War

"Ils ne passeront pas."

"γλυκύ δ᾽ἀπείρῳ πόλεμος. πεπειραμένων δέ τις ταρβεῖ προσιόντα νιν καρδία περισσῶς."

"War is sweet to those who have no experience of it, but the experienced man trembles exceedingly at heart on its approach."

"From the Rio Grande's waters to the icy lakes of Maine, Let all exult, for we have met the enemy again. Beneath their stern old mountains we have met them in their pride; And rolled from Buena Vista back the battle's bloody tide, Where the enemy came surging swift like the Mississippi's flood, And the Reaper, Death, with strong arms swung his sickle red with blood. Santa Anna boasted loudly that before two hours were past His Lancers through Saltillo should pursue us fierce and fast. On comes his solid infantry, line marching after line. Lo! their great standards in the sun like sheets of silver shine."

"As an investigative journalist, I have often had to rely on the courageous, principled acts of whistle-blowers. The truth about the Vietnam War was told when Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers. The truth about Iraq and Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia and many other flashpoints was told when WikiLeaks published the revelations of whistle-blowers."

"If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country I never would lay down my arms,—never! never! never!"

"When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader."

"The inexperienced in wisdom and virtue, ever occupied with feasting and such, are carried downward, and there, as is fitting, they wander their whole life long, neither ever looking upward to the truth above them nor rising toward it, nor tasting pure and lasting pleasures. Like cattle, always looking downward with their heads bent toward the ground and the banquet tables, they feed, fatten, and fornicate. In order to increase their possessions they kick and butt with horns and hoofs of steel and kill each other, insatiable as they are."

"He who first called money the sinews of the state seems to have said this with special reference to war."

"Sylla proceeded by persuasion, not by arms."

"Paulus Aemilius, on taking command of the forces in Macedonia, and finding them talkative and impertinently busy, as though they were all commanders, issued out his orders that they should have only ready hands and keen swords, and leave the rest to him."

"It is the province of kings to bring wars about; it is the province of God to end them."

"She saw her sons with purple death expire, Her sacred domes involved in rolling fire, A dreadful series of intestine wars, Inglorious triumphs and dishonest scars."

"War is bad, heaven knows, but slavery is far worse. If the doom of slavery is not sealed by the war, I shall curse the day I entered the Army."

"When there's a war around take the day off, that's my motto."

"The waves Of the mysterious death-river moaned; The tramp, the shout, the fearful thunder-roar Of red-breathed cannon, and the wailing cry Of myriad victims, filled the air."

"One thing had better be said at the outset. War occurs because the great mass of human beings are prepared, at least in certain circumstances, to regard the resort to arms as an acceptable proceeding."

"A man is known by the Company he joins. Bad communication trenches corrupt good manners. Never look a gift gun in the mouth. A drop of oil in time saves time. One swallow doesn't make a rum issue. Where there's a war there's a way."

"If this bill passes … as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation, amicably if they can, violently if they must."

"Cœdes videtur significare sanguinem et ferrum."

"And the Jews claim: "The Hand of God is tied up." while their own hands are shackled and they are cursed for what they say. Nay, both His hands are unconstrained. He disburses as He pleases. And that which has been revealed to thee from thy Lord will certainly make many of them increase in stubbornness and denial. And We have cast among them enmity and hatred till the day of Resurrection. Whenever they provoke a war, Allah puts it out, and they eager to make mischief on the Earth, but Allah loves not mischievous people."

"Ouvrez toujours à vos ennemis toutes les portes et chemin, et plutot leur faites un pont d'argent, afin de les renvoyer."

"Lastly, forget good sportsmanship on the field of battle. War is not a refereed football game but the dirtiest game yet devised by human minds. And, if for one moment you feel soft towards that Nazi shooting at you, remember he's trying to kill you and, if he had the chance, he'd drive your dad into slavery, cut your mother's throat, rape your wife, sister, sweetheart, or daughter. You'll get no quarter from him. Give him none!"

"I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war. I vote no."

"History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap."

"A single pipe broken by a high-impact explosive weapon can deprive 100,000 people of water. That same weapon may also destroy the neighbourhood’s sewage system, causing thousands to fall ill and placing further strain on already overstretched hospitals. Local economies collapse and populations flee, leaving fewer doctors and engineers, and no money to pay the salaries of those who remain. The acute pain caused by one attack triggers a ripple effect of long-term suffering that leaves no part of life unscathed."

"I never kill faces. These are the enemy, but if I don’t define things too closely, then I won’t miss any sleep tonight."

"War on the cheap is always a rotten policy."

"From the point of view of mass psychology, the effect of militarism is based essentially on a libidinous mechanism. The sexual effect of a uniform, the erotically provocative effect of rhythmically executed goose-stepping, the exhibitionistic nature of militaristic procedures, have been more practically comprehended by a salesgirl or an average secretary than by our most erudite politicians. On the other hand it is political reaction that consciously exploits these sexual interests. It not only designs flashy uniforms for the men, it puts the recruiting into the hands of attractive women. In conclusion, let us but recall the recruiting posters of war-thirsty powers, which ran something as follows: ‘Travel to foreign countries — join the Royal Navy I’ and the foreign countries were portrayed by exotic women. And why are these posters effective? Because our youth has become sexually starved owing to sexual suppression."

"Catholic Christianity in particular has long since divested itself of the revolutionary, i.e., rebellious, character of the primitive Christian movement. It seduces its millions of devotees into accepting war as an act of fate, as a ‘punishment of sin’. Wars are indeed the consequences of sins, but entirely different sins from those conceived of by Catholicism."

"Under the influence of politicians, masses of people tend to ascribe the responsibility for wars to those who wield power at any given time. In the First World War it was the munitions industrialists; in the Second World War it was the psychopathic generals who were said to be guilty. This is passing the buck. The responsibility for wars falls solely upon the shoulders of these same masses of people, for they have all the necessary means to avert war in their own hands."

"People like to think of war as a ‘social thunderstorm’. It is said that it ‘purifies’ the atmosphere; it has its great benefits -it ‘hardens the youth’ and makes them courageous. As far as that goes, people say, we have always had and will always have wars. They are biologically motivated. According to Darwin, the ‘struggle for existence’ is the law of life. Why, then, were peace conferences organized? Nor have I ever heard that bears or elephants split up into two camps and annihilate one another. In the animal kingdom there are no wars within the same species. Like sadism, war among one’s own kind is an acquisition of ‘civilised man'. No, for some reason or another, man shies away from putting his finger on the causes of war. And there can be no doubt that better ways than war exist of making youth fit and healthy, namely, a satisfying love life, pleasurable and steady work, general sports and freedom from the malicious gossip of old maids. In short, such arguments are hollow chatter."

"And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon."

"Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer."

"Twelve mailed men sat drinking late, The wine was red as blood. Cried one, "How long then must we wait Ere we shall thunder at the gate, And crush the cursed brood?" Twelve men of iron, drinking late, Strike hands, and pledge a cup of hate: * "The Day!""

"The war is a hallucination of those without homeland."

"If we are to end our wars, we have to dispense with a threatening, vengeful, bloodthirsty God. If we're to have any kind of world brotherhood, we have to dispense with a God who reserves his favors for a chosen few. Life is given to all. The sun shines freely on each of us. Would a God be less kindly? More than this, we must also dispense with our species God, and extend our ideas of divinity outward to the rest of nature which couches us and our religious theorizing with such a gracious and steady support."

"The strength of a civilization is not measured by its ability to fight wars, but rather by its ability to prevent them."

"The morning came, there stood the foe; Stark eyed them as they stood; Few words he spoke—'twas not a time For moralizing mood: "See there the enemy, my boys! Now, strong in valor's might, Beat them or Betty Stark will sleep In widowhood to-night.""

"He who makes the powder wins the war."

"Lo, steel-clad War his gorgeous standard rears ! The red-cross squadrons madly rage, And mow thro' infancy and age..."

"I have always said that a conference was held for one reason only, to give everybody a chance to get sore at everybody else. Sometimes it takes two or three conferences to scare up a war, but generally one will do it."

"I originated a remark many years ago that I think has been copied more than any little thing that I've every said, and I used it in the FOLLIES of 1922. I said America has a unique record. We never lost a war and we never won a conference in our lives. I believe that we could without any degree of egotism, single-handed lick any nation in the world. But we can't confer with Costa Rica and come home with our shirts on."

"Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week."

"You can't say civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way."

"Since I am an immature and wicked man, war and unrest appeal to me more than good bourgeois order. Brutality is respected, the people need wholesome fear. They want to fear someone. They want someone to frighten them and make them shudderingly submissive."

"And while I am talking to you mothers and fathers, I give you one more assurance. I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars."

"To you men who, in your turn, have come together to spend and be spent in the endless crusade against wrong; to you who face the future resolute and confident; to you who strive in a spirit of brotherhood for the betterment of our nation; to you who gird yourselves for this great new fight in the never-ending warfare for the good of mankind, I say in closing what I said in that speech in closing: "We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord.""

"There are a great many objections urged against the enfranchisement of women; and one that I have recently heard is that women would not go to war. Perhaps, if women had the franchise, men would not need to go to war neither. And this is one great reason why I demand the franchise. War is only a relic of the old barbarisms. So long as woman is deprived of her right, man is only next door to a barbarian. If he were not, he never would go to war."

"Righteous Heaven, In thy great day of vengeance! Blast the traitor And his pernicious counsels, who, for wealth, For pow'r, the pride of greatness, or revenge, Would plunge his native land in civil wars."