Art, obsession, and identity
War is an incredibly impactful event. It can bring out the worst and the best in humans, but the consequences of conflict are always devastating. Throughout history, many famous figures have addressed war, from different angles and for different reasons. In this gallery, we revisit some of the world's most famous quotes on war.
Browse through and read the thought-provoking words on war expressed by these influential individuals.
"There was never a good war, or a bad peace."
"You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war."
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?"
"I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war."
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind."
"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."
"There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter."
"Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the gun down."
"There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever."
"History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap."
"Wars do not end wars any more than an extraordinarily large conflagration does away with the fire hazard."
"Fighting for peace, is like f*****g for chastity."
"Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war. And until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation, until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes. And until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, there is war. And until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, rule of international morality, will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained... now everywhere is war."
"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."
"All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal."
"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die."
"We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war."
"God created war so that Americans would learn geography."
"It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace."
"A pint of sweat, saves a gallon of blood."
"War is what happens when language fails."
"Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
Sources: (Goodreads) (BrainyQuote) (Notable Quotes)
See also: The stupidest excuses for war in history
Famous quotes on war
Famous reflections on war from both literary and political voices
LIFESTYLE Curiosities
War is an incredibly impactful event. It can bring out the worst and the best in humans, but the consequences of conflict are always devastating. Throughout history, many famous figures have addressed war, from different angles and for different reasons. In this gallery, we revisit some of the world's most famous quotes on war.
Browse through and read the thought-provoking words on war expressed by these influential individuals.