Thought Provoking War Quotes That’ll Make You Feel Brave

– War Quotes –

This article highlights some of the most inspirational war quotes and the effects of the same. War is horrendous. It cannot fully capture the horrors of war by mere words. The aftermath extends for centuries and beyond. Humanity still can shine through even the most horrific of war stories.

A raging battle almost always will ensue when conflicting powers feel compelled to defend their dominion and sovereignty.

We protect what we deem as crucial, even if the resolution calls for combat and spilling blood and guts.

What is war? War is “a contention by force,” wrote Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman state leader. French philosopher Denis Diderot described war as “a convulsive and violent disease of the body politic.”

Webster’s Dictionary defines war as a state of open and declared hostile armed conflict between states or nations, or a period of such conflict.

War Quotes

1. “Fighting for peace is like f***ing for chastity.” ― Stephen King

2. “War happens when language fails.” ― Margaret Atwood

3. “I know not with what weapons World War III we will fight, but they will fight World War IV with sticks and stones.” ― Albert Einstein

4. “Only the dead have seen the end of the war.”― Plato war quotes.

5. “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”― G.K. Chesterton

6. “Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”― Ernest Hemingway.

7. “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether they work the mad destruction under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?”― Mahatma Gandhi

8. “War does not determine who is right – only who is left.”― Bertrand Russell

9. “All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.”― John Steinbeck.

10. “I forbid it to kill; therefore, all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”― Voltaire.

11. “There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”― Howard Zinn.

12. “When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die.”― Jean-Paul Sartre

13. “Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die.”― Herbert Hoover.

14. “How is it possible to have a civil war?”― George Carlin.

15. “How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism?”― Howard Zinn.

16. “Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.”― Martin Luther King Jr.

17. “The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.”― J.R.R. Tolkien

18. “If we don’t end war, war will end us.”― H.G. Wells

19. “Religion isn’t the cause of wars, it’s the excuse.”― Jasper Fforde

20. “Men make war to get attention. All killing is an expression of self-hate.”― Alice Walker

21. “It doesn’t make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who’s dead.”― Joseph Heller

22. “There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.”― George R.R. Martin

23. “I’m fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.”― George S. McGovern

24. “I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, Mother, what was war?”― Eve Merriam

25. It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”― Robert E. Lee

26. “Frankly, our ancestors don’t seem much to brag about. I mean, look at the state they left us in, with the wars, the broken planet. Clearly, they didn’t care about what would happen to the people who came after them.”― Suzanne Collins

27. “One day, President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once ‘The Unnecessary War’.”― Winston S. Churchill

28. “‘Peace?’ said Vetinari. ‘Ah, yes, defined as a period of time to allow for preparation for the next war.”― Terry Pratchett

29. “Have we raised the threshold of horror so high that nothing short of a nuclear strike qualifies as a ‘real’ war? Are we to spend the rest of our lives in this state of high alert with guns pointed at each other’s heads and fingers trembling on the trigger?” ― Arundhati Roy

30. “They won the war but lost the peace.” ― Jonathan Maberry

31. “Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.”― Jean-Paul Sartre

32. The object of waging a war is always to be in a better position in which to wage another war.”― George Orwell

33. “How much energy they put into harming each other. How little into saving.”― Suzanne Collins

34. “No soldier ever really survives a war.”― Audie Murphy

35. “These men are worth your tears. You are not worth their merriment.”― Wilfred Owen

36. “The military doesn’t start wars. Politicians start wars.”― William C. Westmoreland

37. “You don’t spread democracy with a barrel of a gun.”― Helen Thomas

38. “A bad peace is worse than war.”― Tacitus

39. “You can’t hammer in a nail with words…”
“No, but you can start a war with them.” ― Ben Galley

40. “Well, politics is war, and in war, truth is the first casualty.”― Jeff Greenfield

41. “War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain an advantage at the expense of his fellow man.”― Napoleon Hill

42. “The folly of war is that it can have no natural end except in the extinction of an entire people.”― Joyce Carol Oates

43. “There is only one way to win a war which has begun: To stop it immediately; that is the way!”― Mehmet Murat ildan

44. “War is merely the continuation of politics by other means.”― Carl von Clausewitz

45. “You must learn to end the wars in your world by ending them in your minds.”― from war quotes Barbara Marciniak

46. “God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”― Mark Twain

47. “We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.”― Dwight D. Eisenhower

48. “I would rather make love than war, but only because condoms kill millions of lives more enjoyably.”― Jarod Kintz

49. “This film cost $31 million. With that kind of money I could have invaded some country.”― Clint Eastwood

50. “I’d start a war just to illustrate the value of peace.”― Jarod Kintz

51. “No two countries that both had McDonald’s had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald’s.”― Thomas L. Friedman

52. Our Generation has had no Great war, no Great Depression. Therefore, our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives.

53. War happens when language fails. I know not with what weapons World War III they will fight, but they will fight World War IV with sticks and stones.

54. How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism? It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.

55. We have to study war and politics now so that our children could have the freedom to study things like philosophy and know nothing about war.

56. If there were no wars, how could we know the value of peace?

57. There’s nothing worth dying for in modern wars. Soldiers die for politicians and their desire to get richer.

58. Refusing to fight for what someone thinks is right isn’t an act of cowardice. It’s the realisation that wars are pointless.

59. It doesn’t matter what war we are talking about, you won’t find winners there. Both sides lose.

60. The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue.

61. War is hell. You can’t photograph a flying bullet, but you can capture genuine fear.

62. Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.

63. There’s no honourable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

64. Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak. – from Sun Tzu war quotes

65. One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression. Patriotism becomes the order of the day, and they saw those who question the war as traitors to be silenced and imprisoned. – Howard Zinn

66. Listen up – there’s no war that will end all wars. – Haruki Murakami

67. Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. – Ernest Hemingway

68. War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to make it. – Benito Mussolini

69. Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the gun down. – Malcolm

70. War makes rattling good history, but Peace is poor reading. – Thomas Hardy

71. War demands the sacrifice of the people. It gives only suffering in return. – Frederic Clemson Howe

72. Wars do not end wars any more than an extraordinarily large conflagration does away with the fire hazard. – from Henry Ford war quotes

73. The nation having the strongest war footing can easily find an excuse for going to war. – Lewis F. Korns

74. War is mainly a catalogue of blunders. – Winston Churchill

75. The power of making war often prevents it. – Thomas Jefferson

76. They can only abolish war through war… in order to get rid of the gun, it is necessary to take up the gun. – Mao Zedong

77. War never takes a wicked man by chance, the good man always. – Sophocles

78. The military doesn’t start wars. Politicians start wars. – William Westmoreland

79. A war undertaken without sufficient monies has but a wisp of force. Coins are the very sinews of battles. – Francois Rabelais

80. War has no fury like a non-combatant. – C. E. Montague

81. Short of changing human nature… the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war. – Richard Nixon

Share these famous war quotes from philosophers, authors, and politicians and see what your friends have to say about them.

CSN Team.