"War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him but to make him do what you want him to do. Not killing... but controlled and purposeful violence."
War quotes
War
17K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to War
Browse quotes that often appear alongside war — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
War quotes (page 173 of 853)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"People have murdered each other, in massive wars and guerilla actions, for many centuries, and still murder each other in the present, over Ideologies and Religions which, stated as propositions, appear neither true nor false to modern logicians- meaningless propositions that look meaningful to the linguistically naive."
"Dreadful is the mysterious power of fate; there is no deliverance from it by wealth or by war, by walled city or dark, seabeaten ships."
"There is much in nature against us. But we forget: Take nature altogether since time began, Including human nature, in peace and war, And it must be a little more in favor of man."
"A lot of hard-faced men who look as if they had done very well out of the war."
"On the whole, more men had perhaps escaped into the war than from it."
"Jealousy is the most radical primeval and naked form of admiration in war paint, so to speak."
"Directing requires great discipline, that ability to be in and out at the same time. The great ones I've worked with are like generals. It's a bit like a small war on that level. The great ones have that combination of freedom and control. I'm nowhere near that. There's still so much to do as an actor. I have enough to explore with that."
"Men may have wars, but women have their period. Men go off and kill each other, but women say nasty things, which is even better."
"The United Sates has much to offer the third world war."
"I sometimes think Adam and Eve were Russians. They didn't have a roof over their head, nothing to wear, but they had one apple between them and they thought that was Paradise."
"Our goals are the same as those of the U.N.'s founders, who sought to replace a world at war with one where the rule of law would prevail, where human rights were honored, where development would blossom, where conflict would give way to freedom from violence."
"Sri Lanka is a small island, and the war affected everybody. Everybody knew somebody who was killing or being killed."
"What two ideas are more inseparable than beer and Britannia?"
"From an over-arching point-of-view, in war there is heroism on both sides. Obviously, the victor gets the spoils, the victor gets to write history, but there's heroism and compassion on both sides, and to me that's very important."
"I saw the Fall of Troy! World War Five! I was pushing boxes at the Boston Tea Party! Now I'm gonna die in a dungeon.... [disgustedly] in Cardiff!"
"War, like children's fights, are meaningless, pitiless, and contemptible."
"If there is a God, the phrase that must disgust him is - holy war."
"In churches, we see that getting people to show up for a prayer meeting is a lot more difficult than a concert or service project or just about anything else. So we were thinking, we're stepping into some unknown territory here that could be as profitable, or it could be a box-office flop, but there was a rightness about it. And so this whole idea of the war room being like a spiritual warfare room, a place of prayer where you get alone with God and you're making your decisions and you're dealing with your issues first in prayer."
"All's fair in love and war," said Ron brightly, "and this is a bit of both."