Quotes on War
Washington on Peace and Prosperity
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.
Jefferson on revolution
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
Madison on War and Economic Growth
Under the benign influence of our republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivaled growth of our faculties and resources.
-- James Madison, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1809
Just war
Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just.
-- Mark Twain
Patton on dying
The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his.
-- General George S. Patton
Eisenhower on war
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
Kennedy on revolution
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
-- John F. Kennedy
Old story
I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.
-- George McGovern
Prefer peace
No one is so foolish as to prefer to peace, war, in which, instead of sons burying their fathers, fathers bury their sons.
-- Croesus, King of Lydia, in Herodotus' The Persian Wars
Revolt on the way
Tell Astyages that I shall appear in his presence sooner than he will like.
-- Cyrus, King of the Persians, after being commanded by Astyages, King of the Medes, to appear on charges of planning a revolt, as quoted in Herodotus' The Persian Wars
On patriotism
He loves his country best who strives to make it best.
-- R.G. Ingersoll
Long history
There have been 5,600 years of written history and 14,600 wars have been recorded.
-- James Hillman, A Terrible Love of War