Anti War Quotes - Page 25

• The working masses of men and women, they and they alone, are responsible for everything that takes place, the good things and the bad things. True enough, they suffer most from a war, but it is their apathy, craving for authority, etc., that is most responsible for making wars possible. It follows of necessity from this responsibility that the working masses of men and women, they and they alone, are capable of establishing lasting peace.

  Wilhelm Reich

  War, Responsibility, Men

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• Who can sum up all the ills the women of a nation suffer from war? They have all of the misery and none of the glory; nothing to mitigate their weary waiting and watching for the loved ones who return no more.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  War, Waiting, Suffering

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1898). “Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences, 1815-1897”, p.329, UPNE

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• The very existence of armaments and great armies psychologically accustoms us to accept the philosophy of militarism. They inevitably increase fear and hate in the world.

  Norman Thomas

  Philosophy, War, Hate

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• You will always find that those are most apt to boast of national merit, who have little or not merit of their own to depend on . . .

  Oliver Goldsmith

  War, Merit, Littles

  Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: The bee. Essays. Unacknowledged essays. Prefaces, introductions, etc”, p.283

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• John Brown first swam into my vision in the 1960s when I was a political activist in the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement at Chapel Hill, where I went to university.

  Russell Banks

  War, Rights, Political

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• [War] can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, War, Concern

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• Let us face squarely the paradox that the world which goes to war is a world, usually genuinely desiring peace. War is the outcome, not mainly of evil intentions, but on the whole of good intentions which miscarry or are frustrated. It is made not usually by evil men knowing themselves to be wrong, but is the outcome of policies pursued by good men usually passionately convinced that they are right.

  Norman Angell

  War, Men, Knowing

  Nobel Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. June 12, 1935.

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• A standing army is a standing menace to liberty.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Peace, War, Army

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.98, SUNY Press

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• In peace sons bury fathers, but war violates the order of nature, and fathers bury sons.

  Herodotus

  Peace, Father, Military

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• We have met the enemy and he is us.

  Walt Kelly

  Trust, Peace, Fun

  Poster for Earth Day (1970). Also appeared in the Pogo comic strip for 8 Aug. 1970.

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• The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

  Winston Churchill

  Peace, War, Yield

  "My Early Life: A Roving Commission". Book by Winston Churchill, 1930.

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• This idea of weapons of mass extermination is utterly horrible and is something which no one with one spark of humanity can tolerate.

  Bertrand Russell

  Ideas, Humanity, Weapons

  Speech in Birmingham, England encouraging civil disobedience in support of nuclear disarmament, April 15, 1961.

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• The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Peace, War, Believe

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• When women have a voice in national and international affairs, wars will cease forever.

  Augusta Stowe-Gullen

  War, Voice, Forever

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• Make it plain that you have no time for war, that you have more important things to do....let the diplomats and marshals of the earth shoot each other.

  Wilhelm Reich

  War, Important, Earth

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• Freedom is not nurtured by nations preparing for war.

  William Appleman Williams

  War, Preparing, Nations

  William Appleman Williams, Henry W. Berger (1992). “A William Appleman Williams reader: selections from his major historical writings”, Ivan R Dee

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• Never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter.

  Winston Churchill

  Peace, War, Believe

  Winston Churchill (2010). “My Early Life: 1874-1904”, p.227, Simon and Schuster

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• Modern war appears as a struggle led by all the State apparatuses and their general staffs against all men old enough to bear arms.

  Simone Weil

  Peace, War, Struggle

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• I wish that I had bridged the feminist movement and the anti-war movement better than I did.

  Bernardine Dohrn

  War, Feminist, Wish

  "Exclusive Interview: Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers". www.pbs.org.

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• The price of empire is America's soul, and that price is too high.

  J. William Fulbright

  Peace, War, America

  "Fulbright: The Dissenter". Book by Haynes Bonner Johnson and Bernard M. Gwertzman, 1968.

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• The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements.

  J. William Fulbright

  Peace, War, Government

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• ...the role of the military is to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place.

  George W. Bush

  Peace, Military, War

  George W. Bush at the first presidential debate at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Massachusetts, www.debates.org. October 3, 2000.

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• The responsibility of the great states is to serve, and not to dominate, the world.

  Harry S. Truman

  War, Responsibility, World

  Harry S. Truman, Howard B. Furer, United States. President (1945-1953 : Truman) (1970). “Harry S. Truman, 1884- : chronology-documents-bibliographical aids”, Oceana Pubns

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• Victory means exit strategy. And it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is.

  George W. Bush

  Peace, War, Mean

  "Sen. John McCain Praises Bush's Address". "Hannity & Colmes" with Alan Colmes, www.foxnews.com. June 28, 2005.

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• My dad [Johnny Cash] went to the [Richard] Nixon White House and refused to sing "Welfare Cadillac" (instead performing the anti-war songs "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" and "Man in Black"). He protested the Vietnam War, but he went to perform for the troops with bombs dropping all around him. He had that kind of genius: a true artist's capacity for holding two opposing thoughts at once while being large enough to encompass all realities.

  Rosanne Cash

  Song, Dad, War

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