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Quotes about war and peace

540 quotes from 231 people

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For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot.
Rudyard Kipling1865–1936Tommy (1890), Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896), Tommy, Stanza 5.In context
Money is always to be found when men are to be sent to the frontiers to be destroyed: when the object is to preserve them, it is no longer so.
Voltaire1694–1778“Charity” (1770)
- Money
But complacency or self-congratulation can imperil our security as much as the weapons of tyranny. A moment of pause is not a promise of peace.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963Third State of the Union Address
A great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle [patriotism] alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward.
George Washington1732–1799Letter to John Banister, Valley Forge (21 April 1778)
- Patriotism
Every thinking person fears nuclear war and every technological nation plans for it. Everyone knows it’s madness, and every country has an excuse.
Carl Sagan1934–1996Who Speaks for Earth? [Episode 13], 17 min 40 sec
The peace we seek and need means much more than mere absence of war. It means the acceptance of law, and the fostering of justice, in all the world.
Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969Radio and Television Report to the American People on the Developments in Eastern Europe and the Middle East (October 31, 1956)
- Justice
Nonviolence does not necessarily emerge from a pacific or calm part of the soul. Very often it is an expression of rage, indignation, and aggression.
Judith Butlerborn 1956The Force of Nonviolence (2020), Introduction, p. 21
- Anger
One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once ‘The Unnecessary War’.
Winston Churchill1874–1965The Second World War, Volume I: The Gathering Storm (1948).
Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961Introduction to “On the Blue Water” (April 1936)
Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.
Sun Tzu544–496 BCThe Art of War, Chapter VI · Weaknesses and Strengths
- Enemies
Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.
Herbert Hoover1874–1964Speech in Chicago, Illinois to the 23rd Republican national convention (27 June 1944)
- Youth
Wars will remain while human nature remains. I believe in my soul in cooperation, in arbitration; but the soldier’s occupation we cannot say is gone until human nature is gone.
Rutherford B. Hayes1822–1893Diary (11 August 1890)
The rights of neutrality will only be respected, when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804The Federalist Papers (1787–1788), No. 11
- Power
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.
Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (1961)
A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory … From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
Winston Churchill1874–1965Speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri (5 March 1946)
- Politics