumont James and John Simons (1989), p. 29
“A nation that does not prepare for all the forms of war should then renounce the use of war in national policy. A people that does not prepare to fight should then be morally prepared to surrender. To fail to prepare soldiers and citizens for limited, bloody ground action, and then to engage in it, is folly verging on the criminal.”
T. R. Fehrenbach (1925–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The primary, fundamental event is war; politics is simply the legitimation and consolidation of the hierarchy imposed in war.”
Idelber Avelar (born 1968) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Letter of Violence: Essays on Narrative, Ethics, and Politics (2004), p. 5
“In all of German Occupied Europe, there resided 2.4 million Jews before the war, according to the world Jewish encyclopedia. After the war, 3.8 million Jewish ‘Holocaust survivors’ were receiving pensions from the German government … Tragically, the remaining 6 million were lost.”
Edgar Steele (1945–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quoted 30 May 2019 by Marcy Oster of Forward.com
“We believe that we in the UAE and in Dubai have a mission. This region needs a puller from its misery. There is tremendous conflict. There is a lot of hatred, sectarian war, religious war, ethnic cleanses, refugees. We see the story. Then you come to Dubai.”
Mohammad Al Gergawi (born 1963) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Oil won’t last forever, so Dubai is betting big on science and tech in Popular Science ( 16 MAY, 2017)
“Unfortunately, it’s in human nature to be aggressive, destroy each other and make war… I wish this wasn’t the case, even though I would have to sacrifice the band. I’d rather sacrifice the band and have world-wide peace, that would be a good thing. Unfortunately, people kill each other, there is war in the world, and we sing about them when they become history.”
Pär Sundström (born 1981) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Pär Sundstrom (Sabaton) (October 21, 2012)
“There may be no other Lebanese but you who wants civil war in Lebanon. Do not threaten us with war.”
Boutros Gemayel (1932–2021) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gemayel tells Hezbollah chief: “No one wants war except you” (March 19, 2021)
“I think this is the greatest threat to our republic ever. Not the Depression, not World War II, not the Civil War. This is it … This moment of all these intersecting viruses, of novel coronaviruses and of racial injustice — [a] 402-year-old-virus. And it’s an age-old human virus of lying and misinformation and paranoia and conspiracy. This is the pill that will kill us unless we do something.”
Ken Burns (born 1953) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Opinion: Ken Burns is an optimist. But he’s very worried about America." by Alyssa Rosenberg, in The Washington Post (24 June 2021)
“How are you G.I. Joe? It seems to me that most of you are poorly informed about the going of the war, to say nothing about a correct explanation of your presence over here. Nothing is more confused than to be ordered into a war to die or to be maimed for life without the faintest idea of what’s going on.”
Hanoi Hannah (1931–2016) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In June 1967, at a broadcast directed to U.S. troops, as quoted in "The Mystery of Hanoi Hannah" in The New York Times (8 February 2018)
“My work was to make the G.I.s understand that it was not right for them to take part in this war. I talk to them about the traditions of the Vietnamese, to resist aggression. I want them to know the truth about this war and to do a little bit to demoralize them so that they will refuse to fight.”
Hanoi Hannah (1931–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“War photographers were always placed on a pedestal. They put their lives at risk. Of course it is still very dangerous, but it also seems that now, there could just as easily be a civilian taking the picture. Maybe it is less a question of whether war photography will continue, and more a question of whether this idea of the heroic, self-sacrificing combat photographer will live on.”
An-My Lê (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In reality, all experts were voicing that the policy led in Armenia made the war inevitable. Different expert circles insisted we were not ready and we night face a controversial and severe war.”
Robert Kocharyan (born 1954) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in an 2021 interview with Vladimir Pozner in "Robert Kocharyan: An unfair peace can not be lasting and sustainable" in Hyetert.org (6 April 2021)
“The problem of the danger of war depends on whether the USSR is inclined to fight against the United States in my region. I can assure you that that country does not want war either.”
Chun Doo-hwan (1931–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe that we have seen, happily or sadly, a war in Ukraine has exposed or revealed areas that are not doing enough. We had to have that war in Ukraine for us to know that we depended so much, so heavily and continue to depend heavily on Ukraine and Russia for wheat.”
Olusegun Obasanjo (born 1937) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes, I'm a military man, and as a military man I say that if peace fails and we want to end this war, we must bring the war to North Vietnam. In all possible ways, including landing.”
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (1923–2001) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Thieu Asks an Invasion of North If Paris Peace Negotiations Fail" in The New York Times (14 January 1973)
“War! That is the enduring condition of the Church on this earth. That is what the word means when we call her militant. And war means an enemy, an opposing spirit.”
John Neville Figgis (1866–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Washington and its NATO partners more and more often resort in international relations to the policy of blackmail and crude pressure. They try to impudently force their will on other countries and nations. Imperialist bigwigs put forward adventurist doctrines of either a "limited" nuclear war or a war with the use of only conventional, non-nuclear weapons.”
Yuri Andropov (1914–1984) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the National Consultation Meetings of the Leadership of the Agency and Troops of the KGB" (25 May 1981)
“And one more thing about the Croats in World War II. To go to war as a Croat in 1941 and 1942 was an act of incredible bravery and adventure, something that is difficult to describe in words, something that has no graphic form. Croats weren’t persecuted in the way Serbs and Jews were.”
Zoran Milanović (born 1966) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at the Antifascist Struggle Day commemoration in Brezovica Memorial Park" (22 June 2021)
“Sadly, the first years of our independence were marred by war. Today, that war is far behind us, but the tragic experience of it has helped us to better grasp the full importance of peace and the values defended by the Council of Europe.”
Andrej Plenković (born 1970) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech made to the European Parliamentary Assembly" (26 June 2018)
“American imperialism is now starting a new aggression against the People's Republic of China. The flames of aggressive war kindled by American imperialism around China are spreading. The Chinese people have a deep love of peace, but in order to defend peace, they have never been, and will never be, afraid of resisting an aggressive war.”
Zhu De (1886–1976) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The October Revolution and the Chinese People" (November 1950)
“Imperialism just means war, and as long as America and NATO are there, war won’t disappear. Time will confirm it all, let’s wait and see.”
Zhang Zhaozhong (born 1952) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Zhang Zhaozhong: “Asian NATO” looming" (15 October 2010)