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Quotes about war and peace

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I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.
William Tecumseh Sherman1820–1891Telegraph to Abraham Lincoln (December 1864), as quoted in Southern Storm: Sherman’s March to the Sea (2008), by Noah Andre Trudeau, New York: HarperCollins, p. 508.
- Christmas
Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.
William Tecumseh Sherman1820–1891Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman (1889)
You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war.
William Tecumseh Sherman1820–1891Letter to the City of Atlanta (September 1864)
A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many peoples with less pertinacity have been wiped out of national existence.
William Tecumseh Sherman1820–1891Letter to Major R.M. Sawyer (31 January 1864), from Vicksburg.
Three years ago by a little reflection and patience they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well.
William Tecumseh Sherman1820–1891Letter to Major R.M. Sawyer (31 January 1864), from Vicksburg.
Not all violence is equally reprehensible; not all wars are equally unjust.
Susan Sontag1933–2004“Why Are We in Kosovo?”, The New York Times (2 May 1999)
If slavery, barbarism and desolation are to be called peace, men can have no worse misfortune.
Baruch Spinoza1632–1677Political Treatise (1677), Ch. 6, On Monarchy
History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been.
Joseph Stalin1878–1953Radio Address (3 July 1941)
War is never fatal but always lost. Always lost.
Gertrude Stein1874–1946Wars I Have Seen (1945)
A wise man does not try to hurry history. Many wars have been avoided by patience and many have been precipitated by reckless haste.
Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965Speeches of Adlai Stevenson (1952), p. 39
- Wisdom
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
The bullet is a fool, the bayonet is a fine chap.
Alexander Suvorov1730–1800The Science of Victory (Nauka pobezhdat, 1795–96); A. V. Suvorov, Dokumenty, vol. III, p. 504
It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput, Chapter IVIn context
- Comedy
Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms, Chapter VIn context
- Pride
A soldier is a Yahoo hired to kill, in cold blood, as many of his own species, who have never offended him, as possibly he can.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms, Chapter VIn context