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Quotes about war and peace

540 quotes from 231 people

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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
Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
Franklin D. Roosevelt1882–1945Roosevelt Declares War on Japan (1941)
- America
If I must choose between righteousness and peace, I choose righteousness.
Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919America and the World War (1915)
- Morality
Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft!
Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919
We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid.
Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919Inaugural Address (1905)
- Justice
The right of conquest has no foundation other than the right of the strongest.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778The Social Contract (1762), Book I, Chapter IVIn context
- Power
War does not determine who is right⁠—only who is left.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970
It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death, sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Russell–Einstein Manifesto (1955)Often credited to Albert Einstein
Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Has Man a Future? (1962), p. 78
- Patriotism
We are speaking on this occasion, not as members of this or that nation, continent, or creed, but as human beings, members of the species Man, whose continued existence is in doubt.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970The Russell-Einstein Manifesto (1955)
Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?
Bertrand Russell1872–1970The Russell-Einstein Manifesto (1955)
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
Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.
Carl Sandburg1878–1967“The People, Yes” (1936)
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work⁠—
I am the grass; I cover all.
Carl Sandburg1878–1967Grass (1918)In context
- Nature
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
George Santayana1863–1952Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies (1922), “Tipperary”