War Quotes
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Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention.
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More War Quotes
I know not with what weapons World war III will be fought, but World war IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein— Albert Einstein
Shimla was annexed by the British in 1819, after the Gurkha war. At that time it was known for the temple of Hindu Goddess Shyamala Devi.
Ashok Kumar— A Journey into the Past, 23 November 2012.
Zeal is that pure and heavenly flame, The fire of love supplies:;; While that which often bears the name, Is self in a disguise. True zeal is merciful and mild, Can pity and forbear:;; The false is headstrong, fierce and wild, And breathes revenge and war.
john newton— Olney Hymns, Hymn 70: "True and False Zeal"
Zeal is that pure and heavenly flame,The fire of love supplies ;While that which often bears the name,Is self in a disguise.True zeal is merciful and mild,Can pity and forbear ;The false is headstrong, fierce and wild,And breathes revenge and war.
john newton— Hymn 70 : True and False Zeal
The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.
Thucydides— History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I, 1.23
The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.
arthur travers harris— Statement of 1942, at the start of the bombing campaign against Germany, as quoted in "Sir Arthur Harris & The Lancaster Bomber" at The British Postal Museum and Archive
Firebugs dragging their gasoline bottles Are approaching the Academy of Arts, with a grin. And so, instead of embracing them, Let us demand the freedom of the elbow To knock the bottles out of their filthy hands. Even the most blockheaded bureaucrat, Provided he loves peace, Is a greater lover of the arts Than any so-called art-lover Who loves the arts of war.
bertolt brecht— "Freedom for Whom", as translated in Brecht on Brecht : An Improvisation (1967) by George Tabori, p. 18
When I was a kid, we watched the Vietnam war on the six o'clock news, and it was desensitizing. You felt you were watching a war film; meanwhile you were really watching these guys getting blown to bits. Parents need to protect their kids from watching that stuff.
johnny depp— Quoted in Josh Young, "The Neverland Effect," Life (2004-11-19), p. 8
Of the twenty or so civilizations known to modern Western historians, all except our own appear to be dead or moribund, and, when we diagnose each case, in extremis or post mortem, we invariably find that the cause of death has been either war or Class or some combination of the two. To date, these two plagues have been deadly enough, in partnership, to kill off nineteen out of twenty representatives of this recently evolved species of human society; but, up to now, the deadliness of these scourges has had a saving limit.
Arnold Joseph Toynbee— Civilization on Trial (1948), chapter 2, p. 23.
If the estimate of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs is correct, then Russia has lost the cold war in western Europe.
walter lippmann— The Miami Herald (December 18, 1947), p. 6A.
If one of you should detect any dissatisfaction or unsettled feeling within your (the governors’) jurisdiction, you should take immediate and concrete steps for the complete removal of these elements ... Now the people of our nation must endure their inconveniences and overcome painful hardships in order to win this war.
Hideki Tojo— Broadcast speech, as quoted in Fourth International Vol.5 No.2 (February 1944)
The soul secured in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the war of elements, The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds.
joseph addison— Joseph Addison, Cato, A Tragedy (1713), Act V, scene i.
From the time of the Revolutionary war, when citizens stood forward to defend their liberties against the depredations of tyranny, all the way through Civil war, through the great World Wars, this nation has been defended by the tradition of common ordinary folks who come from behind the plow, come from the store-clerking, come from the classrooms to get on the battlefields — ordinary citizens turned into heroes in defense of their liberty, because that's the potential of freedom.
alan keyes— Rally in Idaho Falls, Idaho, May 12, 2000.[18]
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! I pray that, on this day when only peace and good-will are preached to mankind, better thoughts may fill the hearts of our enemies and turn them to peace. ... My heart bleeds at the death of every one of our gallant men.
robert e. lee— Letter to his wife on Christmas Day, two weeks after the Battle of Fredericksburg (25 December 1862)
The moment the first American soldier sets foot on the Japanese mainland, all prisoners of war will be shot.
Hideki Tojo— Note signed by Tojo (June 1945), left at a camp during the Bataan Death March. Possible forgery since Tojo was no longer in power for over a year at the time of the discovery. Also, the Japanese homeland was not threatened with invasion at the time and it was common sense that the Philippines would be attacked before.
It was not clear to me that our course was unjustified. Even now I am not sure how historians will allocate the responsibility for the war.
Hirohito— 1945 Remark to General Mac Arthur, quoted in Edward Behr Hirohito (1989), introduction.
I protested: "But all this is childish. Is there a war on here, or isn't there?" "The Royal Welch don't recognize it socially," he answered.
robert graves— Ch.14 (Goodbye to All That (1929))
To claim for socialism that it is a class war is to do it an injustice and indefinitely postpone its triumph. Socialism offers a platform broad enough for all to stand upon. It makes war upon a system, not upon a class.
keir hardie— Said in 1908.
The god of war has gone over to the other side.
Adolf Hitler— Statement to Alfred Jodl, after losses in the Battle of Stalingrad, as quoted in The Second World War : An Illustrated History (1979) by A. J. P. Taylor
Little soldier, little insect You know war it has no heart It will kill you in the sunshine Or happily in the the dark Where kindness is a card game Or a bent up cigarette In the trenches, in the hard rain With a bullet and a bet.
conor oberst— No One Would Riot for Less
Think well about this, dear brothers and sisters, and you will see that we should have been in a state of terrible chaos, in a fratricidal war, in a country which would no longer be Yugoslavia, but be only a group of petty little states fighting among themselves and destroying each other. But our people do not want that to happen.
josip broz tito— Jasper Ridley, Tito: A Biography (Constable and Company Ltd., 1994), p. 263.
Can the high level of violence in patriarchal cultures be attributed to people's chronic, if largely unconscious, rage over the denial of their freedom and pleasure? To what extent is sanctioned or officially condoned violence from war and capital punishment to lynching, wife-beating and the rape of "bad" women to harsh penalties for "immoral" activities like drug-taking and nonmarital sex to the religious and ideological persecution of totalitarian states in effect a socially approved outlet for expressing that rage, as well as a way of relieving guilt by projecting one's own unacceptable desires onto scapegoats?
ellen willis— "The Mass Psychology of Terrorism" from Implicating Empire, edited by Stanley Aronowitz, Heather Gautney and Clyde W. Barrow (2003)
The triumph of the industrial arts will advance the cause of civilization more rapidly than its warmest advocates could have hoped, and contribute to the permanent prosperity and strength of the country far more than the most splendid victories of successful war .
— Charles Babbage. The Exposition of 1851, p. xii-xiii
Lip service to disarmament is insufficient; the goal is to find ways to redirect the resources used for the military and reduce the danger of war while liberating funds to finance development and all-inclusive growth.
— Interim report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Alfred Maurice de Zayas [7]
Patience will benefit you in every hour, every time and every opportunity. It helps you to overcome your opponent, howsoever strong he may be. It will help you in times of distress and hardships, in battles and in war and peace.
— Abd al-Karim Qasim (1959) The historical extempore speech at the Reserve Officers' College.
war, he sung, is toil and trouble; Honour but an empty bubble. Never ending, still beginning, Fighting still, and still destroying, If the world be worth thy winning, Think, oh think, it worth enjoying.
john dryden— 1697 Alexander's Feast, l.97-102.
Those of us born after that era (of World war II), or with little or no knowledge of those experiences, take freedom for granted. In fact, we give little thought because we are preoccupied with the here and now and yet we owe a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid because you (returned servicemen) paid the price in blood.
ratu joni madraiwiwi— Poppy Drive speech, 21 October 2005
If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for war.
george washington— George Washington, fifth annual address to Congress, December 13, 1793.—The Writings of George Washington, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, vol. 33, p. 166 (1940).
Shaken and broken, our people behold the loss of the men of Stalingrad. Three hundred and thirty thousand German men have been senselessly and irresponsibly driven to death and destruction by the inspired strategy of our World war I Private First Class. Führer, we thank you!
— Variant translation: Our People stand shocked in front of the downfall of the men of Stalingrad. Three hundred thousand men were hounded into death and doom without sense or responsibility by the work of the world-war private. Führer, we thank you!
— Sixth leaflet
