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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"War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses."
"War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade."
"It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war."
"I will not play tug o' war. I'd rather play hug o' war. Where everyone hugs instead of tugs, Where everyone giggles and rolls on the rug, Where everyone kisses, and everyone grins, and everyone cuddles, and everyone wins."
"Don't make a fuss about a world war. At most, people die... Half the population wiped out - this happened quite a few times in Chinese history... It's best if half the population is left, next best one-third."
"All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions."
"The Red Army and Navy and the whole Soviet people must fight for every inch of Soviet soil, fight to the last drop of blood for our towns and villages...onward, to victory!"
"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war."
"In most communities it is illegal to cry 'fire' in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?"
"Fool!" cried the hunchback. "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia,' but only slightly less well known is this: 'Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line."
"It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so."
"There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights."
"If not us, who? And if not now, when?"
"Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have."
"Friedrich Engels once said: "Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism." What does "regression into barbarism" mean to our lofty European civilization? Until now, we have all probably read and repeated these words thoughtlessly, without suspecting their fearsome seriousness. A look around us at this moment shows what the regression of bourgeois society into barbarism means. This world war is a regression into barbarism. The triumph of imperialism leads to the annihilation of civilization."
"Monarchs ought to put to death the authors and instigators of war, as their sworn enemies and as dangers to their states."
"There is nothing as likely to succeed as what the enemy believes you cannot attempt."
"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today."
"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common."
"I'm the god of war, the resurrector of the horror-core. The carnivore, destroying you wasn't hard at all"
