War

"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."

"Wars invariably serve as classrooms and laboratories where men and techniques and states of mind are prepared for the next war."

"War and peace are not separate compartments. Peace depends on threats and force; often peace is the crystallisation of past force."

"No wars are unintended or 'accidental'. What is often unintended is the length and bloodiness of the war."

"War tore the guts out of the British empire, weakening it in resources and morale. The first major loss was Ireland."

"[The great questions of the day] are not decided by speeches and majority votes, but by blood and iron."

"Ich sehe in unserm Bundesverhältnisse ein Gebrechen Preussens, welches wir früher oder später ferro et igne werden heilen müssen."

"Lieber Spitzkugeln als Spitzreden."

"L'affaire Herzegovinienne ne vaut pas les os d'un fusilier poméranien."

"Wars are God's way of teaching Americans geography."

"Just for a word—"neutrality," a word which in war-time had so often been disregarded—just for a scrap of paper, Great Britain was going to make war on a kindred nation who desired nothing better than to be friends with her."

"We Germans have a far greater and more urgent duty towards civilization to perform than the Great Asiatic Power. We, like the Japanese, can only fulfil it by the sword."

"Our next war will be fought for the highest interests of our country and of mankind. This will invest it with importance in the world's history. "World power or downfall" will be our rallying cry."

"War is a biological necessity of the first importance, a regulative element in the life of mankind which cannot be dispensed with. ... But it is not only a biological law but a moral obligation and, as such, an indispensable factor in civilization."

"The inevitableness, the idealism, and the blessing of war, as an indispensable and stimulating law of development, must be repeatedly emphasized."

"Gaily! gaily! close our ranks! Arm! Advance! Hope of France! Gaily! gaily! close our ranks! Onward! Onward! Gauls and Franks!"