War and Peace

Today the real test of power is not the capacity to make war but the capacity to prevent it.

Anne O'Hare McCormick, in War and Peace

I am become death, shatterer of worlds.

Robert J. Oppenheimer, (quoting the Bhagavadgita after witnessing the first nuclear explosion), in War and Peace

Isn't the best defense always a good attack?

Ovid, in War and Peace

Every soldier is an enemy.

Erno Paasilinna, in War and Peace

A pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood.

George Patton, in War and Peace and Work and Recreation

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.

George Patton, in War and Peace

I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harms way.

John Paul Jones, in War and Peace

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

John F. Kennedy, (inaugural speech, 1961), in Law and Politics and War and Peace

It was involuntary. They sank my boat.

John F. Kennedy, (comment when asked about his heroism), in War and Peace

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.

John F. Kennedy, in War and Peace

The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision. Each tends to ascribe to the other side a consistency, foresight and coherence that its own experience belies. Of course, even two blind men can do enormous damage to each other, not to speak of the room.

Henry Kissinger, in War and Peace

In war, there is no substitute for victory.

Douglas MacArthur, in War and Peace

I believe that Ronald Reagan will someday make this country what it once was... an arctic wilderness.

Steve Martin, in War and Peace

Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

Groucho Marx, in War and Peace

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

Groucho Marx, in War and Peace

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill, in War and Peace

War hath no fury like a non-combatant.

Charles Edward Montague, in War and Peace

One moment on the battlefield is worth a thousand years of peace.

Benito Mussolini, in War and Peace

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

Charles de Gaulle, in War and Peace

It was a Roman who said it was sweet to die for one's country. The Greeks never said it was sweet to die for anything. They had no vital lies.

Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way, in Life and Death and War and Peace