Quotes on War

The concentration of troops can be done fast and easy, on paper. — Field Marshal Radomir Putnik

One should never allow chaos to develop in order to avoid going to war, because one does not avoid a war but instead puts it off to his disadvantage. — Nicolo Machiavelli

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory. — General George S. Patton, Jr.

t is sweet and honorable to die for your country. — Horace

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. — Sir Winston Churchill

You can have peace, or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once. — Robert A. Heinlein

…an imperfect plan implemented immediately and violently will always succeed better than a perfect plan. — General George S. Patton

Right is more precious than peace. — Woodrow Wilson

In the long run luck is given only to the efficient. — Helmuth von Moltke

If we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war. — George Washington

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. — Thomas Paine

f ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget ye were our countrymen. — Samuel Adams

There is one tactical principal which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds, death and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time. — General George S. Patton Jr.

No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops, and in the long run no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: ‘Come back with your shield, or on it.’ Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome. — Robert A. Heinlein

Diplomats are just as essential in starting a war as soldiers are in finishing it. — Will Rogers

No man can sit down and withhold his hands from the warfare against wrong and get peace from his acquiescence. — Woodrow Wilson

The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his. — General George S. Patton

A really great people, proud and high-spirited, would face all the disasters of war rather than purchase that base prosperity which is bought at the price of national honor. — Theodore Roosevelt

Where there is no peril in the fight, there is no glory in the triumph — Pierre Corneille

If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. — Winston Churchill

Victory in war does not depend entirely on numbers or courage; only skill and discipline will ensure it. — Flavius Vegetius

The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. — Hyman G. Rickover

It’s been my responsibility, my duty and very much my honor to serve as Commander in Chief of this nation’s Armed Forces these past eight years. That is the most sacred, most important ask of the Presidency. Since our nation’s founding, the primary obligation of the national government has been the common defense of these United States. But as I have sought to perform this sacred task as best I could, I have done so with the knowledge that my role in this day-to-day-to-day effort, from sunrise to sunrise, every moment of every hour of every day of every year, is a glancing one compared to yours. … But it’s not just your fellow Americans who owe you a debt. No, I believe many more do, for I believe that military service in the Armed Forces of the United States is a profound form of service to all humankind. You stand engaged in an effort to keep America safe at home, to protect our allies and interests abroad, to keep the seas and the skies free of threat. Just as America stands as an example to the world of the inestimable benefits of freedom and democracy, so too an America with the capacity to project her power for the purpose of protecting and expanding freedom and democracy abroad benefits the suffering people of the world. — Ronald Reagan

The only power tyrants have, is the power relinquished to them by their victims. — Étienne de la Boétie

No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. — Calvin Coolidge

Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. — Herbert Hoover

Superior firepower is an invaluable tool when entering negotiations. — General George S. Patton

Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others. — Alexander Hamilton

When bad men combine, the good must associate else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. — Edmund Burke

Humanize war? You might as talk about humanizing hell! — British Admiral Jacky Fisher

Let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us re-consecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain. — Dwight Eisenhower

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war. — Ernest Hemingway

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. — Winston Churchill

It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell. — William Tecumseh Sherman

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can. — Winston Churchill

War does not determine who is right – only who is left. — Bertrand Russell

There is one source, O Athenians, of all your defeats. It is that your citizens have ceased to be soldiers. — Demosthenes

What is our aim? Victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; Victory how ever long and hard the road may be. — Sir Winston Churchill

If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live. — Martin Luther King Jr.

In war there is no substitute for victory. — Douglas MacArthur

We make war that we may live in peace. — Aristotle

War is too serious a matter to be taught by the inexperienced. — Robert A. Heinlein

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. — John Adams

The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. — Douglas MacArthur

With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments, where they will certainly be lost. — William Lloyd Garrison

Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive one; it is man and not materials that counts. — Mao Tse-tung

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. — John Stuart Mill

He who stays on the defensive does not make war, he endures it. — Field Marshal Colmar Baron von der Goltz

Cry “havoc!” and let loose the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial. — William Shakespeare

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined. — George Washington

The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility. — British Sea Lord John Fisher

If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence. — Thomas Jefferson

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes. — Karl von Clausewitz

All that is essential for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. — Edmund Burke

In war there is no second prize for the runner-up. — General Omar Bradley

All that is essential for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing — Edmund Burke

Don’t fight a battle if you don’t gain anything by winning. — General George S. Patton

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. — Dwight David Eisenhower

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. — Margaret Thatcher

The Sergeant is the Army. — Dwight Eisenhower

Some people live their entire lifetime and wonder if they ever made a difference to the world. Marines don’t have that problem. — Ronald Reagan

The patriot volunteer, fighting for country and his rights, makes the most reliable soldier on earth. — Thomas J.

What the horrors of war are, no one can imagine. They are not wounds and blood and fever, spotted and low, or dysentery, chronic and acute, cold and heat and famine. They are intoxication, drunken brutality, demoralisation and disorder on the part of the inferior … jealousies, meanness, indifference, selfish brutality on the part of the superior. — Florence Nightingale

The best form of welfare for the troops is first-class training. — Field Marshal Rommel

The sinews of war are not gold, but good soldiers; for gold alone will not procure good soldiers, but good soldiers will always procure gold — Niccol� Machiavelli