Famous War Quotes

"I cannot bear it!" said the pewter soldier. "I have shed pewter tears! It is too melancholy! Rather let me go to the wars and lose arms and legs! It would at least be a change. I cannot bear it longer! Now, I know what it is to have a visit from one's old thoughts, with what they may bring with them! I have had a visit from mine, and you may be sure it is no pleasant thing in the end; I was at last about to jump down from the drawers."
-- Hans Christian Andersen

'Twas in Trafalgar's bay The saucy Frenchmen lay.
-- Samuel James Adams

'What war?' said the Prime Minister sharply. 'No one has said anything to me about a war. I really think I should have been told. I'll be damned,' he said defiantly, 'if they shall have a war without consulting me. What's a cabinet for, if there's not more mutual confidence than that? What do they want a war for anyway?'
-- Evelyn Arthur

A riot is a spontaneous outburst. A war is subject to advance planning.
-- Richard M Nixon

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte

All of us who served in one war or another know very well that all wars are the glory and the agony of the young.
-- Gerald R Ford

All quiet along the Potomac they say Except now and then a stray picket Is shot as he walks on his beat, to and fro, By a rifleman hid in the thicket.
-- Ethel Lynn Beers

All's fair in love and war.
-- Francis Edward Smedley

An unjust peace is better than a just war.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

And always we had wars, and more wars, and still other wars — all over Europe, all over the world. 'Sometimes in the private interest of royal families,' Satan said, 'sometimes to crush a weak nation; but never a war started by the aggressor for any clean purpose — there is no such war in the history of the race.
-- Mark Twain

And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again?
-- Archilochus

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
-- The Bible

Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war. •Otto Von Bismarck Peace with a club in hand is war. •Portuguese Proverb The sinews of war are five - men, money, materials, maintenance and morale. •Bernard Mannes Baruch The greatest conqueror is he who overcomes the enemy without a blow. •Chinese Proverb Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.
-- Otto Von Bismarck

As long as war is looked upon as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked on as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
-- Oscar Wilde

Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war.
-- Thucydides

Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology.
-- Dame Rebecca West

Both Regiments or none.
-- Samuel Adams

Carry on, carry on, for the men and boys are gone, But the furrow shan't lie fallow while the women carry on.
-- Janet Begbie

Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!
-- David G Farragut

DepLeted uranium is a warcrime in progress. Doug Rokke appointed by Norman Schwarzkopf as commander of a cleanup crew of several hundred, 30 of whom have died of cancer http://indymedia.org.
-- Doug Rokke