War Propaganda Quotes

• All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.

  George Orwell

  Peace, War, Lying

  George Orwell (2016). “Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London”, p.69, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.

  Adolf Hitler

  Clever, Lying, Rise To Power

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• The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is being attacked, and every man will be glad of these conscience-soothing falsities

  Mark Twain

  War, Lying, Men

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• Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Mark Twain (2016). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”, p.97, Chartwell

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• In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

  Winston Churchill

  Time, Peace, Truth

  Discussion of Operation Overlord with Stalin at the Teheran Conference November 30, 1943; in Winston Churchill: The Second World War, Volume V : Closing the Ring (1952), Chapter 21 (Teheran: The Crux), p. 338.

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• Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.

  Unknown

  Truth, War, Lying

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• The truth is the greatest enemy of the State.

  Unknown

  Enemy, German History, Nazism

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• All war propaganda consists, in the last resort, in substituting diabolical abstractions for human beings. Similarly, those who defend war have invented a pleasant sounding vocabulary of abstractions in which to describe the process of mass murder.

  Aldous Huxley

  War, Vocabulary, Lasts

  "Pacifism and Philosophy" by Aldous Huxley, 1936.

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• The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.

  George Orwell

  Peace, Political Language, Atrocities Committed

  George Orwell, Ian Angus, Sheila Davison (1998). “The Complete Works of George Orwell: I belong to the Left: 1945”

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• Naturally the common people don't want war. . . but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along. . .

  Hermann Goring

  Country, War, Simple

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• The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the 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, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.

  Mark Twain

  Peace, Truth, Lying

  Mark Twain (2017). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated Edition): Novels, Short Stories, Memoir, Travel Books, Letters, Biography, Articles & Speeches: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, Yankee in King Arthur's Court…”, p.2818, e-artnow

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• Make wars unprofitable and you make them impossible.

  A. Philip Randolph

  Money, War, Impossible

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• The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one.

  Adolf Hitler

  Lying, Heart, Simplicity

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• It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear.

  Douglas MacArthur

  Country, Peace, Fear

  Douglas MacArthur's speech to the Michigan Legislature in Lansing (May 15, 1952) as quoted in "General MacArthur Speeches and Reports 1908-1964" edited by Edward T. Imparato (p. 206), June 14, 2000.

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• During a war, news should be given out for instruction rather than information.

  Joseph Goebbels

  War, News, Information

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• The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.

  Hermann Goring

  Country, Peace, Freedom

  Quoted in Gustave M. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary (1947).

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• Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

  Hermann Goring

  Country, Peace, Military

  Interview in Göring's jail cell, April 18, 1946. "Nuremberg Diary". Book by Gustave Gilbert, 1947.

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• Of course people don't want war. Why should a poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best thing he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece?

  Hermann Goring

  War, Communist Leaders, Agriculture

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• Why, of course, the people don't want war.

  Hermann Goring

  War, Communist Leaders, Political Will

  Interview in Göring's jail cell, April 18, 1946. "Nuremberg Diary". Book by Gustave Gilbert, 1947.

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• War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

  George Orwell

  Strength, Peace, Freedom

  Nineteen Eighty-Four pt. 1, ch. 1 (1949)

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• What if the American people woke up and understood that the official reasons for going to war are almost always based on lies and promoted by war propaganda in order to serve special interests?

  Ron Paul

  Lying, War, Order

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• One cannot wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion, which is tremendously molded by the press and other forms of propaganda.

  Douglas MacArthur

  Military, War, Support

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• The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed.

  Adolf Hitler

  Inspirational, Lying, Size

  "Mein Kampf". Book by Adolf Hitler, www.theguardian.com. 1925.

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• For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination.

  Noam Chomsky

  Practice, Tasks, Indoctrination

  Noam Chomsky, Carlos Peregrín Otero (2003). “Chomsky on Democracy and Education”, p.212, Psychology Press

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• Loud peace propaganda makes war seem imminent.

  D. H. Lawrence

  War, Literature, Propaganda

  D. H. Lawrence (2008). “Complete Poems by Lawrence: Easyread Comfort Edition”, p.153, ReadHowYouWant.com

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