War quotes
17K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside war — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"On the eve of World War I, an estimated two million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire. Well over a million were deported and hundreds of thousands were simply killed."
"We must take the profit out of war."
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."
"Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck."
"All the wars, all the hatred, all the ignorance in the world come out of being so invested in our opinions."
"All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones."
"It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom."
"I can predict with absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the nations of the world do not concert the method by which to prevent it."
"Ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle, but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting."
"I want you to make love, not war, I know you've heard it before."
"Love and war are the same thing, and stratagems and policy are as allowable in the one as in the other."
"Let the people know the truth and the country is safe."
"I can testify to what UNICEF means to children, because I was among those who received food and medical relief right after World War II."
"When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is insubordination. When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is collapse."
"Like so many of our people, we have now had a personal experience of German barbarity which only strengthens the resolution of all of us to fight through to final victory."
"History has different yardsticks for the cruelty of the Northerners and the cruelty of the Southerners in the Civil War. A slave-owner who through cunning and violence shackles a slave in chains, and a slave who through cunning or violence breaks the chains – let not the contemptible eunuchs tell us that they are equals before a court of morality!"
"The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us."
"The time has come for an all-out war against poverty. The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for "the least of these"."
"In the earlier days of history, kings and leaders went to the battlefield with their men; but today, those who determine that a nation will go to war remain safely behind. The next time leaders talk of warring, all the people should get together and send those leaders to the front lines. Give them a big arena with wonderfully effective ammunition, and the war will be finished in a day"
"Our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideals and principles that we have cherished are challenged."
