War

"the red father of war who signs his name in the blood of other men"

"Bleak are our shores with the blasts of December, Fettered and chill is the rivulet's flow; Throbbing and warm are the hearts that remember Who was our friend when the world was our foe."

"I war not with the dead."

"Cursed is the man, and void of law and right, Unworthy property, unworthy light, Unfit for public rule, or private care, That wretch, that monster, who delights in war;"

"The war had been going on long enough that soldiers digging graves for comrades would unearth bones of men killed in previous battles. And because they were starving just about anything went into the stewpot. Frogs. Mice. Bugs. Dogs. Snails. Worms. They slaughtered the horses and oxen that were pulling carts heaped with treasure; jeweled reliquaries, silver candlestick holders, and gold crucifixes were abandoned in scorched fields or left in carts too heavy for starving men to pull. They drank from stagnant puddles and filthy streams... a well or cistern... never mind the body floating on the surface. ...Blackburn [in Old Man Goya] reports that a soldier who approached a convent being used as a hospital saw amputated limbs along the wall, "while more arms and legs kept flying out the windows..." At La Coruña, two thousand horses were shot to prevent enemy soldiers from riding them. ...One Spaniard kept a bag of French ears and fingers. ...[A] pack of English hounds accompanied [the Iron Duke]. Between military engagements he would go fox hunting. At Talavera... a fire sprang up in dry grass where... soldiers lay dead or dying, "and men were ashamed because their pangs of hunger increased with the smell of roasting meat.""

"The vanquished know war. They see through the empty jingoism of those who use the abstract words of glory, honor, and patriotism to mask the cries of the wounded, the senseless killing, war profiteering, and chest-pounding grief."

"Most of these who are thrust into combat soon find it impossible to maintain the mythic perception of war."

"War in fact is becoming contemptible, and ought to be put down by the great nations of Europe, just as we put down a vulgar mob."

"The American flag has been forced to retire. This is intolerable."

"For agony and spoil Of nations beat to dust, For poisoned air and tortured soil And cold, commanded lust, And every secret woe The shuddering waters saw— Willed and fulfilled by high and low— Let them relearn the Law."

"You are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King to help our French comrades against the invasion of a common enemy. You have to perform a task which will need your courage, your energy, and your patience. Remember that the honor of the British Army depends on your individual conduct. It will be your duty not only to set an example of discipline and perfect steadiness under fire, but also to maintain the most friendly relations with those whom you are helping in this struggle…. Do your duty bravely. Fear God and honor the King."

"How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print."

"My men never retire. They go forward or they die."

"Let the only walls the foe shall scale Be ramparts of the dead!"

"[T]he honours, the fame, the emoluments of war, belong not to [the middle and industrial classes]; the battle-plain is the harvest field of the aristocracy, watered with the blood of the people...Whilst our trade rested upon our foreign dependencies, as was the case in the middle of the last century...force and violence, were necessary to command our customers for our manufacturers...But war, although the greatest of consumers, not only produces nothing in return, but, by abstracting labour from productive employment and interrupting the course of trade, it impedes, in a variety of indirect ways, the creation of wealth; and, should hostilities be continued for a series of years, each successive war-loan will be felt in our commercial and manufacturing districts with an augmented pressure."

"Hark! I hear the tramp of thousands, And of armèd men the hum; Lo, a nation's hosts have gathered Round the quick alarming drum— Saying, Come, Freemen, Come! Ere your heritage be wasted, Said the quick alarming drum."

"An hour ago, a Star was falling. A star? There's nothing strange in that. No, nothing; but above the thicket, Somehow it seemed to me that God Somewhere had just relieved a picket."

"What voice did on my spirit fall, Peschiera, when thy bridge I crossed? "'Tis better to have fought and lost, Than never to have fought at all.""

"None of our soldiers would understand not being asked to do whatever is necessary to reestablish a situation which is humiliating to us and unacceptable to our country's honor.—We are going to counter-attack."

"They were left in the lurch For want of more wadding—He ran to the church— * * * * * * With his arms full of hymnbooks … Rang his voice, "Put Watts into 'em—Boys, give 'em Watts.""

"Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down You'd treat if met where any bar is, Or help to half-a-crown."

"I make my war upon privilege and authority, whereby the right of property, the true right in that which is proper to the individual, is annihilated."

"I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it."

"The greater the hold of government upon the life of the individual citizen, the greater the risk of war."

"War is not the answer For only love can conquer hate You know we've got to find a way To bring some lovin' here today"

"Lay down the axe; fling by the spade; Leave in its track the toiling plough; The rifle and the bayonet-blade For arms like yours were fitter now; And let the hands that ply the pen Quit the light task, and learn to wield The horseman's crooked brand, and rein The charger on the battle-field."

"Soon the men of the column began to see that though the scarlet line was slender, it was very rigid and exact."

"International wars became rare only after 1945, largely thanks to the new threat of nuclear annihilation."

"War itself is not a mere science but a more fickle sort of thing, often subject to fate or chance, being an entirely human enterprise..."

"We made war to the end—to the very end of the end."

"Wars are not a pub brawl. They are complex projects that require an extraordinary degree of organisation, cooperation and appeasement."

"During the war of the rebellion Gould's firm did a large business in railway securities, and also made a great deal of money speculating in gold. Gould had private sources of information in the field, and he was able to turn almost every success or defeat of the Union army to profitable account."

"Of course wars are fought by teenagers. Do you realize that? They really should be fought by the politicians and the old people who start these wars."

"In war, science has proven itself an evil genius; it has made war more terrible than it ever was before. Man used to be content to slaughter his fellowmen on a single plane — the earth's surface. Science has taught him to go down into the water and shoot up from below and to go up into the clouds and shoot down from above, thus making the battlefield three times a bloody as it was before; but science does not teach brotherly love. Science has made war so hellish that civilization was about to commit suicide; and now we are told that newly discovered instruments of destruction will make the cruelties of the late war seem trivial in comparison with the cruelties of wars that may come in the future."

"Con disavvantaggio grande si fa la guerra con chi non ha che perdere."

"The facts come sometimes to belie those who are convinced of the present reality of ‘moral progress’, according to the most usual conception of it; but all they do is modify their ideas a little in this respect, or refer the realization of their ideal to a more or less remote future, and they, too, might crawl out of their difficulties by talking about a ‘rhythm of progress’. Besides this, by a much simpler solution, they usually strive to forget the lesson of experience: such are the incorrigible dreamers who, at each new war do not fail to prophesy that it will be the last."

"War is fought by human beings."

"Logistics is the ball and chain of armored warfare."

"We will be misguided in our intentions if we point at one single thing and say that it will prevent war, unless, of course, that thing happens to be the will, the determination, and the resolve of people everywhere that nations will never again clash on the battlefield."

"War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means."

"The Government of the United States would be constrained to hold the Imperial German government to a strict accountability for such acts of their naval authorities."

"War bred the strangest paranoias from its soup of deceptions, misinformation, misdirection, and poor communication. And lack of any cultural basis for understanding."

"For heathen heart that puts her trust In reeking tube and iron shard— All valiant dust that builds on dust, And guarding calls not Thee to guard— For frantic boast and foolish word, Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!"

"The British army should be a projectile to be fired by the British navy."

"War was return of earth to ugly earth, War was foundering of sublimities, Extinction of each happy art and faith By which the world had still kept head in air."

"War is only caused through the political intercourse of governments and nations … war is nothing but a continuation of political intercourse with an admixture of other means."

"Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true."

"Though I have been trained as a soldier, and participated in many battles, there never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword. I look forward to an epoch when a court, recognized by all nations, will settle international differences, instead of keeping large standing armies as they do in Europe."

"War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means."

"War provides men with the perfect psychological backdrop to give vent to their contempt for women. The maleness of the military—the brute power of weaponry exclusive to their hands, the spiritual bonding of men at arms, the manly discipline of orders given and orders obeyed, the simple logic of the hierarchical command—confirms for men what they long suspect—that women are peripheral to the world that counts"