“Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.”
Comincionsi le guerre quando altri vuole, ma non quando altri vuole si finiscono.
Variant translation: Wars are begun at will but not ended at will.
Book III, Chapter 7.
Florentine Histories (1526)
“All war represents a failure of diplomacy.”
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1991/feb/28/the-gulf in the House of Commons (28 February 1991)
1990s
As quoted in "George Kennan Speaks Out About Iraq" at History News Network (26 September 2002) http://hnn.us/articles/997.html
“All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means.”
As quoted in Saturday Evening Post (27 March 1954); this is a play upon the famous maxim of Clausewitz: "War is the continuation of politics by other means".
“To North Korea, diplomacy is another form of war.”
"Stranger Than Fiction" https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/opinion/stranger-than-fiction.html The New York Times (13 February 2005)
2000s
“Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.”
As quoted in Wit (2003) by Des MacHale, p. 299
As quoted in ...
“[ When war begins then hell openeth. ]”
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
“… the Peace Treaties must be scrapped … I stand for no more war and no more secret diplomacy.”
Extract from his 1922 election address, quoted in T.W. Walding (ed.), Who's Who in the New Parliament:Members and their pledges (Philip Gee, London, 1922), p. 35
1920s
On finalizing the Iran Deal https://medium.com/the-iran-deal/introduction-fcb13560dfb9#.cxqrwquur
