War has long been a defining aspect of human history, shaping civilizations, cultures, and the fate of nations. From ancient conflicts to modern warfare, the narratives of battle have been etched into the annals of time, often accompanied by poignant words spoken or written by those who witnessed its tumultuous reality firsthand. These war quotes encapsulate the range of emotions, experiences, and perspectives that emerge from the chaos of armed conflict, offering insights into the human condition in its most extreme circumstances.
In times of war, leaders, soldiers, and civilians alike have grappled with the profound complexities of armed conflict, from the adrenaline-fueled intensity of combat to the somber reflections on its devastating consequences. Through the eloquence of words, these quotes provide a glimpse into the courage, fear, sacrifice, and resilience that define the human experience amidst the chaos and destruction of war. Whether uttered by renowned generals, celebrated poets, or ordinary individuals thrust into extraordinary circumstances, these quotes resonate with the universal truths of strife and survival.
Below, you will find a collection of war quotes that span centuries and continents, capturing the essence of warfare in all its forms. These words serve as a reminder of the enduring impact of conflict on the human psyche and the indomitable spirit that persists even in the darkest of times.
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter. Ernest Hemingway
We have been travelling through a cloud. The sky has been dark ever since the war began. Black Kettle
Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. Herbert Hoover
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. John F. Kennedy
How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print. Karl Kraus
Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him? Blaise Pascal
War: a massacre of people who don’t know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don’t massacre each other. Paul Valery
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
A pint of sweat, saves a gallon of blood. George S. Patton
When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin. Winston Churchill
The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his. George S. Patton
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. Leo Tolstoy
No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time. Henry Kissinger
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. Dwight D. Eisenhower
War is the unfolding of miscalculations. Barbara W. Tuchman
Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories. Sun Tzu
We have war when at least one of the parties to a conflict wants something more than it wants peace. Jeane Kirkpatrick
What is the use of physicians like myself trying to help parents to bring up children healthy and happy, to have them killed in such numbers for a cause that is ignoble? Benjamin Spock
In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. Douglas MacArthur
In modern war… you will die like a dog for no good reason. Ernest Hemingway
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. Voltaire
War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. George Orwell
The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own. Aldous Huxley
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. John Stuart Mill
In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies. Winston Churchill
War does not determine who is right – only who is left. Bertrand Russell
Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. Martin Luther King, Jr.
War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. Thomas Mann
What a cruel thing war is… to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors. Robert E. Lee
We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it. Dwight D. Eisenhower
To win this war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern. Sarah Palin
It is not only the living who are killed in war. Isaac Asimov
The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts. Omar N. Bradley
There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever. Thomas A. Edison
There is nothing that war has ever achieved that we could not better achieve without it. Havelock Ellis
One may know how to gain a victory, and know not how to use it. Pedro Calderon de la Barca
All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers. Francois Fenelon
In war, you win or lose, live or die – and the difference is just an eyelash. Douglas MacArthur
Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. John F. Kennedy
The first casualty when war comes is truth. Hiram Johnson
I’m fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in. George McGovern
War is fear cloaked in courage. William Westmoreland
It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. Albert Einstein
War is cruelty, and none can make it gentle. Gilbert Parker
Remember, God provides the best camouflage several hours out of every 24. David M. Shoup
War never takes a wicked man by chance, the good man always. Sophocles
Conquered, we conquer. Plautus
The great object is that every man be armed. Patrick Henry
Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. John Adams
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
The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. Norman Schwarzkopf
The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war. Ludwig von Mises
You can’t say civilization don’t advance… in every war they kill you in a new way. Will Rogers
War is the science of destruction. John Abbott
In battle it is the cowards who run the most risk; bravery is a rampart of defense. Sallust
War would end if the dead could return. Stanley Baldwin
The war… was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forebearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides. Robert E. Lee
The military don’t start wars. Politicians start wars. William Westmoreland
Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory. Douglas MacArthur
You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. Albert Einstein
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. Dwight D. Eisenhower
If it’s natural to kill, how come men have to go into training to learn how? Joan Baez
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. Jeannette Rankin
It seems like such a terrible shame that innocent civilians have to get hurt in wars, otherwise combat would be such a wonderfully healthy way to rid the human race of unneeded trash. Fred Woodworth
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. John Adams
I have not yet begun to fight! John Paul Jones
There was never a good war, or a bad peace. Benjamin Franklin
To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace. George Washington
Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country. Bertrand Russell
War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man. Napoleon Hill
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. Albert Einstein
It has too often been too easy for rulers and governments to incite man to war. Lester B. Pearson
Next to a lost battle, nothing is so sad as a battle that has been won. Duke of Wellington
An unjust peace is better than a just war. Marcus Tullius Cicero
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. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood. George S. Patton
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Sun Tzu
If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War. George Washington
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. Winston Churchill
If it were a fact, it wouldn’t be called intelligence. Donald Rumsfeld
War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Establishment center… has led us into the stupidest and cruelest war in all history. That war is a moral and political disaster – a terrible cancer eating away at the soul of our nation. George McGovern
The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy. Friedrich Nietzsche
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. Thomas Jefferson
All warfare is based on deception. Unknown
The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission. John F. Kennedy
The State thrives on war – unless, of course, it is defeated and crushed – expands on it, glories in it. Murray Rothbard
The most successful war seldom pays for its losses. Thomas Jefferson
War is hell. William Tecumseh Sherman
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell. William Tecumseh Sherman
War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over. William Tecumseh Sherman
In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons. Herodotus
You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war. Napoleon Bonaparte
It was a requirement by the veterans to list the 57,000 names. We’re reaching a time that we’ll acknowledge the individual in a war on a national level. Maya Lin
Sweat saves blood. Erwin Rommel
Only the dead have seen the end of the war. George Santayana
The surest way to prevent war is not to fear it. John Randolph
Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come. Carl Sandburg
When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die. Jean-Paul Sartre
My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth. George Washington
