Motivational Quotes

War

Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war, that this foul deed shall smell above the earth with carrion men, groaning for burial.

- Shakespeare, William

Best Quotes about War

To see, to hear, means nothing. To recognize (or not to recognize) means everything. Between what I do recognize and what I do not recognize there stands myself. And what I do not recognize I shall continue not to recognize.

Breton, Andre

War has been the most convenient pseudo-solution for the problems of twentieth-century capitalism. It provides the incentives to modernization and technological revolution which the market and the pursuit of profit do only fitfully and by accident, it makes the unthinkable (such as votes for women and the abolition of unemployment) not merely thinkable but practicable. What is equally important, it can re-create communities of men and give a temporary sense to their lives by uniting them against foreigners and outsiders. This is an achievement beyond the power of the private enterprise economy when left to itself.

Hobsbawm, E. J.

I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters over other proclamations, now for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.

Hemingway, Ernest

War-making is one of the few activities that people are not supposed to view realistically; that is, with an eye to expense and practical outcome. In all-out war, expenditure is all-out, unprudent -- war being defined as an emergency in which no sacrifice is excessive.

Sontag, Susan

The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky.

Solomon Short

A light supper, a good night's sleep, and a fine morning have sometimes made a hero of the same man who, by an indigestion, a restless night, and a rainy morning would have proved a coward.

Stanhope, Philip Dormer

He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own.

Confucius

War is not nice.

Barbara Bush

Greater even than the pious man is he who eats that which is the fruit of his own toil; for scripture declares him twice-blessed.

Talmud, The

10.

Neither enemy faces, nor the mothers that love them, come to mind when one is thinking of nothing but endeavouring to survive. Philosophising about war is useless under fire.

Linda Berdoll

11.

Man gives every reason for his conduct save one, every excuse for his crimes save one, every plea for his safety save one; and that one is his cowardice.

Shaw, George Bernard

12.

Perhaps the reward of the spirit who tries is not the goal but the exercise.

Cooke, E. V.

13.

Either war is obsolete or men are.

R. Buckminster Fuller

14.

What we believe is more important than our material existence, therefore warfare is a legitimate extension of values.

Johnson, Edward

15.

It takes twenty years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only twenty seconds of war to destroy him.

Baudouin I

16.

War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.

King Jr. Martin Luther

17.

Hence that general is skilful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skilful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.

Sun Tzu

18.

War is a contagion.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

19.

A cowardly cur barks more fiercely than it bites.

Rufus, Quintus Curtius

20.

Cowards can never be moral.

Gandhi, Mahatma

21.

The savage in man is never quite eradicated.

Thoreau, Henry David

22.

A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war.

Weil, Simone

23.

Men are at war with each other because each man is at war with himself.

Meehan, Francis

24.

No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.

Washington, Booker T.

25.

The chief reason warfare is still with us is neither a secret death-wish of the human species, nor an irrepressible instinct of aggression, nor, finally and more plausibly, the serious economic and social dangers inherent in disarmament, but the simple fact that no substitute for this final arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene.

Arendt, Hannah

26.

War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to make it.

Mussolini, Benito

27.

How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print.

Kraus, Karl

28.

O can't you see, brother -- Death's a congested road for fighters now, and hero a cheap label.

Andrews, C. D.

29.

It is far easier to make war than to make peace.

Clemenceau, Georges

30.

I see that old flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy ever haul them down.

Macarthur, Douglas

31.

Where do all the women who have watched so carefully over the lives of their beloved ones get the heroism to send them to face the cannon?

Kollwitz, KaThe

32.

I think the mark of a great ruler, is not his ability to make war but to achieve peace.

Monica Fairview

33.

As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have it's fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.

Wilde, Oscar

34.

Wars are carried out by large organizations; Peace is brought one by one.

Manor, Rachel

35.

The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.

Ulysses S. Grant

36.

It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we would grow too fond of it.

Robert E. Lee

37.

Wars are made to make debt.

Pound, Ezra

38.

From the happy expression on their faces you might have supposed that they welcomed the war. I have met with men who loved stamps, and stones, and snakes, but I could not imagine any man loving war.

Asquith, Margot

39.

It is better to be killed than frightened to death.

Surtees, Robert S.

40.

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

Kennedy, John F.

41.

If the frontline people do count, you couldn't prove it by examining the reward systems in most organizations.

Albrecht, Karl

42.

War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.

Kraus, Karl

43.

America is addicted to wars of distraction.

Ehrenreich, Barbara

44.

The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums.

Koestler, Arthur

45.

Here dead lie we because we did not choose to live and shame the land from which we sprung. Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose; but young men think it is, and we were young.

Housman, A. E.

46.

Everyone in our culture wants to win a prize. Perhaps that is the grand lesson we have taken with us from kindergarten in the age of perversions of Dewey-style education: everyone gets a ribbon, and praise becomes a meaningless narcotic to soothe egoistic distemper.

Early, Gerald

47.

I have a deep sympathy with war, it so apes the gait and bearing of the soul.

Thoreau, Henry David

48.

To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.

Confucius

49.

War is the supreme drama of a completely mechanized society.

Mumford, Lewis

50.

Wars teach us not to love our enemies, but to hate our allies.