
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“Clearly our first task is to use the material wealth of space to solve the urgent problems we now face on Earth: to bring the poverty-stricken segments of the world up to a decent living standard, without recourse to war or punitive action against those already in material comfort; to provide for a maturing civilization the basic energy vital to its survival.”
Gerard K. O'Neill (1927–1992) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The High Frontier (1976)
“In my country, the Netherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat.”
Geert Wilders (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Koran on the table before you, is a handbook for terrorists. Blood drips from its pages. It calls for perpetual war against non-believers. That Koran before you is the hunting permit for millions of Muslims. A license to kill.”
Geert Wilders (born 1963) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech by Geert Wilders during parliamentary debate in the Netherlands (4 September 2014) (video)
“Hail, Columbia! happy land! Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band! Who fought and bled in Freedom’s cause, Who fought and bled in Freedom’s cause, And when the storm of war was gone, Enjoyed the peace your valor won. Let independence be our boast, Ever mindful what it cost; Ever grateful for the prize, Let its altar reach the skies!”
Joseph Hopkinson (1770–1842) first seen 1798 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hail, Columbia! (1798).
“Our goal is not to win the war, we have already done it. Our goal is to find a just solution, and we are unanimous on the ways to find it.”
Serzh Sargsyan (born 1954) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: President Serzh Sargsyan participated at the solemn event dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) (December 18, 2010)
“One of my heroes, almost necessarily from what I'm saying, of course, is Borges, who is a supreme master of doing thing -- being a data bank -- and the beauty of this economy is that he could have written War and Peace in three or four pages; who knows, it might have been a better book.”
Peter Greenaway (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[A]fter World War II, liberal rights were not something that were only deserved by white Europeans. ...[T]here was a recognition that the black and brown peoples being held in colonial bondage could not consistently be held in that bondage, because liberalism was a universal doctrine. ...[T]hat's the other respect in which we can defend liberalism, a moral one.”
Francis Fukuyama (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trade has ever been the extinguisher of war, the eradicator of prejudice, the diffuser of knowledge.”
Henry George (1839–1897) said by 1897 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Political correctness is a war on noticing.”
Steve Sailer (born 1958) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: World War T, Taki's Magazine, January 22, 2014
“Privilege is basically a form of property, and as John Locke pointed out, property is what makes a civilization rather than a Libyan war zone of Hobbesian anarchy. The world is a better place when people can work constructively to earn privileges, individual and collective, and pass some of them on to their heirs.”
Steve Sailer (born 1958) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Checking Iron Age Barbarian Prejudice, Taki's Magazine, April 22, 2015
“The moment you ask a child in Israel what Yom Kippur means to him, and he answers the Yom Kippur War, or a fun day on a bicycle — then I don’t know if that is Zionism or whatever you call it, but it has certainly become bankrupt”
Lev Leviev (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The military/security complex has resurrected its Cold War enemy so necessary for its outsized budget and power and intends to keep Russia as The Enemy.”
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)
“As strategic and Russian studies are largely funded by the military/security complex, the universities are also complicit in the march toward nuclear war. Republicans are as dependent as Democrats on funding from the military/security complex and the Israel Lobby.”
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)
“So vast has been the change in the claim and position of slavery! So entirely has it reversed the classic story, and the blind, begging Belisarius has become the imperial general! So proudly, in such long and dazzling and magnificent array, stands Xerxes at the fiery pass of war! And where is Leonidas? Where is liberty?”
George William Curtis (1824–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The war has revealed an overpowering national instinct. The conflicting theories of the exact nature and limitations of our government had blinded the shrewdest minds to the fact that we were a nation, with all the feelings and instincts of a nation, and that our quarrels must be settled inside and not outside of the Union.”
George William Curtis (1824–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As the officer before the World War was naturally a monarchist...so it is naturally understandable today...to be a National Socialist...The Wehrmacht has become the tool of the National Socialist will for development.”
Wilhelm Canaris (1887–1945) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1938. Quoted in "Hitler's Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II" - Page 234 by David Kahn - True Crime - 2000
“General Franco made it clear that Spain could enter the war only when England was about ready to collapse.”
Wilhelm Canaris (1887–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "The Last European War" - Page 114 - by John Lukacs - History - 1976
“I count the columned waves at war With Titan elements; and they, In martial splendor, storm the bar And shake the world, these bits of spray.”
Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Building of the City Beautiful (1905), Ch. V : How Beautiful!, p. 48.
“Is it worthwhile that we jostle a brother, Bearing his load on the rough road of life? Is it worthwhile that we jeer at each other, In blackness of heart — that we war to the knife? God pity us all in our pitiful strife.”
Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Oh! Downtrodden (1976) by David Zane.
“The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.”
Arthur Travers Harris (1892–1984) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement of 1942, at the start of the bombing campaign against Germany, as quoted in "Sir Arthur Harris & The Lancaster Bomber" at The British Postal Museum and Archive
“We are going to scourge the Third Reich from end to end. We are bombing Germany city by city and ever more terribly in order to make it impossible for them to go on with the war. That is our object; we shall pursue it relentlessly.”
Arthur Travers Harris (1892–1984) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Radio address (28 July 1942), as quoted by Sir Courtauld Thomson, in a House of Lords debate on bombing policy (9 February 1944)
“Some idiot is moving heavy furniture around in the flat above and I wake up with a start. I'm about to give Lambeth Council a ring to get them to sort him out when I remember I am in Kyiv and it's four o'clock in the morning, and it's not tables and chairs that are going bang but Russian artillery. The idiot is Vladimir Putin and his idiot war is two days old.”
John Sweeney (journalist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Putin says that the government of Ukraine is neo-Nazi. The president is Jewish; the Russians attacked Babi Yar. For the avoidance of any doubt, it's not the Ukrainians who are behaving like the Nazis in this war.”
John Sweeney (journalist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the whole, more men had perhaps escaped into the war than from it.”
Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe that if Puerto Rico had been a federated state of the Union in, say, 1945, at the end of World War II, it would never have been able to attain the economic development, with its consequent social progress, which has been observed and admired by the whole world all these years”
Luis Muñoz Marín (1898–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All I can say is this: either every single member of that army had been promised a blow job of the Gods as soon as they got their queen back, or the Greeks invented brainwashing. (On the Greeks and the Trojan War, 31 May 2004)”
Ben Croshaw (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Humanity will be forever at war as long as there is no common enemy. World peace demands a new Hitler. (16 February 2010)”
Ben Croshaw (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.”
Erich Maria Remarque (1898–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.”
Erich Maria Remarque (1898–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A hospital alone shows what war is.”
Erich Maria Remarque (1898–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Never go to war with a noun. You will always lose.”
John Green (born 1977) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: CC US History: The 1960 in America", referring to "War on Poverty", but also several later concepts
“At this point in China's development, it is impossible to predict how its intentions will evolve and whether its relationship with the United States will track the benign course of Anglo-American rapprochement or the malign trajectory of Anglo-German rivalry and war.”
Charles A. Kupchan (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I carry in my right hand war, and peace in my left... Here is a bloody belt and a white one. Take which you please.”
George Rogers Clark (1752–1818) first seen 1778 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Clark, Speech to the Indian Chiefs at Cahokia (1778)
“We cannot defer this responsibility to posterity. Time will not wait. Democracy, civilization itself, is at stake. Within the next few years we must change the basic structure of our global community from the present anarchic system of war and ever more destructive weaponry to a new system governed by a democratic UN federation.”
Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is bias to think that the art of war is just for killing people. It is not to kill people, it is to kill evil. It is a stratagem to give life to many people by killing the evil of one person.”
Yagyū Munenori (1571–1646) said by 1646 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Japanese Art of War (1991) by Thomas Cleary
“Throwing down your own sword is also an art of war. If you have attained mastery of swordlessness, you will never lack for a sword. The opponent's sword is your sword. This is acting at the vanguard of the moment.”
Yagyū Munenori (1571–1646) said by 1646 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Soul of the Samurai (2005) by Thomas Cleary, p. 28
“In the year of Christ 1183, the House of Plantagenet was at war against itself.”
Sharon Kay Penman (1945–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Greatest Generation gets too much credit. Those World War II guys, if they had all the shit we have today, they’d be assholes too. It’s just circumstantial. It’s what you’re called on to do that makes you great. We haven’t been called on to do anything but buy shit and get fat.”
Louis C.K. (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What does greatness in the presidency mean? It means waging war, crushing liberties, imposing socialism, issuing dictates, browbeating and ignoring Congress, appointing despotic judges, expanding the domestic and global empire, and generally trying his best to be an all-round enemy of freedom. It means saying with Lincoln, 'I have a right to take any measure which may best subdue the enemy.'”
Lew Rockwell (born 1944) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 6 October 1996 "Down With the Presidency
“The development of air power in its broadest sense, and including the development of all means of combating missiles that travel through the air, whether fired or dropped, is the first essential to our survival in war.”
Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard (1873–1956) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Given by Trenchard in 1946. As listed on Great Aviation Quotes
“Some of our German passengers on the ship would be crying. The Brits were the same way. They were crying, because they realized a new war was about to break out across Europe, with Hitler at the head of the goose-stepping parade.”
Frank Buckles (1901–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our sole aim was, by virtue of this war, to rid ourselves of the lot of them, however many international decisions there were. Each one represented a blow to our...independence...And, just as it was our dearly held goal to lift the Capitulations and the Mt. Lebanon concessions, we also desired to destroy the signed understanding concerning the reforms in Eastern Anatolia...”
Ahmed Djemal (1872–1922) said by 1922 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility" - by Taner Akçam, Paul Bessemer - History - 2006 - Page 118.
“The assault on Malta will cost us many casualties… But I am the one who wants it because I consider it absolutely essential for the future development of the war. If we take Malta, Libya will be safe. If not, the situation of the colony will always be precarious.”
Ugo Cavallero (1880–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "From the Ashes of Disgrace" - Page 79 - by Franco Maugeri, Victor Rosen - 1948
“Out of that bungled, unwise war An alp of unforgiveness grew.”
William Plomer (1903–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When Mussolini decided on war he did not take my advice or that of any other Army chief. In August 1939 the Duce had not been so sure about the invincibility of the Germans, and he told us that he had sought to persuade Hitler not to act.”
Pietro Badoglio (1871–1956) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "Twenty Angels Over Rome: The Story of Fascist Italy's Fall" - Page 70 - by Richard McMillan - 1945
“Listen: if there is war down there— and if you think me worthy of it, and capable —you ought to grant me the honor of conducting the campaign. Surely, you don't think me too old?”
Emilio De Bono (1866–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Mussolini. Quoted in "Lion by the tail: the story of the Italian-Ethiopian War" - Page 32 - by Thomas M. Coffey - History - 1974
“The war will continue a long time. Chiang Kai-shek may attempt to continue hostilities throughout his ifetime and as long as Chiang continues, Japan must continue.”
Seishirō Itagaki (1885–1948) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "Time" - by Briton Hadden, Henry Robinson Luce - Australia - 1923 - Page 29.
“The Chinese courts have tried many Japanese officers for their crimes against the Chinese. These men committed thousands of crimes against Koreans. They killed and persecuted thousands of our people for refusing to help the Japanese war effort. They forced Koreans into the coal mines as slave laborers and let them die of tuberculosis and neglect.”
Seishirō Itagaki (1885–1948) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "Korea would Try 2 Japanese Chiefs" from "New York Times" article - November 30, 1948.
“I never shot a deer. I've never shot anything in my life. I never hunted. I'm just not that type of guy. But there's no doubt in my mind that I would have killed to win. That really scares me sometimes. Right now I think about it, and I get little goose bumps. I would have done anything - absolutely anything - to win. In a war, maybe that's what happens. It was our society against their society.”
Phil Esposito (born 1942) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Neil Milbert, "Classic Soviet series: When Canada's stars shone brightest", The Chicago Tribune (January 18, 1991), p. C-15.
“The China Incident [of 1937 onwards] has resulted in massive loss of life through the mutual killing of neighboring friends. This is the greatest tragedy of the last one thousand years. Nevertheless this is a holy war to save the peoples of East Asia.... Invoking the power of Avalokitesvara, I pray for the bright future of East Asia.”
Iwane Matsui (1878–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "Zen War Stories" - Page 186 - by Daizen Victoria - History - 2003.