Useful Quotes
There are times when a quote is just what you need; it expresses exactly what you want to say. Here is a collection of sayings by people through the ages, some famous and some little known, but all have something to say about war, peace and a better way of living.
On the shoulders of giants (one line inspiration)
If I have been able to see further, it is only because I have stood on the shoulders of giants. Isaac Newton
There never was a good war, or a bad peace. Benjamin Franklin
War is the only game in which both sides lose. Walter Scott
War is the blackest villainy of which human nature is capable. Erasmus
One must be poor to know the luxury of giving. George Elliott – Middlemarch
Money is like muck, not good except it be spread. Francis Bacon – Of Seditions & Troubles, 1625
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Martin Luther King – Strength in Love
Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? Abraham Lincoln
Terrorism is the poor man’s war. War is the rich man’s terrorism. Oscar Wilde
You’ll never have a quiet world until you knock the patriotism out of the human race. George Bernard Shaw – O’Flaherty VC
For evil to flourish it is only necessary that good men do nothing. Edmund Burke
Freedom is when the people can speak; democracy is when the government listens. Alistair Farrugia
Small heroes master their enemies. Big heroes master themselves. Rumi
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. Aesop
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. Albert Einstein
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Isaac Asimov
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. Jeanette Rankin – first woman member of Congress
The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war. Ralph Waldo Emerson
An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. Gandhi
If you want to take revenge on somebody, you better dig two graves. Chinese proverb
War does not determine who is right – only who is left. Bertrand Russell
You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. Indira Gandhi
We must be the change we wish to see. Gandhi
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter Martin Luther King
In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons. Herodotus
War is organised murder, and nothing else. Harry Patch, WW1 veteran
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former. Albert Einstein
The silent gardeners (peaceful living)
The tree of humanity forgets the labour of the silent gardeners who sheltered it from the cold, but it preserves the names mercilessly cut into its bark. Heinrich Heine, German poet, 1833
I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness in my heart towards anyone. Edith Cavell, 11th October 1915 (she was executed a day later).
I urge the young of the world whenever I can to become workers for peace, not to make the mistakes of my generation. They must cultivate tolerance, courage, the love of one another. And not forget the soldiers so their deaths might not have been totally in vain. Charles Kueniz – German soldier, WW1
Show us your light, oh God, that we may fight for peace with peace, and not with war. Nicholas Peters, Royal Canadian Air Force, died March 1945; words on his tombstone adapted from his poem, The Wars We Make.
Clemency is also a revolutionary measure. Camille Desmoulins – Speech 1789
We cannot change history but with love we can heal the future. Kim Phuc
War always finishes with both sides sitting down and talking. Why the devil don't they do that beforehand? Harry Patch, WW1 veteran
At the end, the peace was settled round a table, so why the hell couldn't they do that at the start without losing millions of men? Harry Patch, WW1 veteran
You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom. Malcolm X
Peace cannot be achieved through violence; it can only be attained through understanding. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mere praise of peace is easy but ineffective. What is needed is active participation in the fight against war and everything that leads to it. Albert Einstein
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. Martin Luther King
If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work. Thick Naht Hanh
I believe the idea you can fight your way to peace is absurd. There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. Westerners think peace is an absence of war. But in Rastafarian terms, we use peace like a verb - it’s a doing word. Benjamin Zephaniah
Military leaders
There was never a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword. General Grant
As far as I am concerned, war itself is immoral. Omar Bradley, US general
I have known war as few men now living know it. Its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes. General Douglas MacArthur
If you had seen one day of war, you would pray to God that you would never see another. The Duke of Wellington
The more I study the history of the world the more I am convinced of the inability of brute force to create anything durable. Napoleon on St Helena
Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them must share in the guilt for the dead. Omar Bradley, US general
If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. Moshe Dayan
The commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions – or bury the results. Lt General Gregory Newbold
Political leaders
In every country, the people are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments. Franklin D Roosevelt – Letter
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it. Dwight D Eisenhower
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who are hungry and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. Dwight D Eisenhower
We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace. William Gladstone
There is no country on earth that will not prefer its’ own bad government to the good government of an alien power. Gandhi – on being told that India would collapse without the British Administration.
I would urge everyone to pursue the policy of what’s needed, and to abandon the policy of what’s possible. Saeb Erekat, Palestinian Cabinet Minister
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does. John F Kennedy
Youth is the first victim of war, the first fruit of peace. It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him. King Baudoin I of Belgium
To know war is to know there is still madness in the world. Lyndon Johnson
Compromise does not mean cowardice. John Kennedy
War
Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional. Max Lucado
The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions. Robert Lynd
War seldom, if ever, settles anything. More frequently than not it leads to fresh wars. Preparing for war never seems to prevent it, but rather to precipitate it; and in its conclusions war is just about as disastrous to the victor as to the vanquished. Therefore I say it is the duty of all today to concentrate on how to best preserve peace. Field Marshall Sir William Robertson, 1929
Do not try to override the world with force of arms. It is the nature of a military weapon to turn against its wielder. Wherever armies are stationed, thorny bushes grow. After a great war, bad years invariably follow. Lao Tzu – Tao Teh Ching
Those who are traumatised by war are not sick. Their feelings are healthy. Those of us who are not traumatised are the ones who need help. Scott Shaeffer-Duffy – Catholic Radical Newspaper
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
The time has come for man’s intellect to win out over the brutality, the insanity of war. Linus Pauling, Nobel Peace Prize recipient
Does the commandment Thou Shalt Not Kill mean nothing to us? Are we to interpret it as meaning Thou shalt not kill except on the grand scale, or Thou shalt not kill except when the national leaders say to do so? Linus Pauling, Nobel Peace Prize recipient
I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine….War is hell. General Sherman 1879
All war represents a failure of diplomacy. Tony Benn, Speech in the House of Commons 1991
War is an evil ... no one is forced into war ... the fact is that one side think the profits to be won outweigh the risks to be incurred. Thucydides, History, 1V.4
As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular. Oscar Wilde
They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet or fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason. Ernest Hemingway
Every war, when viewed from the undistorted perspective of life's sanctity, is a "civil war" waged by humanity against itself. Daisaku Ikeda
The bomb
TOP SECRET 13. We should declare that this invention has made it essential to end wars…….14. While steps must be taken to prevent the development of this weapon in any country, this will be futile unless the whole conception of war is banished from people’s minds and from the calculations of governments. The Atomic Bomb – Memorandum by the Prime Minister Clement Atlee – 28th August 1945
We should declare that this invention (the atom bomb) has made it essential to end wars…..This sort of thing has in the past been considered a Utopian dream. It has become today the essential condition of the survival of civilisation and possibly of life on this planet. Clement Attlee, 28th August 1945
I did not hold a service of thanksgiving in S Albans today because I cannot honestly give thanks to God for an event brought about by a wrong use of force, by an act of wholesale indiscriminate massacre, different in kind over all other acts of open warfare hitherto, however brutal and hideous. Cuthbert Thickness, Dean of S Albans Abbey, August 1945
The use of modern technology of war is the most striking example of corporate sin and the prostitution of God’s gifts. Lambeth Conference, 1978
The Damage of War
They make a wilderness and call it peace. Tacitus
The field of battle, next morning, presented a frightful scene of carnage; it seemed as if the world had tumbled to pieces, and three-fourths of every thing destroyed in the wreck. The ground running parallel to the front of where we had stood, was so thickly strewed with fallen men and horses, that it was difficult to step clear of their bodies; many of the former still alive and imploring assistance, which it was not in our power to give. The usual salutation on meeting an acquaintance of another regiment after an action was to ask who has been hit? But on this occasion it was ‘Who’s alive?’ The Battle of Waterloo, described by Captain John Kincaid in Adventures in the Rifle Brigade
What good is a house, if you haven’t got a decent planet to put it on? Henry David Thoreau
If we don’t stop the bomb, who will take care of the flowers? Neil J. Seattle, aged 9
‘…. that war is a ready and acceptable instrument of policy whenever a society feels threatened. No it is not. It cannot be repeated often or loudly enough that war can only be justified as an act of last resort. The armies that go to war do so for one purpose: to kill their fellow human beings. The high technology of precision bombing, drone rockets, night sights and body armour doesn’t alter that fact. All it does is reduce the casualties of those with the wealth and science to arm themselves. Westernised countries can undertake invasions, of Iraq or Gaza, because the risk of body bags is relatively low. They can cause the most damage from on high, without ever meeting the enemy.’ Adrian Hamilton (The path to Middle East peace, Independent 8 January 2009)
We can truly say that the whole circuit of the earth is girdled with the graves of our dead. King George V at the dedication of a war cemetery in Flanders in 1922
Speaking From the Heart
It is well and proper to remember the war dead, for they all died innocent of the sins of the politicians who put them in harms’ way. The best way to honour them however, is to make sure the politicians don’t add to their number. Comment from mother whose son died in the Falklands war.
The Americans said last year that we had forgotten what they did here, because we wouldn’t fight with them in Iraq. But I don’t think French people have forgotten. On the contrary, we believe that we should remember what happened here – all the young men of my age who died – not to justify other wars but to help us stop it ever happening again. Celine Trotignon, 22, visiting the Canadian War Memorial at St Aubin-sur-mer.
The right to live is the basic right on which all others depend. To fight for freedom is a contradiction in terms as, while we are fighting, we destroy the things on which freedom is based. David Lane, conscientious objector – 1953
I would give up my faith tomorrow, if it meant the end of war. (This was said by a Christian man passing by our peace stall in the street. He had in the previous week lost a close friend to the war in Iraq. He said it to a fundamentalist Christian who was insisting that all Muslims should be killed. It was one of the most powerful and moving statements I have ever heard. Lesley Docksey)
If school history is to be of any relevance, I would suggest that one module needs to be an in-depth study of the causes of wars, and a consideration of ways in which war might be prevented. Tom MacFarlane – letter in the Independent
I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defence than on programmes of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. Martin Luther King
Religion is the art of giving without strings. It is generosity. It is not doing unto others what you wish them not to do unto you. The rest is commentary. Lionel Blue
The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure but from hope to hope. Dr Johnson – The Rambler
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Martin Luther King
The role of people who are real visionaries … is not necessarily to be right. It is to charge people up with the idea of disposing of the limitations of our expectations and to try and address the immense possibilities. Douglas Adams
At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done. Then they begin to hope it can be done. Then they see it can be done. Then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago. Frances Hodgson Burnett
If they question why we died, tell them because our fathers lied. Rudyard Kipling
We must be prepared to make the same heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart. Nothing that I can do or say will change the structure of the universe. But maybe, by raising my voice, I can help the greatest of all causes – goodwill among men and peace on earth. Albert Einstein
We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. Julia Ward Howe
If it were proved to me that in making war, my ideal had a chance of being realised, I would still say No to war. For one does not create human society on mounds of corpses. Louis Levoin
I emptied the whole clip into him; then I cried. Vietnam veteran
In separateness lies the world’s great misery; in compassion lies the world’s true strength. Buddha
If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito. Anita Roddick
Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them more. Oscar Wilde
We alone regard the man who takes no part in public affairs, not as one who minds his own business, but as good for nothing. Pericles
No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. Edmund Burke
Nothing that I can do will change the structure of the universe. But maybe, by raising my voice, I can help the greatest of all causes – goodwill among men and peace on earth. Albert Einstein
The one subject on which Hardy was categorical was war, still being waged in South Africa, and on this subject he expressed a most surprising optimism about human behaviour; ‘Oh yes, war is doomed. It is doomed by the gradual growth of the introspective faculty in mankind….Not today, nor tomorrow, but in the fullness of time, war will come to an end, not for moral reasons, but because of its absurdity. From an interview by William Archer with Thomas Hardy 1901
A government above the law is a menace to be defeated. Lord Scarman
It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. Oliver Wendell Holmes
War is the wickedest of all living human institutions, and it is also an institution to which human beings cling with obstinate tenacity. Arnold Toynbee
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Samuel Adams, one of the Founding Fathers, spoke for the new ruling class when he argued that the rebellion should be crushed: “In monarchy the crime of treason may admit of being pardoned or lightly punished, but the man who dares rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death.” From Disposable Heroes by Pham Binh, International Socialist Review Issue 55
The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose - especially their lives. Eugene Debs
‘Dyin’ ain’t no way of livin’, boy.’ The Outlaw Josey Wales
I see it is impossible for the King to have things done as cheap as other men. Samuel Pepys
Minorities are almost always in the right. Sydney Smith
Here then is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race or shall mankind renounce war? People will not face this alternative because it is so difficult to abolish war. The abolition of war will demand distasteful limitations to national sovereignty. But what perhaps impeded understanding of the situation more than anything else is that the term mankind feels vague and abstract. People… can scarcely bring themselves to grasp that they, individually, and those whom they love are in imminent danger of perishing agonizingly. And so they hope that perhaps war may be allowed to continue… this hope is illusory. Albert Einstein
There have been many crimes committed in the name of duty and obedience – many more than in the name of dissent. C P Snow
There can be no question that unless war is abolished the world will remain constantly in a state of madness and desperation in which, because of the immense destructive power of modern weapons, the danger of catastrophe will be imminent and probable every moment everywhere. Thomas Merton, Struggles with Peace
Vision without action is merely a dream; action without vision just passes the time; vision with action can change the world. Joel Barker