War quotes
17K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside war — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"We all know that Washington families are making a tremendous commitment to winning the War on Terror. Tonight, more than 22,000 Washington state soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are risking their lives under hostile fire in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the globe."
"War is the rule of force, and peace is the reign of law."
"The only hope of a short war is to prepare for a long one."
"It is accordance with our determination to refrain from aggression and build up a sentiment and practice among nations more favorable to peace, that we ratified a treaty for the limitation of naval armaments made in 1921, earnestly sought for a further extension of this principle in 1927, and have secured the consent of fourteen important nations to the negotiation of a treaty condemning recourse to war, renouncing it is an instrument of national policy, and pledging each other to seek no solution of their disagreements except by pacific means."
"What the end of the carnage of World War II meant to those who remember it, can never be forgotten, but to all those who don't, its meaning can never be fully understood!"
"All of the promises of politicians, generals, madmen, and crusaders that war can create peace have yet to be borne out."
"We must surely appear to the world as exactly what we are: a nation that organizes its economy around consuming twice as much oil as it produces, and around the profligate wastefulness of the wars and campaigns required to defend such consumption. In recent years we have defined our national interest largely in terms of the oil fields and pipelines we need to procure fuel."
"War so conspicuously benefits rich men and kills the poor ones."
"I agree with Pres. Barack Obama, Iraqis need a political solution. No war in Iraq!"
"I wanted to do a war movie, a western and an alien movie. In reality, there are a lot of ugly things happening in the world."
"The problem with the war in Iraq is not so much the intelligence as the stupidity."
"If there is a worse place than Hell, I am in it."
"And then, there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonnet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation."
"The time has come when I am for everybody fighting the rebels. Let Indians fight them; let the Negroes fight them; and if you have got any strong-legged jackasses in Iwoa that can kick rebels to death, they have my hearty consent."
"The trouble with Hooker is that he's got his headquarters where his hindquarters aught to be."
"I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down but I bite my lip and keep quiet."
"Offering thanks in the midst of tragedy is an American tradition, . even during a bloody Civil War."
"We accepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained. Under God, I hope it never will until that time."
"The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the constitution that no man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us."
"I am a little uneasy about the abolishment of slavery in this District of Columbia."
