War Quotes - Page 22

• Never, never, 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. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize 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, Military, Believe

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

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• I wanted the American public to know that not everyone in Iraq and Afghanistan were targets that needed to be neutralized, but rather people who were struggling to live in the pressure cooker environment of what we call asymmetric warfare.

  Chelsea Manning

  Military, Struggle, Iraq

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• At the core, the American citizen soldiers knew the difference between right and wrong, and they didn't want to live in a world in which wrong prevailed. So they fought, and won, and we all of us, living and yet to be born, must be forever profoundly grateful.

  Stephen Ambrose

  Grateful, Fighting, Winning

  "Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany". Book by Stephen Ambrose, www.nytimes.com. 1997.

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• Let's not forget what the origin of the problem is. There is no place in modern Europe for ethnically pure states. That's a 19th century idea and we are trying to transition into the 21st century, and we are going to do it with multi-ethnic states.

  Wesley Clark

  Europe, Ideas, Political

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• I am the harvest of man's stupidity. I am the fruit of the holocaust. I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. People back home will wonder why you can't forget.

  Eugene B. Sledge

  Life, Memories, Struggle

  Eugene B Sledge (2010). “With the Old Breed: The World War Two Pacific Classic”, p.272, Random House

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• For the mission's sake, our country's sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division's colors in the past battles - who fought for life and never lost their nerve - carry out your mission and keep your honor clean. Demonstrate to the world there is "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" than a U.S. Marine.

  James Mattis

  Life, Country, Military

  "Eve of Battle Speech". "The Weekly Standard" Magazine, March 1, 2003.

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• We shall kill. If you have not killed at least one German a day, you have wasted that day... Do not count days; do not count miles. Count only the number of Germans you have killed.

  Ilya Ehrenburg

  Pride, Army, Race

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• I would happily storm hell in the company of these troops ... how strongly they have demonstrated to the world that free men and women can fight like the dickens.

  James Mattis

  Inspirational, Courage, Women

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• We are the only people on Earth asked to guarantee the security of our occupier...while Israel is the only country that calls for defense from its victims.

  Hanan Ashrawi

  Country, Israel, People

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• I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns.

  Woody Guthrie

  Peace, Fighting, Gun

  Woody Guthrie (1975). “Woody Sez”

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• It is impossible to put into words what we have been through. What happened exceeded our boldest dreams. The Germans fled twice from the ghetto... My life's dream has come true. Defense in the ghetto has become a fact. Armed Jewish resistance and revenge are actually happening. I have witnessed the glorious and heroic combat of the Jewish fighters.

  Mordechai Anielewicz

  Dream, Revenge, Ghetto

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• War is what happens when language fails.

  Margaret Atwood

  Empowering, Language, Failing

  Margaret Atwood (2009). “The Robber Bride: Includes the short story 'I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth'”, p.46, Hachette UK

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• The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Peace, Powerful, Tyrants

  Ambrose Bierce (1912). “The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce ...: Antepenultimata”

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• My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

  Smedley Butler

  Peace, Military, Order

  "War Is A Racket". Smedley Butler's speech in the U.S. (1933); later published as a book "War Is a Racket", www.businessinsider.com. 1935.

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• We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives... inside ourselves.

  Albert Camus

  Peace, Realizing, Wonder

  Albert Camus (1963). “Notebooks”

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• Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

  Winston Churchill

  Memorial Day, Military, Hero

  Speech in House of Commons, 20 Aug. 1940

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• No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Peace, Army, Victory

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• We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom. And now, as in no other age, we seek it because we have been warned, by the power of modern weapons, that peace may be the only climate possible for human life itself.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, Freedom, Knowing

  Second Inaugural Address, en.wikisource.org. January 21, 1957.

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• To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.

  George Santayana

  Positive, Remembrance, Political

  George Santayana (1934). “Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana”, p.262, Рипол Классик

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• The scenes on this field would have cured anybody of war.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Civil War, Fields, Scene

  William Tecumseh Sherman, Brooks D. Simpson, Jean Vance Berlin (1999). “Sherman's Civil War: selected correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865”, The University of North Carolina Press

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• My first wish is, to see this plague of mankind banished from the earth, and the sons and daughters of this world employed in more pleasing and innocent amusements, than in preparing implements, and exercising them, for the destruction of mankind.

  George Washington

  Peace, 4th Of July, Wish

  "Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious".

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• We shall then defeat the whole lot of them in one go!

  Edward I of England

  Defeat, Whole

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• War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Peace, Games, Delight

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (1994). “The Selected Poetry and Prose of Shelley”, p.29, Wordsworth Editions

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• Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Peace, Brother, Hippie

  Percy Bysshe Shelley, Richard Herne Shepherd (1810). “The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley ... Ed. ... by Richard Herne Shepherd”, p.286

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• The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, Military, Idaho

  "John F. Kennedy: 1961 : containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the president, January 20 to December 31, 1961" by John F. Kennedy, Washington: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1962.

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