Aphorisms Galore!

War and Peace

74 aphorisms  ·  one comment

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/snhswbdj  ·   Fair (260 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

Bertrand Russell, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/qk0rnn17  ·   Fair (396 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

When the rich make war it's the poor that die.

Jean-Paul Sartre, in War and Peace and Wealth and Poverty

tiny.ag/ifl4hquq  ·   Fair (271 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Isn't the best defense always a good attack?

Ovid, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/8bpf0foj  ·   Fair (370 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

I am become death, shatterer of worlds.

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

tiny.ag/db2sazsg  ·   Fair (188 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

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

tiny.ag/ognqp9t4  ·   Fair (102 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

Aldous Huxley, in Science and Religion and War and Peace

tiny.ag/qgj3ivvu  ·   Fair (151 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and liberty.

Henrik Ibsen, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/1i8zitnu  ·   Fair (892 ratings)  ·  submitted 1998

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

tiny.ag/826svnit  ·   Fair (818 ratings)  ·  submitted 1998

Every soldier is an enemy.

Erno Paasilinna, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/crjwer6v  ·   Fair (236 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

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

tiny.ag/hrd6aj12  ·   Fair (424 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

A pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood.

George Patton, in War and Peace and Work and Recreation

tiny.ag/9pd1qmsc  ·   Fair (914 ratings)  ·  submitted 1999

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

Benito Mussolini, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/jaishdmt  ·   Fair (178 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

War hath no fury like a non-combatant.

Charles Edward Montague, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/piklxjab  ·   Fair (223 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.

Victor Hugo, in Success and Failure and War and Peace

tiny.ag/ucs9vnd3  ·   Fair (829 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

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

tiny.ag/5mrm7cdg  ·   Fair (3018 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

The Greek Way (paperback)

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

tiny.ag/rkg7iuvl  ·   Fair (230 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

Charles de Gaulle, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/lgkszg2d  ·   Fair (431 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin, in Law and Politics and War and Peace

tiny.ag/xm0eggq6  ·   Fair (195 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.

David Friedman, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/ry32bjva  ·   Fair (823 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Catch-22 (paperback)

The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.

Joseph Heller, Catch-22, in War and Peace