Quotes about war and peace
540 quotes from 231 people
Oliver Cromwell1599–1658Letter to Colonel Valentine Walton (5 July 1644), following the Battle of Marston Moor.
Benjamin Franklin1706–1790Letter to Josiah Quincy (11 September 1783)
Winston Churchill1874–1965Remarks at a White House luncheon (26 June 1954)
Gertrude Stein1874–1946Wars I Have Seen (1945)
George H. W. Bush1924–2018Remarks to reporters (5 August 1990)
Ursula K. Le Guin1929–2018The Eye of the Heron (1978), Chapter 1 (p. 13)
Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969Address at a Rally in the Civic Auditorium, Seattle, Washington (October 17, 1956)Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war.
John McCain1936–2018Campaign ad, quoted in Newsweek (23 June 2008), p. 21If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Rudyard Kipling1865–1936Epitaphs of the War (1914-1918) (1918), Common FormThe hand of the aggressor is stayed by strength — and strength alone.
Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969A speech at an English Speaking Union Dinner (3 July 1951)He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious.
Sun Tzu544–496 BCThe Art of War, Chapter III · Strategic AttackWar should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.
William McKinley1843–1901First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1897)Military glory, — that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Speech in the United States House of Representatives opposing the Mexican war (12 January 1848)He who did well in war just earns the right
To begin doing well in peace.
Robert Browning1812–1889Luria (1846), Act II
