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Quotes about war and peace

540 quotes from 231 people

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What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.
Sun Tzu544–496 BCThe Art of War, Ch. IV (tr. Lionel Giles)In context
If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
Winston Churchill1874–1965Remark to John Colville (21 June 1941), as quoted in Andrew Nagorski, The Greatest Battle (2007), pp. 150–151
- Enemies
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Long Walk to Freedom (1995)
- Enemies
It is the army that finally makes a citizen of you; without it you still have a chance, however slim, to remain a human being.
Joseph Brodsky1940–1996Less Than One: Selected Essays (1986)
Any nation that decides the only way to achieve peace is through peaceful means is a nation that will soon be a piece of another nation.
Richard Nixon1913–1994No More Vietnams (1987)
A destruction only man can provoke, only man can prevent. Mankind must remember that peace is not God’s gift to his creatures, it is our gift to each other.
Elie Wiesel1928–2016Hope, Despair, and Memory (1986)
If the art of war were nothing but the art of avoiding risks, glory would become the prey of mediocre minds … I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.
Napoleon1769–1821Statement at the beginning of the 1813 campaign, as quoted in The Mind of Napoleon (1955) by J. Christopher Herold, p. 45
- Risk
War is capitalism with the gloves off and many who go to war know it but they go to war because they don’t want to be a hero. It takes courage to sit down and be counted.
Tom Stoppard1937–2025Travesties (1974), Act I
- Courage
In the name of the great Jehovah, and the Continental Congress!
Ethan Allen1738–1789A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity (1779), on demanding the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga (10 May 1775)
- America
Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as international and ideological discord, which, in turn, leads to war.
Buckminster Fuller1895–1983Synergetics (1975), “The Wellspring of Reality”
But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem; it merely creates new and more complicated ones.
Martin Luther King Jr.1929–1968Three Ways of Meeting Oppression (1958)
Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.
Helen Keller1880–1968“Strike Against War”, speech in Carnegie Hall (5 January 1916)
We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody that is far superior to the discords of war.
Martin Luther King Jr.1929–1968The Quest for Peace and Justice (1964)
World peace is not a party question. […] The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one Nation.
Franklin D. Roosevelt1882–1945Address to Congress on Yalta (1 March 1945)
- Politics
Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought.
Helen Keller1880–1968“Strike Against War”, speech in Carnegie Hall (5 January 1916)