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
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatinaNederlands
War
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“International financiers are behind all war. They are what is called the international Jew: German-Jews, French-Jews, English-Jews, American-Jews ... the Jew is the threat.”
Henry Ford (1863–1947) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Henry Ford, quoted in New York World, 1919, as cited in: Martin Allen (2002). Hidden Agenda: How the Duke of Windsor Betrayed the Allies. p. 55-56
“All progress means war with Society.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I took a course in speed reading, learning to read straight down the middle of the page, and I was able to go through War and Peace in 20 minutes. It's about Russia.”
Woody Allen (born 1935) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to Allen by Herb Caen in Reader's Digest, October 1967. For additional citations see this entry from Quote Investigator.
“And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.”
Aristotle (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first major president to be elected after the War of 1812 was President Monroe Doctrine, who became famous by developing the policy for which he is named. This policy, which is still in effect today, states that:”
Dave Barry (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After the door closed behind them, there was a moment of silence in the Jolly Jackal. Finally, John, sitting on the floor next to the briefcase containing ten thousand dollars in cash, said to Leo, Kakimi chertyami oni viigrali holodnuyu voinu? This translates roughly to: "How the hell did these people win the Cold War?" (Chapter 6)”
Dave Barry (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Services in war time are fit only for desperadoes but, in peace, are fit only for fools.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But this principle of race is unfortunately one of the reasons why I fear war may always exist; because race implies difference, difference implies superiority, and superiority leads to predominance.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1849 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (1 February 1849)
“Before the civil war commenced, the United States of America were colonies, and we should not forget that such communities do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1863 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (5 February 1863)
“The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men. Though you follow the trade of the warrior, you do so in the spirit of Washington — not of Genghis Khan. For Americans, only threat to our way of life justifies resort to conflict.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Graduation Exercises at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, U.S. (3 June 1947)
“The only way to win the next world war is to prevent it.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at a Rally in the Civic Auditorium, Seattle, Washington (October 17, 1956). Source: Eisenhower Presidential Library. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021.
“The peace we seek and need means much more than mere absence of war. It means the acceptance of law, and the fostering of justice, in all the world.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Radio and Television Report to the American People on the Developments in Eastern Europe and the Middle East (October 31, 1956). Source: Eisenhower Presidential Library. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021.
“You just can't have this kind of war. There aren't enough bulldozers to scrape the bodies off the streets.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In 1957, as quoted in No Use: Nuclear Weapons and U.S. National Security, by Thomas M. Nichols.
“During one meeting, when a top Eisenhower economic advisor droned on about what it would take to reconstruct the dollar in the aftermath of a nuclear war, Eisenhower interrupted, "Wait a minute, boys. We're not going to be reconstructing the dollar. We're going to be grubbing for worms.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Contemplating the cost of modern war, Ike exclaimed one day: "You might as well go out and shoot everyone you see then shoot yourself.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the cotton States, after the war...the Jew came down in force, set up shop on the plantation, supplied all the negro's wants on credit, and at the end of the season was proprietor of the negro's share of the present crop and of part of his share of the next one. Before long, the whites detested the Jew, and it is doubtful if the negro loved him.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only possible solution which will preserve Germany's honor and Germany's interest is, we repeat, a war with Russia.”
Karl Marx (1818–1883) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Marx-Engels Gesamt-Ausgabe, Erste Abteilung, Volume 7, March to December 1848, p. 304. Friedrich Engels. The Frankfurt Assembly Debates the Polish Question. Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 70, August 9, 1848.
“It is in this sense that Franklin says, "war is robbery, commerce is generally cheating.”
Karl Marx (1818–1883) said by 1883 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the U.S. reactionaries use to scare people. it looks terrible but in fact it isn't. Of course, the atom bomb is a weapon of mass slaughter, but the outcome of a war is decided by the people--not by one of two new types of weapon.”
Mao Zedong (1893–1976) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Talk with the American Correspondent Anna Louise Strong" (August 1946)
“If we can cultivate in the world the idea that aggressive war-making is the way to the prisoner's dock rather than the way to honors, we will have accomplished something toward making the peace more secure.”
Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Opening Address to the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials (10 November 1945)
“The nation that would to-day disarm its soldiers and turn its people to the paths of peace would accomplish more to its building up than by all the war taxes wrung from its hostile and unwilling serfs.”
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To disband the armies and destroy the forts, to diffuse love and brotherhood, and peace and justice in the place of war and strife, could tend only to the building up of character, the elevation of the soul, and the strength and well-being of the state.”
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Government is the thing. Law is the thing. Not brotherhood, not international cooperation, not security councils that can stop war only by waging it... Where does security lie, anyway — security against the thief, a bad man, the murderer? In brotherly love? Not at all. It lies in government.”
E. B. White (1899–1985) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Common Cause: A Monthly Report of the Committee to Frame a World Constitution Vol. I, No. 2 (August 1947)
“You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) first seen 1063 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Daily Telegram #1063, Will Rogers Has An Idea About Disarmament Plans (22 December 1929)
“I have always said that a conference was held for one reason only, to give everybody a chance to get sore at everybody else. Sometimes it takes two or three conferences to scare up a war, but generally one will do it.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Daily Telegram number 2159, Mr. Rogers Has An Idea How Conferences End (5 July 1933)
“The United States never lost a war or won a conference.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark after the Versailles Peace Conference, as quoted in Wit and Wisdom (1936) edited by Jack Lait
“Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Wit (2003) by Des MacHale, p. 299
“You can't say civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Government, the peace-officer at home, breathes war abroad, organizes it into a science, reduces it to a system, makes it a trade, and applauds it as if it were the most honorable work of nations.”
William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) said by 1842 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“War is to be ranked among the most dreadful calamities which fall on a guilty world; and, what deserves consideration, it tends to multiply and perpetuate itself without end. It feeds and grows on the blood which it sheds. The passions, from which it springs, gain strength and fury from indulgence.”
William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) said by 1842 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Another powerful principle of our nature, which is the spring of war, is the passion for superiority, for triumph, for power. The human mind is aspiring, impatient of inferiority, and eager for preeminence and control.”
William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) said by 1842 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. [on followup] No, not our nation's, but in World War II. I mean, we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century, but in this century's history.”
Dan Quayle (born 1947) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference (September 15, 1988), paraphrased in Esquire (August 1992), The New Yorker (October 10, 1988), p. 102
“Never run against a war hero.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response when asked if he had any advice to give to a young politician, quoted in "History Remembers…Adlai Stevenson" by Maureen Zebian in The Epoch Times (4 November 2004)
“Some war hero is always getting in my way.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to Stevenson by Harry Ashmore of the Arkansas Gazette and entered by William Fulbright in the Congressional Record for July 22, 1965. According to Ashmore, Stevenson said this when he was blocked by a motorca…
“When we were children, we often played war. We had a fine collection of lead soldiers. My brothers would take different countries: Xavier had Italy; Pierre, Germany. Or they would swap around. Well, I, gentlemen, always had France.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reminiscing during an ocean voyage to Tahiti, quoted in The Atlantic, November 1960.
“Homer tells us also that Sisyphus had put Death in chains. Pluto could not endure the sight of his deserted, silent empire. He dispatched the god of war, who liberated Death from the hands of her conqueror.”
Albert Camus (1913–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Weighing the sacrifices of the last war, we want to be true friends of a peace which will at last heal the wounds from which all have suffered.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Potsdam (21 March 1933), quoted in The Times (26 September 1939), p. 9
“We do not want a war merely for the purpose of bringing to Germany people who simply do not want to be, or cannot be, Germans.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast (27 May 1933), quoted in The Times (26 September 1939), p. 9
“I am not crazy enough to want a war. ... The German people have but one wish—to be happy in their own way and to be left in peace. They do not interfere in other people's business, and others should not interfere in theirs. ... When has the German people ever broken its word?”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Berlin (10 November 1933), quoted in The Times (26 September 1939), p. 9
“Germany has nothing to win in any European war. What we want is freedom and independence. Because of this desire we were ready to conclude pacts of non-aggression with all our neighbours.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the Reichstag (21 May 1935), quoted in The Times (22 May 1935), p. 18
“The German people do not wish to continue waging war to readjust frontiers. Each readjustment is bought by sacrifices out of proportion to what is to be gained.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Berlin (15 March 1936), quoted in The Times (26 September 1939), p. 10
“The motto must be, "Never war again.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Berlin (1 May 1938), quoted in The Times (26 September 1939), p. 10
“Everything I undertake is directed against Russia. If the West is too stupid and blind to grasp this, then I shall be compelled to come to an agreement with Russia, beat the West and then after their defeat turn against the Soviet Union with all my forces. I need the Ukraine so that they can't starve us out, as happened in the last war.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is important is that our Volk overcomes the aggressor and hence wins a future for itself. In a few weeks, the National Socialist combat readiness must have transformed itself into a unity sworn unto life and death. And then the capitalist war agitators in England and its satellite states shall shortly realize what it means to have attacked Europe's greatest Volk state without proper cause.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is already war history how the German Armies defeated the legions of capitalism and plutocracy. After forty-five days this campaign in the West was equally and emphatically terminated.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Berlin: Hitler's Order of the Day Calling for Invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece (April 6, 1941)
“What the world did not deem possible the German people have achieved.... It is already war history how the German Armies defeated the legions of capitalism and plutocracy. After forty-five days this campaign in the West was equally and emphatically terminated.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Adolf Hitler's Order of the Day Calling for Invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece," Berlin, (April 6, 1941), The New York Times, April 7, 1941
“Turkey had been our ally in the World War. Its unfortunate result was as heavy a burden for Turkey as it was for us. The great and ingenious reconstructor of the new Turkey gave his Allies, beaten by fate, the first example of resurrection. While Turkey, thanks to the realistic attitude of her State leadership, preserved her independent attitude Yugoslavia fell a victim to British intrigues.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: speaking about Turkey and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk at the Reichstag on 4 May 1941.
“If I had known that the figures for Russian tank strength which you gave in your book were in fact the true ones, I would not—I believe—ever have started this war.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said to General Heinz Guderian, 4 August 1941, as quoted Panzer Leader (1952) by Heinz Guderian
“If I don't get the oil of Maykop and Grozny, then I must finish (liquidieren) this war.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark to Friedrich Paulus (1 June 1942), quoted in Ian Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis (2001), p. 514 and N. Polmar and T. B. Allen, World War II: the Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941-1945 (2012), p. 194