War Quotes

The warning message we sent the Russians was a calculated ambiguity that would be clearly understood.

Alexander Haig

To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Any ordinary man can... surround himself with two thousand books... and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.

Augustine Birrell

I understand that smoking is vaguely inappropriate in certain situations. You know, like an orphanage, cancer ward, whatever.

Greg Proops

If people become ecstatic the whole society will have to change, because this society is based on misery. If people are blissful you cannot lead them to war - - To Vietnam, or to Egypt, or to Israel. No. Someone who is blissful will just laugh and say: This is nonsense!

Osho, My Way: The Way of The White Clouds

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.

Jawaharlal Nehru

Eternity is a long time, especially towards the end.

Woody Allen

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

Ronald Reagan

Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that are aftermath of war.

Herbert Hoove

History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

Ronald Reagan, Address to the Nation, Jan 16, 1984

A weak man has doubts before a decision, a strong man has them afterwards.

Karl Kraus

You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.

James Thurbe

I knew from the start if I left a woman I really loved - - The Great Society - - In order to fight that bitch of a war in Vietnam then I would lose everything at home. My hopes my dreams.

Lyndon B. Johnson

A learned man is an idler who kills time with study. Beware of his false knowledge it is more dangerous than ignorance.

George Bernard Shaw

Hitler and Mussolini were only the primary spokesmen for the attitude of domination and craving for power that are in the heart of almost everyone. Until the source is cleared, there will always be confusion and hate, wars and class antagonisms.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

How is the world ruled and how do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read.

Karl Kraus

He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool.

Albert Camus

This is the art of courage to see things as they are and still believe that the victory lies not with those who avoid the bad, but those who taste, in living awareness, every drop of the good.

Victoria Lincoln

Tonight - To you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans - I ask for your support. On his Vietnam War policy.

Richard Milhous Nixon

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

Henry Louis Mencken

I have heard with admiring submission the experience of the lady who declared that the sense of being well - Dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity which religion is powerless to bestow.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I do not believe that the men who served in uniform in Vietnam have been given the credit they deserve. It was a difficult war against an unorthodox enemy.

William Westmoreland

Elegance of language may not be in the power of all of us; but simplicity and straight forwardness are. Write much as you would speak; speak as you think. If with your inferior, speak no coarser than usual; if with your superiors, no finer. Be what you say; and, within the rules of prudence, say what you are.

Alford

The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As we grow oldthe beauty steals inward.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.

Johann von Goethe

There are three intolerable things in life - Cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women.

Orson Welles

What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time?

William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 1 Scene 2

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.

George Eliot

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors and miss.

Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love".

Organized crime constitutes nothing less than a guerilla war against society.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.

Jules de Gautie

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.

Ernest Hemingway

It has been my experience that one cannot, in any shape or form, depend on human relations for lasting reward. It is only work that truly satisfies.

Bette Davis, The Lonely Life, 1962

Arms are instruments of ill omen.... When one is compelled to use them, it is best to do so without relish. There is no glory in victory, and to glorify it despite this is to exult in the killing of men.... When great numbers of people are killed, one should weep over them with sorrow. When victorious in war, one should observe mourning rites.

Lao - Tzu

War is a continuation of politics by other means.

Carl Von Clausewitz, quoted by Gene Hackman in "Crimson Tide".

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion... I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.