War

Explore 135 quotes about War

Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.

Samuel Johnson

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Topic

War and truth War

Author

Samuel Johnson

Source

The Idler

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1758 1750s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Johnson, Samuel. "Idler." Universal Chronicle, 11 Nov. 1758, no. 30.

When I go home people'll ask me, "Hey Hoot, why do you do it man? Why, you some kinda war junkie?" I won't say a goddamn word. Why? They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the man next to you, and that's it. That's all it is.

Black Hawk Down

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Topic

Brothers in war War

Speaker

Hoot

Actor

Eric Bana

Source

Black Hawk Down

Medium

Film

Genre

War (film) War

Language

English

Time

2001 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Black Hawk Down. Directed by Ridley Scott, Scott Free Productions/Revolution Studios/Columbia Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer Films, 2001.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base.

George S. Patton

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Topic

War

Speaker

George S. Patton

Medium

Speech

Genre

Military speech

Language

English

Time

1944 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Patton, George Smith. Address to the troops. 5 June 1944, England, UK.

In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers.

Neville Chamberlain

More information about this quote

Topic

Victory in war War

Speaker

Neville Chamberlain

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.

Carl Sandburg

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Topic

Anti-war War

Author

Carl Sandburg

Source

The People, Yes

Medium

Poem

Genre

Epic poem

Language

English

Time

1936 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sandburg, Carl. The People, Yes. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1936, no. 23.

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy, who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my rifle and myself are defenders of my country, we are the masters of our enemy, we are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.

Full Metal Jacket

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More information about this quote

Topic

Guns War

Source

Full Metal Jacket

Medium

Film

Genre

War (film) War

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Full Metal Jacket. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Natant/Harrier Films, 1987.

History is littered with the wars which everybody knew would never happen.

Enoch Powell

Quoted in The Times of London

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Topic

War

Speaker

Enoch Powell

Source

The Times of London

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Powell, Enoch. Speech at the Conservative Party Conference. 19 Oct. 1967, UK.

War, he sung, is Toil and Trouble;
Honour, but an empty Bubble.
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying;
If the World be worth thy winning,
Think, O think it worth enjoying.

John Dryden

More information about this quote

Topic

Anti-war War

Author

John Dryden

Source

Alexander's Feast, or The Power of Musique an Ode, in Honour of St. Cecilia's Day

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1697 1690s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Dryden, John. Alexander's Feast, or The Power of Musique an Ode, in Honour of St. Cecilia's Day. London: Jacob Tonson, 1697, I. 97.

Current Citation

Dryden, John. "Alexander's Feast." John Dryden Selected Poems. Penguin Classics, 2002, I. 97.

Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

Patton

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Topic

Dying for one's country War

Speaker

General George S. Patton

Actor

George C. Scott

Source

Patton

Medium

Film

Genre

Biography (film) War (film) Biography War

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Patton. Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. 20th Century Fox, 1969.

A war regarded as inevitable or even probable, and therefore much prepared for, has a very good chance of eventually being fought.

George F. Kennan

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Topic

Preparing for war War

Author

George F. Kennan

Source

The Cloud of Danger

Genre

Political literature

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kennan, George Frost. The Cloud of Danger: Current Realities of American Foreign Policy. Little, Brown and Company, 1977, ch. 13.

That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.

Robert H. Jackson

Opening statement for the prosecution at Nuremberg.

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Topic

Magnanimity in war World War II War

Speaker

Robert H. Jackson

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1945 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jackson, Robert H. "Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal." 21 Nov. 1945, International Military Tribunal, Palace of Justice, Nuremberg, Germany.

I gave my life for freedom-This I know:
For those who bade me fight had told me so.

William Norman Ewer

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Topic

Abuses of patriotism Dying for one's country World War I War

Author

William Norman Ewer

Source

Five Souls

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1914 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Ewer, William Norman. "Five Souls." British Nation, 3 Oct. 1914, I. 5.

To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, if unsatisfactory, conclusion.

Walter Cronkite

More information about this quote

Topic

Vietnam War War

Speaker

Walter Cronkite

Source

CBS Evening News

Medium

TV news TV program

Language

English

Time

1968 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cronkite, Walter. "We are Mired in Stalemate." CBS Evening News, created by Don Hewitt, CBS News Productions, 27 Feb. 1968.

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work-
I am the grass; I cover all.

Carl Sandburg

Read Grass at Poetry Foundation

More information about this quote

Topic

Casualties of war War

Author

Carl Sandburg

Source

Grass

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1918 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sandburg, Carl. "Grass." Cornhuskers. Henry Holt and Company, 1918, I. 1.

Current Citation

Sandburg, Carl. "Grass." The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003, I. 1.

Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow"...[Rule 2] is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China."

Bernard Montgomery

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Topic

Military strategy War

Speaker

Bernard Montgomery

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Montgomery, Bernard Law. Speech in House of Lords. 30 May 1962, Palace of Westminster, London, England, UK.

A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.

Tim O'Brien

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Topic

War stories War

Author

Tim O'Brien

Source

The Things They Carried

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

O'Brien, Tim. "How to Tell a True War Story." Esquire, 1 Oct. 1987.

In those days, when every male who could stand half-way erect was being shipped to Verdun to undergo a radical change of posture from the vertical to the eternal horizontal.

Günter Grass

The Tin Drum

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More information about this quote

Topic

World War I War

Author

Günter Grass

Source

The Tin Drum

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Die Blechtrommel [The Tin Drum]. Directed by Volker Schlöndorff. Franz Seitz Filmproduktion/Bioskop Film, 1959.

In the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence and famine.

George Bernard Shaw

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Read Man and Superman at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Man's inhumanity to man War

Speaker

The devil

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Man and Superman

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play)

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Man and Superman." Man and Superman, John Bull's Other Island, and Major Barbara. Oxford University Press, 2021, act 3. Originally published by Archibald and Constable & Co., Ltd, 1903.

Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end.

Douglas Haig

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Topic

World War I No surrender War

Author

Douglas Haig

Source

Special Order of the Day

Language

English

Time

1918 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Haig, Douglas. "Special Order of the Day." 11 Apr. 1918, Great Britain, UK.

I think all men recognize that in time of war the citizen must surrender some rights for the common good which he is entitled to enjoy in time of peace. But, sir, the right to control their own government according to constitutional forms is not one of the rights that the citizens of this country are called upon to surrender in time of war.

Robert M. La Follette Sr.

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Topic

War

Speaker

Robert M. La Follette Sr.

Language

English

Time

1917 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

La Follette, Robert M, Sr. Quoted in The Senate, 1789-1989, written by Robert C. Byrd. U.S. Senate Historical Office, 1988. Originally an address called "Free Speech in Wartime." Senate meeting. 6 Oct. 1917, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.