Unjust War Quotes

• It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

  Albert Einstein

  Peace, War, Killing Someone

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.56, St. Martin's Press

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• An unjust peace is better than a just war.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Life, War, Philosophical

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• War is so unjust and ugly that all who wage it must try to stifle the voice of conscience within themselves.

  Leo Tolstoy

  War, Voice, Trying

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• History shows that wars are divided into two kinds-just and unjust. All wars that are progressive are just, and all wars that impede progress are unjust.

  Mao Zedong

  War, Two, Progress

  Zedong Mao, Mao Tse-Tung (1965). “Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung”, Pergamon

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• An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Motivational, Respect, Kings

  "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. 1963

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• A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Peace, War, Unjust

  Benjamin Franklin (1836). “The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Containing Several Political and Historical Tracts Not Included in Any Former Ed., and Many Letters Official and Private, Not Hitherto Published; with Notes and a Life of the Author”, p.483

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• I have resolved never to start an unjust war, but never to end a legitimate one except by defeating my enemies.

  Charles XII of Sweden

  War, Historical, Enemy

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• We desire peace. However, if imperialism insists on fighting a war, we will have no alternative but to take the firm resolution to fight to the finish before going ahead with our construction. If you are afraid of war day in day out, what will you do if war eventually comes? First, I said that the East Wind is prevailing over the West Wind and war will not break out, and now I have added these explanations about the situation in case war should break out. Both possibilities have thus been taken into account.

  Mao Zedong

  Peace, War, Taken

  Mao Zedong (2017). “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works”, p.40, Lulu.com

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• War can only be qualified by its object, and there is neither foreign war nor civil war, there is only just or unjust war.

  Victor Hugo

  War, Civil War, Unjust

  "Les Miserables".

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• I don't believe there is such thing as a just or unjust war; there are avoidable and unavoidable wars. Sometimes you have no choice but to go to war.

  Mike Hoffman

  War, Believe, Choices

  "Breaking Ranks". Interview with Eva Steele-Saccio, www.motherjones.com. October 11, 2004.

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• You have a situation in which the U.S. is fighting three unjust wars and wasting trillions of dollars in public funds, all the while draining money from important social services and public and higher education.

  Henry Giroux

  War, Fighting, Important

  "Higher Education Under Attack". Interview with C. Cryn Johannsen, www.truth-out.org. April 22, 2011.

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• I abhor unjust war. I abhor injustice and bullying by the strong at the expense of the weak, whether among nations or individuals. I abhor violence and bloodshed. I believe that war should never be resorted to when, or so long as, it is honorably possible to avoid it. I respect all men and women who from high motives and with sanity and self-respect do all they can to avert war. I advocate preparation for war in order to avert war; and I should never advocate war unless it were the only alternative to dishonor.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Bullying, Strong, War

  Theodore Roosevelt (1899). “The Rough Riders: An Autobiography”, p.461, Library of America

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• I've been there for so many crossroads in American history. My whole political life spans the birth of the environmental movement, the women's movement, the civil rights movement, putting an end to unjust wars, and so and so.

  Barbara Boxer

  War, Rights, Political

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

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• The courage we need is not the fortitude to be obedient in the service of an unjust war, to help conceal lies, to do our job for a boss who has usurped power and is acting as an outlaw government. It is the courage at last to face honestly the truth and reality of what we are doing in the world and act responsibly to change it.

  Daniel Ellsberg

  Jobs, War, Lying

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• When war is not just it is subsequently justified; so it becomes many things. In reality, an unjust war is merely piracy. It consists of piracy, ego and, more than anything, money. War is our century's prostitution.

  T. S. Eliot

  War, Reality, Ego

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• I think it's perfectly possible for us to stay outside of power politics, or parliamentary politics, and speak about things like the American hegemony in the region or speak about the unjust war on terror that's been brought to our borders.

  Fatima Bhutto

  War, Thinking, Borders

  Source: www.sbs.com.au

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• Unfortunately, that still leaves plenty of Americans who don't read much or think much -- who will still be extremely useful in unjust wars. We are sick about that. We did the best we could.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  War, Thinking, Sick

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• I am convinced that it is one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world. Our involvement in the war in Vietnam has torn up the Geneva Accord. It has strengthened the military-industrial complex; it has strengthened the forces of reaction in our nation. It has put us against the self-determination of a vast majority of the Vietnamese people, and put us in the position of protecting a corrupt regime that is stacked against the poor.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Determination, Military, War

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• Unjust war is to be abhorred; but woe to the nation that does not make ready to hold its own in time of need against all who would harm it! And woe thrice over to the nation in which the average man loses the fighting edge, loses the power to serve as a soldier if the day of need should arise!

  Theodore Roosevelt

  War, Fighting, Men

  Theodore Roosevelt (2006). “History as Literature and Other Essays”, p.131, Cosimo, Inc.

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• So one important lesson of Vietnam is, the first casualty of an unwise and unjust war are the American troops called on to fight it. Their service should be honored.

  Paul Begala

  War, Fighting, Important

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• George, your reckless and wanton foreign policies killed my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq. Helping to bring about your political downfall will be the most noble accomplishment of my life, and it will bring justice for my son and the hundreds of other brave Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis your lies have killed.

  Cindy Sheehan

  War, Lying, Son

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• Borrowers are nearly always ill-spenders, and it is with lent money that all evil is mainly done and all unjust war protracted.

  John Ruskin

  Money, War, Evil

  John Ruskin (1866). “The crown of wild olive”, p.22

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