“War must always start with imperfect instruments.”

The Illusion of Power. p. 20.
Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command (1947)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "War must always start with imperfect instruments." by S.L.A. Marshall?
S.L.A. Marshall photo
S.L.A. Marshall 13
United States Army general and Military historian 1900–1977

Related quotes

Robert H. Jackson photo
Arvo Pärt photo
Tim O'Brien photo
Andrew Vachss photo

“[A]nybody who has served in combat in any way understands that words are weapons. And I'm in a war. The war hasn't stopped. I've always used the books as a blunt instrument.”

Andrew Vachss (1942) American writer and lawyer

Dan Webster interview, originally published June 19, 2005, by the Spokesman Review,

Tom Tancredo photo
Dorothy Day photo

“We must make a start. We must renounce war as an instrument of policy…. Even as I speak to you I may be guilty of what some men call treason…. You young men should refuse to take up arms. Young women tear down the patriotic posters. And all of you — young and old — put away your flags.”

Dorothy Day (1897–1980) Social activist

Speech to Liberal-Socialist Alliance, New York City (8 December 1941), as quoted in From Megaphones to Microphones (2003) by Sandra J. Sarkela et al.
Context: There is now all this patriotic indignation about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Japanese expansionism in Asia. Yet not a word about American and European expansionism in the same area.... We must make a start. We must renounce war as an instrument of policy.... Even as I speak to you I may be guilty of what some men call treason.... You young men should refuse to take up arms. Young women tear down the patriotic posters. And all of you — young and old — put away your flags.

Glenn Beck photo
Brian K. Vaughan photo
John Steinbeck photo
Henry Clay photo

“It is the thing protected, not the instrument of protection, that involves you in war.”

Henry Clay (1777–1852) American politician from Kentucky

Speech on the Increase of the Navy, House of Representatives (22 January 1812).
Context: Sir, if you wish to avoid foreign commerce; give up all your prosperity. It is the thing protected, not the instrument of protection, that involves you in war. Commerce engenders collision, collision war, and war, the argument supposes, leads to despotism. Would the councils of that statesman be deemed who would recommend that the nation should be unarmed—that in the art of war, the material spirit, and martial exercises, should be prohibited—…—and that the great body of the people should be taught that the national happiness was to be found in perpetual peace alone? No, sir.

Related topics