“But war itself is never glorious, and we must never trumpet it as such.”
2009, Nobel Prize acceptance speech (December 2009)
Context: The world must remember that it was not simply international institutions — not just treaties and declarations — that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest — because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if others' children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity.
So yes, the instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace. And yet this truth must coexist with another — that no matter how justified, war promises human tragedy. The soldier's courage and sacrifice is full of glory, expressing devotion to country, to cause, to comrades in arms. But war itself is never glorious, and we must never trumpet it as such.
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Barack Obama 1158
44th President of the United States of America 1961Related quotes
The Third Sacred School, Volume 2, Chapter 73
As of a Trumpet, On Eagle's Wings, The Third Sacred School
Page 99.
The old song is usually known as "The Ballad of Chevy Chase" or "The Hunting of the Cheviot".
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)
(zh-CN) “战争是政治的继续”，在这点上说，战争就是政治，战争本身就是政治性质的行动，从古以来没有不带政治性的战争。
1930s, On Protracted Warfare (1938)
“There never was a war that was
not inward; I must
fight till I conquered in myself what
causes war”
In Distrust of Merits
Poetry
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/wehner/337996
As quoted in "Sci-fi legend "Ray Bradbury on God, 'monsters and angels'" by John Blake, CNN : Living (2 August 2010), p. 3
Source: My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 18 (With Buller To The Cape), p. 246
Quoted in This Time It's Our War http://www.forward.com/articles/7759/ (2003) by Leonard Fein in The Forward (July 25, 2003).
Context: Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Antiquated War Offices, weak, incompetent, or arrogant Commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant Fortune, ugly surprises, awful miscalculations — all take their seats at the Council Board on the morrow of a declaration of war. Always remember, however sure you are that you could easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance.
“Never again war! Never again hatred and intolerance!”
Address on arrival at the Sarajevo Airport on 12 April 1997, during the pope's apostolic journey to Bosnia-Herzegovina
Source: Libreria Editrice Vaticana http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/travels/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_12041997_sarajevo-arrival_en.html
Published version, in the Atlantic Monthly (February 1862)
He has sounded out the trumpet that shall never call retreat,
He has waked the earth's dull sorrow with a high ecstatic beat...
First manuscript version (19 November 1861).
The Battle Hymn of the Republic (1861)
Context: He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat.
Oh! be swift my soul to answer him, be jubilant my feet!
Our God is marching on.