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Quotes about war and peace

540 quotes from 231 people

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The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to William Stephens Smith (13 November 1787). Manuscript at the Library of Congress.
- Liberty
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969The Chance for Peace (1953)
- Guns
The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
George S. Patton1885–1945
If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
Winston Churchill1874–1965The Second World War, Volume I: The Gathering Storm (1948) Chapter 19 (Prague, Albania, and the Polish Guarantee).
- Freedom
Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, ‘he that is not with me is against me.’
George Orwell1903–1950
Ernest Hemingway once wrote, ‘The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.’ I agree with the second part.
Morgan Freemanborn 1937Se7en
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.
George S. Patton1885–1945Speech at the Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts (7 June 1945), quoted in Patton: Ordeal and Triumph (1970) by Ladislas Farago
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
James Madison1751–1836
- America
I can’t think of a better way to spread the message of world peace than by working with the NFL and being part of Super Bowl XXVII.
Michael Jackson1958–2009
But could not our situation be compared to one of a menacing epidemic? People are unable to view this situation in its true light, for their eyes are blinded by passion. General fear and anxiety create hatred and aggressiveness. The adaptation to warlike aims and activities has corrupted the mentality of man; as a result, intelligent, objective and humane thinking has hardly any effect and is even suspected and persecuted as unpatriotic.
Albert Einstein1879–1955The Menace of Mass Destruction
- Patriotism
Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action!
Albert Einstein1879–1955
- Patriotism
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!
Patrick Henry1736–1799Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death (1775)
- Freedom
- Life & Death
Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.
Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948Harijan, 5 July 1947, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 87, p. 390.
The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.
Adolf Hitler1889–1945
- Truth & Lies
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
Martin Luther King Jr.1929–1968Beverly Hills California, (February 25, 1967); as quoted in “Martin Luther King Jr. On the Vietnam War”, The Atlantic.