Quotes about war
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“I know a little of navigation: / War, trade, and piracy, allow, / As three in one, no separation.”

Source: Faust, Part 2 (1832), Act V, Scene 3

“What keeps the world in balance is love. Time: spend it in love, not in wars.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Ciò che mantiene il mondo in equilibrio è l'amore. Il tempo: spendilo in amore, non in guerre.
Source: prevale.net

Time, World, Love

“You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.”

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

The 1930s
Source: [Winston Churchill Quotes Military History Matters, https://www.military-history.org/feature/winston-churchill-quotes.htm, www.military-history.org, 2010-11-20, 2022-03-09, en-US, Military History, Matters]

“The West has declared war on us, on the whole Russian world. The culture of canceling Russia and everything connected with our country is already reaching the point of absurdity.”

Sergey Lavrov (1950) Russian politician and Foreign Minister

About the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022

Country, World

“Only miscalculation could kill you in interstellar war. The equations were hard but they were fair.”

Ian McDonald book The Tear

In Galactic Empires, edited by Gardner Dozois, reprinted in Rich Horton (ed.), The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2009 (p. 506)
Short fiction, The Tear (2008)

“Democrat or Republican. It does not matter. War is the raison d’état of the state. Extravagant military expenditures are justified in the name of “national security.””

Chris Hedges (1956) American journalist

The nearly $40 billion allocated for Ukraine, most of it going into the hands of weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing, is only the beginning. Military strategists, who say the war will be long and protracted, are talking about infusions of $4 or $5 billion in military aid a month to Ukraine. We face existential threats. But these do not count. The proposed budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in fiscal year 2023 is $10.675 billion. The proposed budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is $11.881 billion. Ukraine alone gets more than double that amount. Pandemics and the climate emergency are afterthoughts. War is all that matters. This is a recipe for collective suicide.
2022, "No Way Out but War" (May 23, 2022)

“You gotta remember that in war, you’re not deciding between the bad thing to and the good thing. You’re choosing between the bad and the worse. And you can’t control the shit that happens after you choose.”

Charles E. Gannon (1960) American novelist

Source: Trial by Fire (2014), Chapter 27 (p. 402)

“Alliance does not mean love, any more than war means hate.”

Francis Parker Yockey (1917–1960) American writer

Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics (1948)

Hate, Love

“The one-party state is a marvelous instrument for a war of liberation but as a government system, in every country at every latitude, it has revealed the same defects; it represents only one point of view.”

Ahmed Ben Bella (1916–2012) First President of Algeria

"Ahmed Ben Bella: Revolutionary Internationalist " in CounterCurrents https://countercurrents.org/2020/11/ahmed-ben-bella-revolutionary-internationalist/ (11 March 2020)

Country

“It’s scary to think about, but we may finally find unity as a species in self-destruction. The first minute of World War III will render nations, races, and religions meaningless concepts because the first thing to die in nuclear fire will be all our beloved imaginary borders.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

World, Religion, Thinking

“The rules would seem to indicate, that if you start a war you really can’t complain when people drop bombs on you.”

Jack Cady (1932–2004) American writer

Source: Kilroy Was Here (1996), p. 141

People

“On top of the war talk, women were driving me crazy: the ones who said “no” and the ones who said “yes.””

Jack Cady book The Night We Buried Road Dog

It got downright mystifying just trying to figure out which was worse. At nineteen, it’s hard to know how to act.
Source: The Night We Buried Road Dog (1993), p. 463

Women

“Peace that is imposed is only war that is postponed, while peace that is agreed, peace that is reached through dialogue, is lasting peace.”

Fortunatus Nwachukwu (1960) Roman Catholic archbishop

Priests are “first and foremost bridge builders”: Nigerian-born Permanent Observer to UN https://www.aciafrica.org/news/5470/priests-are-first-and-foremost-bridge-builders-nigerian-born-permanent-observer-to-un (18 March 2022)

Peace

“People not only live by symbols, but die by them, as wars of religion and nationalism attest.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 4, “Symbols” (p. 19)

Religion, People

“Emancipation is always at risk from the usual sources—demagogues, civil and international war, the tenure that superstitions have over the human imagination—so there are no guarantees that progress will continue.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 3, “Emancipation and Ethics” (p. 12)

Imagination

“The idea that we’re going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews, just understand … that’s called World War III, okay? Let’s get it straight here, guys. We will not fight the third world war in Ukraine.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, March 2022 <br class="br">Source: Why Biden and the White House keep talking about World War III (March 17, 2022) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/17/why-biden-white-house-keep-talking-about-world-war-iii/

World, Training, Idea, Understanding

“There’s no reason someone needs a weapon of war with 100 rounds, 100 bullets, that can be fired from that weapon. Nobody needs that, nobody needs that.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

8 April 2021 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/547162-biden-calls-for-ban-on-assault-weapons-and-high-capacity-magazines <br class="br">2021, April 2021

“If you are worried about the prospect of war in Europe - we do not want that at all.”

Sergey Lavrov (1950) Russian politician and Foreign Minister

"Lavrov Says Russia Does Not Want War in Europe" https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-05-11/lavrov-says-russia-does-not-want-war-in-europe, US News/Reuters, 11 May 2022 <br class="br">About the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022

“Propaganda is the kitchen of war, Propaganda is war itself. First comes the militarisation of national holidays, then the news is replaced by propaganda shows.”

Dmitry Muratov (1961) Russian journalist and television presenter

"Nobel peace prize Dmitry Muratov: Propaganda is war itself" https://voxeurop.eu/en/nobel-peace-prize-dmitry-muratov-propaganda-is-war-itself/, Vox Europ, 3 May 2022

Holiday

“Aggressive marketing of war affects people and they start thinking that war is acceptable. Governments and their propaganda supporters are fully responsible for the militaristic rhetoric on state-owned television channels.”

Dmitry Muratov (1961) Russian journalist and television presenter

People, Support, Thinking

“It is time to consign to oblivion the cold war postulates when Europe was viewed as an arena of confrontation divided into "spheres of influence" and someone else's "forward-based defences", as an object of military confrontation — namely a theatre of war.”

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

1980s, Council of Europe address (1989)

Time

“Don't forget: our media culture failed to serve the public interest by missing (with a few honourable exceptions) the two biggest stories of our time: the run-up to the Iraq war and the financial meltdown. We've had far too many autopsies and not enough biopsies.”

Arianna Huffington (1950) Greek-American author and syndicated columnist

"The paywall is history" The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/may/11/newspapers-web-media-pay-wall 11 May, 2009

Time, Forgetting

“War is a voracious monster, never satiated.”

Sergio Mattarella (1941) 12th President of Italy

[Speech by President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe], (Strasbourg, April 27, 2022)

“It is by the progress of philosophy and by the spectacle of the happiness of France, that you will extend the empire of our revolution, and not by the force of arms and by the calamities of war.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Speech to the National Convention, 10th April 1793
Misc Quotes

Happiness

“The main thing for Ukraine today is that the whole other world hears and sees us, and it is important that our war does not become "habitual," so that our victims do not become statistics. That's why I communicate with people through foreign media. Don't get used to our grief!”

Olena Zelenska (1978) Ukrainian architect and screenwriter

The number one target is all of us (2022)

People, Communication, World

“We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say "We must not wage war."”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace. There is a fascinating little story that is preserved for us in Greek literature about Ulysses and the Sirens. The Sirens had the ability to sing so sweetly that sailors could not resist steering toward their island. Many ships were lured upon the rocks, and men forgot home, duty, and honor as they flung themselves into the sea to be embraced by arms that drew them down to death. Ulysses, determined not to be lured by the Sirens, first decided to tie himself tightly to the mast of his boat, and his crew stuffed their ears with wax. But finally he and his crew learned a better way to save themselves: they took on board the beautiful singer Orpheus whose melodies were sweeter than the music of the Sirens. When Orpheus sang, who bothered to listen to the Sirens? So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody that is far superior to the discords of war.
1960s, The Quest for Peace and Justice (1964)

Peace, World

“War was senseless. And yet war came creeping steadily closer.”

Charles Sheffield (1935–2002) British scientist, American science fiction writer

Source: Behrooz Wolf (aka The Proteus Trilogy), Proteus Unbound (1989), Chapter 14 (p. 330)

“The effect of the land reform bringing land to the peasant masses is to enhance their enthusiasm and their zeal in increasing production and taking part in the war of resistance, and consequently the resistance forces will grow in strength.”

Trường Chinh (1907–1988) former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (1907-1988)

Implementing the Land Reform (1958) (excerpts)

Parting

“The West will have to choose: either to come to terms with Russians, or to receive a retaliatory blow. This retaliatory blow will not be by means of war. We will resort to the same weapon: nationalism.”

Vladimir Zhirinovsky (1946–2022) Russian politician and political activist

"A Few Minutes with Vladimir Zhirinovsky" in Christian Science Monitor https://www.csmonitor.com/1993/1224/24092.html (24 December 1993)

“I find war more hateful than ever, and I groan in spirit over every life lost and every home blasted.”

Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang (Christmas 1939), quoted in Keith Feiling, Neville Chamberlain (1946; 1970), p. 430
Prime Minister

Home, Hate, Life

“A lot of people seem to me to be losing their heads, and talking and thinking as though Munich had made war more, instead of less, imminent.”

Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Statement (end of October 1938), quoted in Keith Feiling, Neville Chamberlain (1946; 1970), p. 386
Prime Minister

Thinking, People

“It was the bringing together of a warring multiplicity under the unifying doctrines of Christianity that civilized Europe.”

Jordan Peterson book Beyond Order

Source: Books, Beyond Order (2021), p. 191

“War is an evil thing.”

Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow (1887–1952) British politician, agriculturalist and colonial administrator (1887-1952)

26 March 1940, Speech at St. John Ambulance Association and Indian Red Cross Society, also quoted in Speeches and Statements of the Marquess of Linlithgow, p. 241

Evil

“To change the world, we have to change ourselves-even sometimes out most cherished, block-hard convictions. I must confess I hate the thought of this. Change don't come easy. For anyone. But this state of war we live in, this world on fire, provides us with no other choice.”

Cherríe Moraga (1952) American writer

1983
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Fourth Edition (2015)

Hate, World, Change

“The Socialists, and I am still one, although an exasperated one, never brought forward the question of irredentism, but left it to the Republicans. We are in favour of a national war. But there are also reasons, purely socialist in character, which spur us on towards intervention.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

“Mussolini the ‘Man of the War’” speech delivered at the Mazza, Parma (13 December 1914) p. 15
1920s, Mussolini as Revealed in his Political Speeches (November 1914—August 1923) (1923)

Question

“As long as people are still talking, there is a glimmer of hope. War does not bring any solutions, only destruction, suffering and lack of peace.”

Mieczysław Mokrzycki (1961) Polish bishop

Ukraine: Church continues to help refugees and pray for peace https://acninternational.org/ukraine-church-continues-to-help-refugees-and-pray-for-peace/ (24 February 2022)

Peace, People, Hope, Suffering

“It is absolutely clear to everyone that the reasons for such a disastrous war as we have endured for seven years now have nothing to do with the demand for democracy or freedom. They have much more to do with a dirty game of world economics.”

Joseph Tobji (1971) archeparch of Maronite Catholic Archeparchy of Aleppo

“If it weren‘t for the Church, we‘d be dead by now” https://acninternational.org/werent-church-wed-dead-now/ (6 February 2018)

Democracy, Freedom, Game, World

“In war you learn your lessons, and they stay learned, but the tuition fees are high.”

Ernst Jünger book Storm of Steel

Storm of Steel (1920)

Learning

“The real question that now divides the country and which truly divides the House of Commons, is church or no church. People talk of the war in Spain, and the Canada question. But all that is of little moment. The real question is church or no church.”

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) British soldier and statesman

Statement (1838), quoted in John Morley, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. I (1903), p. 155

Housing, Question, Country, People

“I was the one who pulled the trigger of this war.”

Igor Girkin (1970) Russian citizen from Moscow who played a significant role in the War in Donbass

About warfare against Ukraine in Donbas from April 2014

“In those moments of war, there were no distinctions. They were all lives that needed to be saved. We as the Church had to help them.”

Fiorenzo Angelini (1916–2014) Catholic cardinal

Cardinal remembers Pope Pius XII as wartime hero, saint (2 August 2012) Catholic News Agency https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/25402/cardinal-remembers-pope-pius-xii-as-wartime-hero-saint

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