"There is simply no substitute for forceful American leadership. Sometimes the best way to get allies is to be willing to forge ahead alone."
Read quote
3 likes
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 217 of 853)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"War I abhor, and yet how sweet The sound along the marching street Of drum and fife, and I forget Wet eyes of widows, and forget Broken old mothers, and the whole Dark butchery without a soul."
Read quote
3 likes
"Men practice war; beasts do not."
Read quote
3 likes
"Democracy is more cruel than wars or tyrants."
Read quote
3 likes
"What with our hooks, snares, nets, and dogs, we are at war with all living creatures, and nothing comes amiss but that which is either too cheap or too common; and all this is to gratify a fantastical palate."
Read quote
3 likes
"The fear of war is worse than war itself."
Read quote
3 likes
"Of war men ask the outcome, not the cause."
Read quote
3 likes
"I do everything myself, from engine start to engine shutdown. In a war, I will face alone the missiles and the flak and the small-arms fire over the front lines. If I die, I will die alone."
Read quote
3 likes
"I mean we might even go to war as to whether we love Coke or Pepsi and our whole identity is wrapped up in that choice. You know, for the Russians they felt that these minor differences between these various sodas was just hyped up and irrelevant."
Read quote
3 likes
"Why is it the songs all end with the good people winning, but in life they don't?" They don't make songs when the good lose," I muttered. "They make war chants against the bad. So there won't be any songs for us."
Read quote
3 likes
"I think there are shades of political songs; some are more subtle and can be more effective for being subtle, for being more metaphorical. I've written a lot of songs like that, where it's not really clear if it's a war song or a relationship song. The metaphor can be the most powerful thing of all, but sometimes you have to speak more clearly to more people, and I think this is one of those times."
Read quote
3 likes
"Some Asian American male scholars have claimed this muse to be Guong Goong, God of Literature, and, simultaneously, although not coincidentally or triflingly, God of War, but I did not have such a gendered muse in mind then."
Read quote
3 likes
"Walt Disney had a very clear sense of why. He was about happiness. Remember when Disney was founded, it was during war. People said that life sucked. And he said, "No." He was an eternal optimist who said: "Life is beautiful. It's about giving. It's about family." Look what happened. His cause grew and people committed themselves to helping him grow the Disney why and it was hugely successful."
Read quote
3 likes
"In the 1980s America reacted to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. We supported a war that left a nation torn to pieces. And as the last Soviet tank left the country, so did we."
Read quote
3 likes
"I was a bit shut down by a lot of the snarkiness and biliousness in some of the poetry blogs. I was tired of aesthetic wars that weren't productive and were becoming mean-spirited. I was probably overworked as well, so I stopped reading and writing for about a year."
Read quote
3 likes
"The same suffering is much harder to bear for a high motive than for a base one. The people [during World War II] who stood motionless, from one to eight in the morning, for the sake of having an egg, would have found it very difficult to do in order to save a human life."
Read quote
3 likes
"Modern war appears as a struggle led by all the State apparatuses and their general staffs against all men old enough to bear arms."
Read quote
3 likes
"War, which perpetuates itself under the form of preparation for war, has once and for all given the State an important role in production."
Read quote
3 likes
"You've been telling us about how to secure peace, but come on, now, General-just among us Rotarians and Rotary Anns-'fess up! With your great experience, don't you honest, cross-your-heart, think that perhaps-just maybe-when a country has gone money-mad, like all our labor unions and workmen, with their propaganda to hoist income taxes, so that the thrifty and industrious have to pay for the shiftless ne'er-do-weels, then maybe, to save their lazy souls and get some iron into them, a war might be a good thing? Come on, now, tell your real middle name, Mong General!"
Read quote
3 likes
""Peace" is a condition in which no civilian pays any attention to military casualties which do not achieve page-one, lead-story prominence-unless that civilian is a close relative of one of the casualties. But, if there ever was a time in history when "peace" meant that there was no fighting going on, I have been unable to find out about it."
Read quote
3 likes