Declaring War Quotes

• The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

  James Madison

  War, Liberty, Tyranny Founding Fathers

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States”, p.451

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• I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Funny, Wisdom

  Albert Einstein (2003). “Einstein's 1912 manuscript on the special theory of relativity”, George Braziller

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• No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Peace, War, People

  Eugene V. Debs' anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio (June 16, 1918), as quoted in The Call Magazine, www.marxists.org. 1918.

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• How is it they live in such harmony the billions of stars - when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds about someone they know.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Stars, Powerful, War

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• To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fibre of national life.

  Woodrow Wilson

  War, Fighting, Brutality

  Woodrow Wilson (2015). “Wilson, Volume V: Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace, 1916-1917”, p.399, Princeton University Press

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• There never was a good war or a bad revolution.

  Edward Abbey

  Veterans Day, Peace, War

  Edward Abbey (1998). “The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel”, p.140, Macmillan

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• Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.

  Herbert Hoover

  Death, Peace, War

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• When you have a crime against humanity that is so awesome in scale and death, it is more than permissible to look around and say, who recently has been declaring war on the United States? Of course, the compass points straight to bin Laden.

  Robert Fisk

  War, Humanity, United States

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. December 1, 2001.

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• They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Peace, Military, War

  Eugene V. Debs' anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio (June 16, 1918), as quoted in The Call Magazine, www.marxists.org. 1918.

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• On the Vietnam War: I've lived under situations where every decent man declared war first and I've lived under situations where you don't declare war. We've been flexible enough to kill people without declaring war.

  Lewis Blaine Hershey

  War, Men, People

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• The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.

  George Washington

  Travel, War, 4th Of July

  George Washington (1836). “The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts; with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.367

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• Yesterday, December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan... We will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  War, Yesterday, America

  Franklin D. Roosevelt's Address to the Congress Asking That a State of War Be Declared Between the United States and Japan, www.loc.gov. December 8, 1941.

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• This administration here and now declares unconditional war on poverty.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  War, Unconditional Love, Poverty

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• December 7, 1941. A date which will live in infamy.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  War, Air Force, December

  Address to joint session of Congress asking for declaration of war on Japan, 8 Dec. 1941

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• The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God's will, and actually fulfill God's will, and not let God's word be desecrated. For God's will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will.

  Adolf Hitler

  Letting Go, Religious, War

  Adolf Hitler (1971). “Mein Kampf”, Mariner Books

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• The power of declaring war being with the Legislature, the Executive should do nothing necessarily committing them to decide for war in preference of non-intercourse, which will be preferred by a great many.

  Thomas Jefferson

  War, Great Men, Preference

  Thomas Jefferson, Brett F. Woods (2009). “Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence”, p.213, Algora Publishing

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• For God's will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will.

  Adolf Hitler

  War, Men, Essence

  Adolf Hitler (1998). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I am not sure that I know enough about the pre-history of 9/11 to agree or disagree. But I did think at the time that the [George W.] Bush administration took a number of cues from the Israeli government, not only by drawing on and intensifying anti-Arab racism, but by insisting that the attack on US government and financial buildings was an attack on "democracy" and by invoking "security at all costs" to wage war without a clear focus (why the Taliban?), and by suspending both constitutional rights and the regular protocol for congressional approval for declaring war.

  Judith Butler

  War, Thinking, Rights

  Interview with Cihan Aksan and Jon Bailes, www.counterpunch.org. October 11, 2013.

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• There can be no freedom for Africa without justice; and no justice without declaring war on Africa's poverty, disease and famine with as much vehemence as we remove the tyrant and the terrorist.

  Tony Blair

  War, Tyrants, Justice

  Address to Congress Accepting Congressional Gold Medal, delivered 17 July 2003, Joint Session of Congress, Washington, D.C.

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• War was ... the chief or maybe the only source of patriotism, and many a politician, from prehistory up to this morning, unified a discontented citizenry by pointing out a national danger and declaring war on it.

  Barbara Holland

  Morning, War, Politician

  Barbara Holland (1999). “Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories”, Harcourt

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• No one made a decision to militarize the police in America. The change has come slowly, the result of a generation of politicians and public officials fanning and exploiting public fears by declaring war on abstractions like crime, drug use, and terrorism. The resulting policies have made those war metaphors increasingly real.

  Radley Balko

  Real, War, Drug Use

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• Guerrilla war is a test of wills. Obama's actual objectives - rollback in Iraq, containment in Syria - are not unreasonable. But they require commitment and determination. In other words, will. You can't just make one speech declaring war, then disappear and go fundraising.

  Charles Krauthammer

  Determination, War, Commitment

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• The Constitution expressly and exclusively vests in the Legislature the power of declaring a state of war [and] the power of raising armies.... A delegation of such powers [to the President] would have struck, not only at the fabric of our Constitution, but at the foundation of all well organized and well checked governments. The separation of the power of declaring war from that of conducting it, is wisely contrived to exclude the danger of its being declared for the sake of its being conducted.

  James Madison

  War, Army, Government

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