Quotes about war
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“When we say "War is over if you want it," we mean that if everyone demanded peace instead of another TV set, we'd have peace.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

During the Bed-In for Peace in Montreal, Canada (1 June 1969)

Peace

“War is sweet to them that know it not.”

Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and theologian

Dulce bellum inexpertis.
Though Erasmus quoted this proverb in Latin at the start of his essay Bellum [War], and it is sometimes attributed to him, it originates with the Greek poet Pindar ("γλυκύ δ᾽ἀπείρῳ πόλεμος [War is sweet to them that know it not.]").
Variant translations:
War is sweet to those not acquainted with it.
War is sweet to those who do not know it.
War is sweet to those that never have experienced it.
War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.
Misattributed

“There is but one way to bring about the triumph of liberty, of justice, and of peace in Europe's international relations, to make civil war impossible between the different peoples who make up the European family; and that is the formation of the United States of Europe.”

Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876) Russian revolutionary, philosopher, and theorist of collectivist anarchism

Reasoned Proposal to the Central Committee of the League for Peace and Freedom (1867)

Family, Peace, Justice, People

“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.”

Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) U.S. Army general of the army, field marshal of the Army of the Philippines

“My dear friends, I think you are in very big trouble. Whether you believe it or not, YOU ARE AT WAR. And you may lose this war very soon together with all your affluence and freedoms unless you start defending yourselves.”

Yuri Bezmenov (1939–1993) Russian journalist and whistleblower

Love Letter to America https://archive.org/details/BezmenovLoveLetterToAmerica/page/n1/ (1984)

Freedom, Thinking

“Honest students of this century alone know that the facts presented to us regarding wars, assassinations, political motivations and all the machinations of the political and religious power systems we live under are hogwash. So it has been for at least 1700 years.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Revolution by Number

Motivation

“It is all true that war is an evil thing, but there is no technologies without wars in the world. The motto of war is competition.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Evil, World

“Ignorance was intolerable and waging wars was the only solution to civilise other nations.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Obviously, Lenin meant that the stage of fierce civil war and the restriction of democracy imposed on the Soviet people were only provisional and had to be abolished as soon as the new regime was consolidated.”

Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) Vietnamese communist leader and first president of Vietnam

"Development of Ideological Unity Among Marxist Leninist Parties" (August 3, 1956)
1950s

Democracy, People

“He didn't pretend to be familiar with the subject of the shoe strike, probably knew as little about it as Senator Douglas himself. This strike has occurred as the Senator says, or it has not. Shall we stop making war upon the South? We never have made war upon them. If any one has, better go and hang himself and save Virginia the trouble. If you give up your convictions and call slavery right as they do, you let slavery in upon you, instead of white laborers who can strike, you'll soon have black laborers who can't strike.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Speech at Hartford (1860)

Shoe

“My enemies say I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition. It is and will be carried on so long as I am President for the sole purpose of restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion without using the Emancipation lever as I have done.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Source: 1860s, Interview with Alexander W. Randall and Joseph T. Mills (1864)

“Do what you want, but be prepared in that case to be ruled rather than to rule others... Soft countries breed soft men. For it is not possible for the same land to bear both wonderful fruits and men who are good at war.”

Cyrus the Great (-600–-530 BC) King and founder of the Achaemenid Empire

After being suggested by Artembares, grandfather of Artayctes, to abandon the rocky land of Persia Proper for a better region in the empire. <br class="br">Source: As quoted by Herodotus, in the final section of The Histories; cited in https://books.google.com/books?id=2fZmqKcsf-wC&pg=PT362&lpg=PT362

Country, Men

“Looking back on the long period of post-war peace, reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never again be repeated.”

Naruhito (1960) Emperor of Japan since 2019

Source: "Japan marks 76th anniversary of WWII surrender with emperor expressing "deep remorse" over wartime atrocities" in Xinhua http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/asiapacific/2021-08/15/c_1310128713.htm (15 August 2021)

Peace, Past, Hope, Feeling

“When you recognize this, you also realize that you are now free to give up this futile conflict, this inner state of war.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: Stillness Speaks (2003), Ch 6

“The real cause I consider to be the one which was formerly most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired the Lacedaemon, made war inevitable.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.23-[6]. (See: Thucydides Trap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides%20Trap) <br class="br">History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

“The Princes of this house of abandoned their capital. Not like soldiers of Honor who cede to the circumstances and set backs of the war, but like the perjured, who are persued by their own remorse.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

Andrew Roberts.

Housing

“Remembrance Day should therefore also be about war’s causes: ugly faiths, intolerance, lust for power and revenge, mutual hatreds prompted by historical accidents or differences of colour, custom or culture.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 47, “Remembrance” (p. 173)

Faith, Revenge

“O, wither’d is the garland of the war!
The soldier’s pole is fall'n; young boys and girls
Are level now with men; the odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remark
Beneath the visiting moon.”

Cleopatra VII (-69–-30 BC) last active pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt

As quoted, Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, Act III, (1623)

Girl, Boy, Men

“Where it’s propaganda, it’s war. Where there is freedom of expression, people do not let the authorities start a war, a war like the one we see in the middle of Europe now.”

Dmitry Muratov (1961) Russian journalist and television presenter

"Propaganda has won – VG" https://norway.postsen.com/world/8013/%E2%80%93-Propaganda-has-won-%E2%80%93-VG.html, Norway Posts English, from VG, 30 mai 2022

Freedom, People

“The world changes around us
but we still linger,
through wars and seasons we run
but we still linger,
it's so tempting
to climb that fence,
to see if you'd finally relent.”

Marian Renta

Music lyrics, Great Deep (2021) —"Linger"

Season, World, Change

“When we resort to violence ... we lose sight of why we are in the world and even end up committing senseless acts of cruelty. We see this in the folly of war, where Christ is crucified yet another time.”

Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church

"In the Palm Sunday Mass, Pope Francis pushes for peace in Ukraine" in NPR https://www.npr.org/2022/04/10/1091929949/palm-sunday-pope-francis-ukraine (10 April 2022) <br class="br">2020s, 2022

Time, Christ, World

“Only when one is equipped with the formidable striking capabilities, overwhelming military power that cannot be stopped by anyone, one can prevent a war, guarantee the security of the country and contain and put under control all threats and blackmails by the imperialists.”

Kim Jong-un (1984) 3rd Supreme Leader of North Korea

As quoted in "Kim Jong Un Defends Nuclear Tests, Says 'powerful Weapons' Help Mitigate Threats" in Republic World https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/kim-jong-un-defends-nuclear-tests-says-powerful-weapons-help-mitigate-threats-articleshow.html (28 March 2022)

Country

“The world has already seen many war crimes. At different times. On different continents. But it is time to do everything possible to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of such evil on earth.”

Volodymyr Zelensky (1978) 6th President of Ukraine

2022, Make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of this evil on earth (3 April 2022)

World, Evil, Time

“All of life is Divine, and when we treat all of life as Divine we change everything. When we treat everyone as Divine, there will be war no more.”

Neale Donald Walsch (1943) American writer

Life, Change

“Can you see other people's battles as your own? There are so many similarities in every war in this world. Some are fighting for freedom and independence. Some fight for principles and ideals. But there are also those who fight only for their blind faith and ego.”

Titon Rahmawan

Freedom, People, World, Faith

Titon Rahmawan

Freedom, People, World, Faith

“Each Javelin round costs $80,000, and the idea that it's fired by a guy who doesn't make that in a year at a guy who doesn't make that in a lifetime is somehow so outrageous it almost makes the war seem winnable.”

Sebastian Junger (1962) American author, journalist and documentarian

Source: War

Guy, Idea

“I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Peace

“Most women fight wars on two fronts, one for whatever the putative topic is and one simply for the right to speak, to have ideas, to be acknowledged to be in possession of facts and truths, to have value, to be a human being.”

Rebecca Solnit book Men Explain Things To Me

Source: Men Explain Things to Me

Women, Truth, Idea, Fight

“Teresa, Teresa. Have we taught you nothing?" Raffy says in an irritated voice. "It's war. You go in and you hunt him down until he realises that he's made a mistake.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“I think war is a dangerous place.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Thinking

“When a man carries an instrument of violence, he'll always find the justification to use it. If we really want to escape this war, we have to stop bringing it with us.”

Brian K. Vaughan (1976) American screenwriter, comic book creator

Source: Saga, Vol. 1

“Older men start wars, but younger men fight them.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Men, Fight

“I have much to teach you. Come and learn the art of war from the one who invented it. (Takeshi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Art, Learning

“There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult—to begin a war and to end it.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

Book Three, Chapter XXII.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book Three

People

“In a civil war… every side is wrong. It’s hopeless to try to untangle it. Everyone is a victim.”

Philip K. Dick book Time Out of Joint

Source: Time Out of Joint

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

Speech in Ottawa (10 January 1946), published in Eisenhower Speaks : Dwight D. Eisenhower in His Messages and Speeches (1948) edited by Rudolph L. Treuenfels
1940s

Hate, Stupidity

“When you fight a war against a tyrant, who do you kill? You kill the victims of the tyrant.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Fight

“The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.”

Ernest Hemingway book For Whom the Bell Tolls

Variant: The world is a fine place and worth fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.
Source: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Beauty, World, Fight

“The question is whether any civilization can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself, and without losing the right to be called civilized.”

Rachel Carson (1907–1964) American marine biologist and conservationist

Life, Question

“Everything can be taken from you in a second, but the human spirit is so strong. War can teach you so much about evil, and so much about good.”

Zainab Salbi (1969) Iraqi American author, women's rights activist

Strong, Evil

“I'm so glad you're here," Aphrodite said. "War is coming. Bloodshed is inevitable. So there's really only one thing to do."
"Uh… and that is?" Annabeth ventured.
"Why, have tea and chat, obviously”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Tea

“Wars and temper tantrums are the makeshifts of ignorance; regrets are illuminations come too late.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Source: The Hero With a Thousand Faces

“War could bond men like a magnet, but like a magnet it could repel them, too. The things they saw, the things they did. Sometimes they just wanted to forget.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Men, Forgetting

“Always our wars have been our confessions of weakness”

Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) poet and political activist

Source: The Life of Poetry

“So the whole war is because we can't talk to each other.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

“History isn't about dates and places and wars. It's about the people who fill the spaces between them.”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

People, History

“Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

“If we had the courage to love we would not so value these acts of war.”

Jeanette Winterson book The Passion

Source: The Passion

Love, Courage

“A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Fear, Knowledge

“When mom and dad went to war the only prisoners they took were the children”

Pat Conroy (1945–2016) American novelist

Children, Moms

“We humans are conflicted beings. Our beliefs don't always harmonize with our instincts, and our behavior doesn't always reflect our beliefs…. We wage war between the person we are and the person we hope to become.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Hope, Behavior, Personality

“Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, justice.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Peaceful, Peace, Justice, Confidence

“War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Smile, Way, Game

“They wore their strange beauty like war paint.”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Beauty, Painting

“I will tell you what war is. War is a psychosis caused by an inability to see relationships. Our relationship with our fellowmen. Our relationship with our economic and historical situation. And above all our relationship to nothingness, to death.”

John Fowles book The Magus

Source: The Magus

Death

“Fear cripples faster than any implement of war.”

Dan Brown book Angels & Demons

Source: Angels & Demons

Fear

“Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Peaceful, Truth, Peace, Perfection

“A prince must not have any other object nor any other thought… but war, its institutions, and its discipline; because that is the only art befitting one who commands.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince

Art

“There never was a war that was
not inward; I must
fight till I conquered in myself what
causes war”

Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American poet and writer

In Distrust of Merits
Poetry

Fight

“War is not won by victory.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Farewell to Arms

Source: A Farewell to Arms

Victory

“People who get up early in the morning cause war, death and famine.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Wall and Piece (2005)
Source: Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall

Death, People

“People with passion are people who will destroy—for a man's passion is notuntil he proves how much he's willing to sacrifice for it. Will he kill? Will he go to war? Will he break and discard that which he has, all in the name of what he?”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Hero of Ages

People, Passion

“Endless money forms the sinews of war.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Money

“Every war has turning points and every person too.”

Meg Rosoff book How I Live Now

Source: How I Live Now

Personality

“Fight the fighters, not their wars.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Cut It Out (2004)

Fight

“No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it.”

Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) German-Prussian soldier and military theorist

Sense

“Surely no one would ever use such a weapon against a city."

"There are no limits in war," Volger said, still staring out the window.”

Scott Westerfeld book Goliath

Source: Goliath

“War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.”

Carl von Clausewitz book On War

Source: On War (1832), Book 1, Chapter 1, Section 3, Paragraph 1.
Context: Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat the enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed: War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.

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