Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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War
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“On August 2, 1914, I took Braque and Derain to the Gare d'Avignon [drafted as a soldier for World war 1.] I never saw them again [not literally a fact, but the close relation between Picasso and Braque ended].”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in My Galleries and Painters, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, New York Viking Press, 1971, p. 46
“In the US. Infantry Manual published during World War II, the soldier was told what to do if a live grenade fell into the trench where he and others were sitting: to wrap himself around the grenade so as to at least save the others. (If no one "volunteered," all would be killed, and there were only a few seconds to decide who would be the hero.)”
Anatol Rapoport (1911–2007) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Anatol Rapoport (1988), quoted in: William Poundstone (2011) Prisoner's Dilemma. p. 203
“I never felt that there was any conflict between my military duties and my Socialism. Why should not a good soldier be also a fighter in the class war?”
Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Talks with Mussolini, Emil Ludwig, Boston, MA, Little, Brown and Company (1933), p. 41, interview took place between March 23 and April 4, 1932
“Courage (in a soldier) is maintained by a certain anger; anger is a little blind and likes to strike out. And from this follows a thousand abuses, a thousand evils and misfortunes that are impossible to predict in an army during war.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace.”
Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) said by 1885 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in London, as quoted in Memorial Life of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (1889) Edited by y Stephen Merrill Allen, p. 95
“To me, every fundamentalist Muslim, no matter how peaceable in his own behavior, is part of a murderous movement and is thus, in some fashion, a foot soldier in the war that bin Laden has launched against civilization.”
Daniel Pipes (born 1949) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bin Laden Is a Fundamentalist," National Review Online (22 October 2001)
“Little soldier, little insect You know war it has no heart It will kill you in the sunshine Or happily in the the dark Where kindness is a card game Or a bent up cigarette In the trenches, in the hard rain With a bullet and a bet”
Conor Oberst (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All that I will say is that in 1939 I voluntarily returned from Australia to this country to serve as a private soldier in the war against Germany and Nazism. I am the same man today... It does not follow that because a person resident in this country is not English that he does not enjoy equal treatment before the law and public authorities. I set my face like flint against discrimination.”
Enoch Powell (1912–1998) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reaction to Tony Benn's speech that "the flag hoisted at Wolverhampton [Powell's constituency] is beginning to look like the one that fluttered over Dachau and Belsen" (3 June 1970), quoted in Simon Heffer, Like the Rom…
“This is the soldier brave enough to tell The glory-dazzled world that "war is hell": Lover of peace, he looks beyond the strife, And rides through hell to save his country's life.”
Henry van Dyke (1852–1933) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Statue of Sherman by St. Gaudens (1904).
“The soldier shook his head, waxing philosophical. “It’s a madness, sir. We’ve all got it. It could go on until the last human being crawls away from the body of the chap he’s just bashed to bits with a stone. That’s what war is, sir—madness. You don’t think about what you’re doing. You forget, don’t you—you just go on killing and killing.”
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The officer of to-day has seen active service, it's true but as a matter of fact it is quite sufficient in war to have good health and no more imagination than a fish. It is in peace-time that one ought to judge a soldier.”
André Maurois (1885–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“100,000 soldiers are reported to have died in the Iraqi war. If you count 100 relatives of each soldier, it means that practically there are millions of people who now have antagonism toward the white people of America. These Arab people will remember this country whose main religion is Christianity, who came and destroyed all Iraqi facilities and industry. They won't easily forget this.”
Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reverend Sun Myung Moon Speaks on New Heaven and New Earth Centering On Our Pledge 1991-03-03
“And the second question I would ask him... Have you ever seen what happens when a grenade goes off in a school? Do you really know what you’re doing when you order shock and awe? Are you prepared to kneel beside a dying soldier and tell him why he went to Iraq, or why he went to any war?”
John le Carré (1931–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you happened to end up in the wrong place at the wrong instant, you could be the best soldier in the world and it wouldn't matter one goddamn bit. Your next of kin would get a wire from the War Department, and that would be that.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The moment the first American soldier sets foot on the Japanese mainland, all prisoners of war will be shot.”
Hideki Tōjō (1884–1948) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Note signed by Tojo (June 1945), left at a camp during the Bataan Death March. Possible forgery since Tojo was no longer in power for over a year at the time of the discovery. Also, the Japanese homeland was not threate…
“The minister of war snorted. The magus didn't recognize this as high praise, and he said stiffly, "I've been told that his father wanted him to be a soldier. I'd be happy to inform his father that he has a son to be proud of.”
Megan Whalen Turner (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I did not wish to protest against war. My object was to remember. I wanted people to find in my poems the truth of what it had been like to be an American infantry soldier. Now I see I was writing a memorial of those years, for the me I had known, who were silent.”
Louis Simpson (1923–2012) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Poetry of War ed. Ian Hamilton , London 1945
“Who has won this war? Why should the white soldier, the warrior who has returned home after having achieved the greatest victory in history be penalized for political reasons?”
James Eastland (1904–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gentlemen, you are in sorry condition. But war will render you yet more sorry. The soldier will fight in mud and hail, snow and ice, drought and flood. It is rare that a warrior gets to fight in comfort.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I had never dreamed of being a soldier; I had never fired a gun. I was not, nor ever had been, a fighter of any sort, but even so, I loved my country, and I spent much of that year trying to imagine a future distorted by war.”
Nicholas Sparks (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My poetry is a declaration of war, not an exordium to defeat. It is not the defeated soldier's drumbeat of despair, but the fighting warrior's will to win. It is not the de-spirited voice of dejection but the stirring shout of victory.”
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: New York September 7, 2000 Asia Society Annual Dinner
“No war is ever fought exactly like any other before it, and history is full of stories of commanders who came to grief trying to follow an old pattern of victory once too often. Whatever is new in tactics, equipment, or method must be taught at the squad level before a soldier gets into combat.”
Mark W. Clark (1896–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The losers on the battlefield were not the soldier and his spirit, but the decision-making officials who were supposed to be ready for a possible war, properly organize and wage it.”
Armen Sarkissian (born 1953) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In an interview with CivilNet" (11 December 2020)
“Women have nothing to gain by war, and the laboring man only a soldier's grave, or wasted health, with his sacrifices speedily forgotten or ignored by the Government and the masses.”
Belva Ann Lockwood (1830–1917) said by 1917 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Winnie was a woman of her times, there was a war and she too was a soldier.”
Redi Tlhabi (born 1978) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quotation about Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in her article Those who dwell on Winnie's 'dark side' ignore brutality she endured, by Redi Tlhabi published in w:Times Live on 08 April 2018
“[On his father, Maurice Micklewhite Snr, a soldier during World War II] He liberated the Pope.”
Michael Caine (born 1933) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For such lessons, whether ancient or modern, Occidental or Oriental, though to some extent they are the outcome of political happenings, must be regarded as in the main the natural result of whether the soldier remembers war in the day of peace.”
Tōgō Heihachirō (1848–1934) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks by Admiral Togo at dispersal ceremony for the combined fleet" (1905)
“I chose the army because my father was an American soldier in France during World War I. I wasn't sorry to go in, I wanted to serve my country.”
Louis Anthony DeSimone (1922–2018) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bishop DeSimone recalls his role in major WWII battle for Italy (1 June 2017) Catholic Philly
“I have been in Russia several days and have listened to many toasts. I have heard the virtues of every Allied ruler, every prominent marshal, general, admiral, and commander toasted. I have yet to hear a toast to the most important Russian in World War II. Gentlemen, will you please drink with me to the common soldier of the great Red Army.”
John Eisenhower (1922–2013) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Toast in Leningrad (1945); quoted in Dwight D. Eisenhower, (1948)
“When a soldier enters war his priority is not to survive but to assassinate the enemy and he automatically survives. Our target must not be to survive but to encounter poverty and we will be automatically successful.”
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I guess people have come to realise that there is more to Africa than starving people, raped women, war, child soldier,… whatever the reason, we need to remember that we cannot rely on others to develop the continent”
Rainatou Sow (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And here you are yesterday's ensign soldier or captain shell-shocked a hundred times shot through darned and put back together half-mad and dull you write and write and whine from helplessness and melancholy and tears flow down your face and get stuck in your stubble And you understand that you shouldn't have returned from the war.”
Arkady Babchenko (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O, wither'd is the garland of the war, The soldier's pole is fallen.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“We've been losing wars forever; it's what we Kurds do best . . . We are like the little guy at the bar who wants to fight all the big men. We get beaten up by one, then get up off the floor and go for another. Over and over. A lifetime of war, can you imagine? - Dr Ahmet Talzani”
Scott Anderson (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A new large-scale war will end with the destruction of human culture and civilization. Therefore, this trial must contribute toward preventing such degenerate wars in the future, and toward establishing rules whereby human beings can live together.”
Albert Speer (1905–1981) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nuremberg trials, (31 August 1945)
“As former Marine Corps commandant Smedley Butler said in his book "War is a Racket," all of America's wars are fought to make the world right for the bankers.”
David Lane (white nationalist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lord, that war was crazy!” “All wars are,” said Drummond dispassionately. “but technology advanced to the point of giving us a knife to cut our throats with. Before that, we were just beating our heads against the wall. Robinson, we can’t go back to the old ways. We’ve got to start on a new track—a track of sanity.”
Poul Anderson (1926–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are no harmless political lies about a war. The more such lies citizens tolerate, the more wars they will get.”
James Bovard (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of course, we in the so-called developed countries thought we were civilized. At least war wasn't respectable any more, and the United Nations was always doing its best to stop the wars that did break out.' 'Not very successfully: I'd give it about three out of ten...'”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wars are Spinach. Life in general is the tough part. In war all you have to do is not worry and know how to read a map and co-ordinates.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Marlene Dietrich (27 June 1950)
“Wars are...usually fought for hegemony, for business. And then of course there’s the business of war...”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Atomic war is bad but you know what's even worse? Having had enough atomic wars that you can rank them in terms of horribleness.”
James Nicoll (born 1961) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Review of Voodoo Planet: Solar Queen, book 3 by Andre Norton, 2015
“Wars are fought to gain a certain objective. War itself is not the objective; victory is not the objective; you fight to remove the obstruction that comes in the way of your objective. If you let victory become the end in itself then you've gone astray and forgotten what you were originally fighting about.”
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview by James Cameron, in Picture Post (28 October 1950)
“He who accepts the class struggle cannot fail to accept civil wars, which in every class society are the natural, and under certain conditions inevitable, continuation, development and intensification of the class struggle… To repudiate civil war, or to forget about it, is to fall into extreme opportunism and renounce the socialist revolution.”
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have fought two wars to end war. In 1976, the nations of this world set aside the same amount of money for its starving children as the lavished on armaments every two hours. Can any right-minded man afford to be a pessimist? That was a luxury for easier days.”
Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Instead of gambling on the eternal impossibility of the revolution and on the fascist return of a war-machine in general, why not think that a new type of revolution is in the course of becoming possible, and that all kinds of mutating, living machines conduct wars, are combined and trace out a plane of consistence which undermines the plane of organization of the World and the States?”
Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If there is a sectarian war in Iraq today, or perhaps several sectarian wars, we have to understand that this was latent in the country, and in the state, and in the society all along. It was not the only possible outcome, because it had to be willed and organized, but it was certainly high on the list of probabilities.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Appointment in Mesopotamia", Slate (2007-02-05): On Iraq
“Halliburton is not a "company" doing business in Iraq. It is a WAR PROFITEER, bilking millions from the pockets of average Americans. In past wars they would have been arrested — or worse. The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush?”
Michael Moore (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Bush Doctrine is a prescription for permanent war for permanent peace, though wars are the death of republics.”
Pat Buchanan (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The struggle against war and its social source, capitalism, presupposes direct, active, unequivocal support to the oppressed colonial peoples in their struggles and wars against imperialism. A 'neutral' position is tantamount to support of imperialism.”
Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Resolution on the Antiwar Congress of the London Bureau" (July 1936)