To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman. George Santayana
The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. George Orwell
War hath no fury like a noncombatant. C E Montague
The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his. George S Patton
To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. George Washington
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. John F Kennedy, 1961
The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without. Dwight D Eisenhower
People don’t start wars, governments do. Ronald Reagan
War would end if the dead could return. Stanley Baldwin
I’m fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in. George McGovern
Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. Herbert Hoover
War is too serious a business to be left to the generals. Georges Clemenceau
In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers. Neville Chamberlain
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. John Adams
I have known war as few men now living know it. It’s very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes. Douglas MacArthur
In war there is no substitute for victory. Douglas MacArthur
The surest way to prevent war is not to fear it. John Randolph
War is like love; it always finds a way. Bertolt Brecht
War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory. Georges Clemenceau
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. Dwight D Eisenhower
No one is fool enough to choose war instead of peace. For in peace sons bury fathers, but war violates the order of nature, and fathers bury sons. Herodotus
All war represents a failure of diplomacy. Tony Benn
In war there is no second prize for the runner up. Omar Bradley
War is what happens when language fails. Margaret Atwood
War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men. Cardinal Richelieu
War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. Thomas Mann
All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys. Herman Melville
War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to face it. Benito Mussolini
As peace is of all goodness, so war is an emblem, a hieroglyphic, of all misery. John Donne
If this phrase of the ”balance of power” is to be always an argument for war, the pretext for war will never be wanting, and peace can never be secure. John Bright
If we justify war, it is because all peoples always justify the traits of which they find themselves possessed, not because war will bear an objective examination of its merits. Ruth Benedict
There never has been a war yet which, if the facts had been put calmly before the ordinary folk, could not have been prevented … The common man, I think, is the great protection against war. Ernest Bevin
It is inhuman to continue a war which could easily be ended. Friedrich Durrenmatt
War seems to be one of the most salutary phenomena for the culture of human nature; and it is not without regret that I see it disappearing more and more from the scene. Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt
The more prosperous and settled a nation, the more readily it tends to think of war as a regrettable accident; to nations less fortunate the chance of war presents itself as a possible bountiful friend. Lewis H Lapham
War is always a matter of doing evil in the hope that good may come of it. Basil Liddell Hart
The chief incalculable in war is the human will. Basil Liddell Hart
Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed. Mao Zedong
Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive factor; it is people, not things, that are decisive. The contest of strength is not only a contest of military and economic power, but also a contest of human power and morale. Military and economic power is necessarily wielded by people. Mao Zedong
If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. Winston Churchill.
War is the continuation of politics by other means. Karl von Clausewitz
The sinews of war, unlimited money. Cicero
After each war there is a little less democracy to save. Brooks Atkinson
We make war that we may live in peace. Aristotle.
Nations do not arm for war. They are to keep themselves from war. Barry Goldwater
War loves to seek its victims in the young. Sophocles
Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war. Otto von Bismarck
All war is deception. Sun Tzu
What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbours, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world. Robert E Lee
It is well that war is so terrible – lest we should grow too fond of it. Robert E Lee
They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people. Eugene Debs
Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos. Adolf Hitler
Are wars…anything but the means whereby a nation is nourished, whereby it is strengthened, whereby it is buttressed? Marquis de Sade
No war is inevitable until it breaks out. A J P Taylor
No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic. A J P Taylor
In war there is a place for mad people. Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery
Helplessness induces hopelessness, and history attests that loss of hope and not loss of lives is what decides the issue of war. Basil Liddell Hart