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“The moral of 'The Three Bears,' for instance, is 'Never break into someone else's house." The moral of "Snow White" is "Never eat apples." The moral of World War One is "Never assassinate Archduke Ferdinand". -Lemony Snicket”
Daniel Handler (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Such, and so many, moves the warrior's train. In bright array they seek the work of war, Where high unfurl'd the ensign waves in air. Shall I to Washington their praise recite? Enough thou know'st them in the fields of fight.”
Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The holy war or jihad against them had led ‘to the spontaneous profession of the true faith by great numbers of infidels and their families . . . the positive duty of all Musalmans to take up arms for the advancement of Islam; and by expatiating on the favour which they will by so doing, acquire with God, with his Prophet, and with the Muhammadan world at large.’”
Tipu Sultan (1751–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Asiatic Annual Register, Vol. XII, Letter No. XIII, p. 389. Letter No. XIV, pp. 389–91. Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)
“In early 1796, Tipu had dispatched ambassadors, Meer Habibullah and Meer Mohammad Raza, to Zaman Shah with valuable presents, elephants and messages of friendship to pursue the common cause of ‘carrying on the holy war against the infidels and freeing the region of Hindostan from the contamination of the enemies of our religion.’”
Tipu Sultan (1751–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)
“During the same war, he wrote a letter to the head of a regiment, which had laid siege to Naragund: In the event of your being obliged to assault the place, every living creature in it, whether man or woman, old or young, child, dog, cat, or anything else, must be put to the sword, with the single exception of Kala Pandit (the commandant).”
Tipu Sultan (1751–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications. (Colonel William Kirkpatrick’s collection of Tipu’s letters )
“Your Majesty must doubtless have been informed that my exalted ambition is to wage a Holy War…In the midst of this land of heretics, the Almighty protects this tract of Muhammadan dominion like the Ark of Noah and cuts short the extended arm of the abandoned heretic.”
Tipu Sultan (1751–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To Siyad Abdulla, Dated 18th January 1790. With the grace of God and help from Muhammad, we have almost entirely converted the non-believers. A few are remaining in areas near to Kochi. I have decided to make them too Mohammadans. I have considered this as a religious war.”
Tipu Sultan (1751–1799) first seen 1099 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sardar K.M. Panicker, the renowned historian and political analyst has translated Tippu’s letters into Malyalam which were published in Bhasha Poshini magazine of 1099 Chingam 1st (Malayalam era) Tirur Dinesh - Moplah R…
“Don't look back, over your shoulder! Keep your eye on freedom shore! Because you know the brave man with you, also pays for the wages of war.”
Jackson C. Frank (1943–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lovers be war and tak gude heid about Quhome that ye lufe, for quhome ye suffer paine. I lat yow wit, thair is richt few thairout Quhome ye may traist to have trew lufe agane.”
Robert Henryson (1425–1506) said by 1506 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Queen Mab: For love men will mutilate themselves and murder rivals. For love will even a peaceful man go to war. For Love, man will destroy himself, and do so willingly.”
Jim Butcher (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I always tell the Kurds who defend independence: Let's say we declared the independent Kurdish state and Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey imposed sanctions on us, without waging a war. How would we survive under those circumstances?”
Jalal Talabani (1933–2017) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Turkish Daily News staff (September 14, 2007) "Talabani: War against Turkey equal to war against democracy", Turkish Daily News.
“Storys to rede ar delatibill Suppos that thai be nocht bot fabill, Than suld storys that suthfast wer And thai war said on gud maner Have doubill plesance in heryng. The first plesance is the carpyng, And the tother the suthfastnes That schawys the thing rycht as it wes.”
John Barbour (1316–1395) said by 1395 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's time for our government to make clear to the Israeli government that its conduct and policies are unacceptable and to impose a total arms ban on Israel. It is time for peace, but real peace, not the solution by conquest, which is the Israelis' real goal, but which is impossible for them to achieve. They're not simply war criminals; they're fools.”
Gerald Kaufman (1930–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The gazing crowd, of glittering State afraid, Adore the Power their coward meanness made; In war's short intervals, while regal shows Still blind their reason and insult their woes.”
Joel Barlow (1754–1812) said by 1812 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a sportsman all over, and to the back-bone – 'Unting is all that's worth living for – all time is lost wot is not spent in 'unting – it is like the hair we breathe – if we have it not we die – it's the sport of kings, the image of war without its guilt, and only five-and-twenty per cent of its danger.”
Robert Smith Surtees (1805–1864) said by 1864 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A society in motion, with many overlapping groups, in their dance. And above all, a society in which peace is not lack of war, but a drive toward unity.”
Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world of this creation, and its poetry, is not yet born. The possibility before us is that now we enter upon another time, again to choose. Its birth is tragic, but the process is ahead: we must be able to turn a time of war into a time of building.”
Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To be against war is not enough, it is hardly a beginning.”
Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The stories of the Manet brothers [ Edouard and her future husband Eugène Manet ] tell about all the horrors we are likely to face, they [in Paris, during the war between France and Germany] are almost enough to discourage even the bravest of us. [But] you know they [the Manet brothers] always exaggerate, and at the moment they see everything in the blackest possible light.”
Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) first seen 1870 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter of Berthe, from Paris, to Edma who stayed then in Brittany, 1870; as quoted in The Private Lives of the Impressionists, Sue Roe; Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 2006, p. 72
“Dem tax& spending bill takes direct aim at family run biz/farms wld face highest income tax rate in over 35yrs & highest capital gains rate since 70s & expanded death tax I stand against Dem war on family run farms/biz + cradle to grave programs that tax u after you’re buried”
Chuck Grassley (born 1933) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Via Twitter "@ChuckGrassley" (October 11, 2021)
“When old men decided to barter young men for pride and profit, the transaction was called war.”
Len Deighton (1929–2026) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Eleven Declarations of War (London: Harcourt Brace, 1975) p. 11
“Life, like war, is a series of mistakes; and he is not the best Christian nor the best general who makes the fewest false steps. Poor mediocrity may secure that; but he is the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes; organize victory out of mistakes.”
Frederick William Robertson (1816–1853) said by 1853 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So best of luck to the Sea Shadow and its disguise-me ship, which I have to say are the most adorable multimillion dollar bits of scrap heap-bound Cold War ephemera that we have seen in a long time.”
Rachel Maddow (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dare I say it? Congressional Republicans had a collective war-metaphor-gasm trying to make the president‘s budget seem scary.”
Rachel Maddow (born 1973) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, March 2009
“Especially dangerous on the musical front in the present class war.”
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An official Soviet verdict on Rachmaninoff's music, delivered in 1931; cited from Percy A. Scholes The Oxford Companion to Music, 5th edn. (London: Oxford University Press, 1944) p. 775.
“Reverend Lawson:You lured those boys in here and made filth of them! Bob: We don't think human bodies is filth until they're corpses, Reverend Lawson! Bill: We loved every inch of those boys. Bob: Every chance we got. Bill: And we sent them away to war, since they had to go, with every surface of them— Bob: Tinglin' with kisses an' love.”
Robert Patrick (playwright) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Peace to the shacks! War on the palaces!”
Georg Büchner (1813–1837) said by 1837 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the vaccine or vaccines that will win the war against COVID-19, not the government or mythological beliefs.”
P. Chidambaram (born 1945) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jan 2021
“Brisk and prompt to war, soft and not in the least able to resist calamity, fickle in catching at schemes, and always striving after novelties – French characteristics remained unaltered twenty centuries after Julius Caesar made a note of them for all time.”
Frederick Rolfe (1860–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We always have a tradition at our family reunion, we always have the family tug-of-war, and this year it was my dad's side of the family against my sister-in-law. She wins every year! I swear, she runs on diesel. That's a fat bastard, right there! She went on a diet one time, Little Debbie laid off 500 employees. Last Halloween, she dressed in white, came as a blizzard.”
Larry the Cable Guy (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then leave Complaints: Fools only strive To make a Great an Honest Hive. T'enjoy the World's Conveniences, Be fam'd in War, yet live in Ease, Without great Vices, is a vain Eutopia seated in the Brain.”
Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733) said by 1733 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The neoliberal strategy is a new Dark Age of enclosures and privatization that will bury the Enlightenment's drive to free economies from rentier privilege.... In this war the financial powers and other rentiers fight... precisely because they realize there is no moral justification for income and wealth obtained by extractive means instead of earned productivity.”
Michael Hudson (economist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a war, to win a victory or suffer a defeat are common things. The essential is that we must win final victory. We must help all officers and men and the people to bear that firmly in mind so that they will not be self-complacent when winning and disappointed when losing, but instead will always make utmost efforts to overcome difficulties and hardships and advance towards final victory.”
Ho Chí Minh (1890–1969) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Instructions Given at the Conference (Fall 1950)
“Obviously, Lenin meant that the stage of fierce civil war and the restriction of democracy imposed on the Soviet people were only provisional and had to be abolished as soon as the new regime was consolidated.”
Ho Chí Minh (1890–1969) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Development of Ideological Unity Among Marxist Leninist Parties" (August 3, 1956)
“We have to say yes to socialism — to the word and everything [...] Medicare for all, ending student debt, a different approach to the war on terror, ending mass incarceration.”
Jim Carrey (born 1962) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jim Carrey says "stop apologizing" and "say yes to socialism" (September 2018)
“In revealing the workings of government that led to the Vietnam War, the newspapers nobly did precisely that which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do.”
Hugo Black (1886–1971) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Concurring in New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971).
“It's hard for me to see how members of al Qaeda could be considered prisoners of war. I think they clearly do not fit within the prescriptions of the Geneva Convention.”
Eric Holder (born 1951) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: January 28, 2002. CNN transcript
“One of the absolute rules I learned in the war was, don't know anything you don't need to know, because if you ever get caught they will get it out of you.”
Abraham Pais (1918–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I knew all the time I was going to get through the war. It was completely irrational, a silly idea, but I was not going to lie down and get myself killed. I was going to get out of it.”
Abraham Pais (1918–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I knew all the time I was going to get through the war. It was completely irrational, a silly idea, but I was not going to lie down and get myself killed.”
Abraham Pais (1918–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What about it, Meta?" he snapped. "No doubts? Do you think that destruction is the only way to end this war?" "I don't know," she said. "I can't be sure. For the first time in my life I find myself with more than one answer to the same question." "Congratulations," he said. "It's a sign of growing up.”
Harry Harrison (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who but a madman can enjoy the prospect of approaching war?”
Harry Harrison (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If and when the war starts, no matter where or whoever you are or if you are young or old, Northerner or Southerner, you all have the responsibility of protecting our home and repelling the enemy, you all must have the will to achieve ultimate sacrifice.”
Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Marx's error, Hitler believed, had been to foster class war instead of national unity - to set workers against industrialists instead of conscripting both groups into a corporatist order.”
Daniel Hannan (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It suited Western Leftists, during and after the War, to argue that Hitler had been uniquely evil, certainly wickeder than Stalin. It was thus necessary to forget the enthusiasm with which the two tyrants had collaborated.”
Daniel Hannan (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The two totalitarian systems [USSR Communism and German National-Socialism] traded in all the necessary commodities of war: not just oil and vital chemicals, but arms and ships. They exhibited each other’s cultural achievements, performed each other’s music and films, stressed their joint hostility to Western capitalism.”
Daniel Hannan (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here is Russia, blatantly threatening a neighboring state with war if it seeks to pursue an independent foreign policy, yet we are so habituated to Russian flouting of international law that we barely notice any more.”
Daniel Hannan (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You don't fight a war with words, but with fortifications. The pickaxe and the shovel are as important at the rifle. I can't say it often enough.”
Buenaventura Durruti (1896–1936) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview (3 October 1936), as quoted in Durruti in the Spanish Revolution (1996) by Abel Paz, as translated by Chuck W. Morse (2007), p. 537
“Working to spare animals the immense suffering they undergo does not diminish by one iota my determination to alleviate human misery. Needless suffering must be done away with wherever it is, in whatever form it takes. This is a war that has to be waged on all fronts, and it can be.”
Matthieu Ricard (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is a challenge to the entire trade union movement in Ireland - a declaration of war on the wages and working conditions of all workers.”
Joe Higgins (born 1949) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the outsourcing of jobs by Irish Ferries in November 2005. Irish Independent