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War Quotes

War, remembered and reckoned with.

This topic pairs literary observation, such as a novelist's take on the social fabric depicted in a sprawling Tolstoy epic, with hard historical fact about the 1962 border conflict between China and India. Readers interested in broader historical context can visit History.

As a genre, the noir of post-World War II was based on characters who were weak or repellent, bound to let down us and themselves.

Quotes by Steve Erickson

If Lincoln is among history's truly great men, he didn't achieve that stature until his final three years. This was when his long-held antipathy to slavery cohered into a dedicated hostility that gave larger purpose to the Civil War and...

Quotes by Steve Erickson

Struggling to end the war and to eliminate slavery once and for all by way of the 13th Amendment, with the amendment's prospective passage undermining the effort to make peace with the Confederacy and vice versa, Lincoln embodied the Great...

Quotes by Steve Erickson

Two subsequent incidents of import established CNN: the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986, which CNN was the only network to cover as it happened, and the 1991 Gulf War, which CNN chronicled round the clock from a...

Quotes by Steve Erickson

The young patriots now returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan and other deployments worldwide are joining the ranks of veterans to whom America owes an immense debt of gratitude.

Quotes by Steve Buyer

If there is a God, the phrase that must disgust him is - holy war.

Quotes by Steve Allen

The media that's having this hysterical reaction to James Mattis retiring is the same media in many cases, the same politicians in many cases, who cheered our nation into a war in Iraq that turned out to be a catastrophe.

Quotes by Stephen Miller

Whenever there is an international crisis - an earthquake, a flood, a war - Americans provide more assistance than the people of any other nation.

Quotes by Stephen Moore

Few nations have been as reliant on nuclear power as Korea. In many ways, cheap and reliable atomic energy helped make possible the 'miracle on the Han River' - i.e., the swift post-World War II economic surge of Korea.

Quotes by Stephen Moore

The truth is Mr. Trump could simply sit in the Oval Office for four years like a potted plant, and that would be a vast improvement over the Obama agenda, which was almost in every case - from tax increases...

Quotes by Stephen Moore

The war on driving includes calls for carbon and gas taxes, tens of billions of gas tax money diverted to inefficient and little-used mass transit projects, and opposition to building new roads and highways.

Quotes by Stephen Moore

I'm not for a temporary war tax. We're putting actual dollars in one way or the other, and so if we're gonna look at taxes, we ought to look at a comprehensive tax reform policy.

Quotes by Stephen Pagliuca

The United States has dealt with the Middle East and surrounding regions for many decades in the context of the Cold War.

Quotes by Stephen Kinzer

No one will ever be able to say what the comandantes would have done with their historic opportunity in Nicaragua if they had not been confronted with civil war.

Quotes by Stephen Kinzer

After World War II, the winds of nationalism and anti-colonialism blew through the developing world.

Quotes by Stephen Kinzer

As British and French imperialism ebbed following the end of the Second World War, America became the main outside player in Arab affairs.

Quotes by Stephen Kinzer

During the Cold War, America took sides not only in disputes between Arab countries, but also in debates within them.

Quotes by Stephen Kinzer

Our Cuba policy didn't make much sense during the Cold War and makes even less sense now.

Quotes by Stephen M. Walt

By my count, of the more than 600 English-language World War II movies made since 1940, only four have even acknowledged the humanity of the soldiers of Nippon. There may be a few I've missed, but not many.

Quotes by Stephen Hunter

By the '50s and '60s, war movies had become big and impersonal. They almost never bothered to characterize the Japanese enemy as particularly evil; in fact, they never bothered to characterize him at all.

Quotes by Stephen Hunter

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this page reference literature about war?
Yes. One quote reflects on reading novels that portrayed a world with a strong social fabric, noting: "People knew each other in 'War and Peace.'" It's a literary angle on the topic, rather than a historical or personal one. For more big-idea quotes, see Great quotes.
Is there a quote about the 1962 India-China border war?
Yes. One quote states plainly: "China invaded India, and there was a war between India and China in some of the disputed terrain in 1962, and India got hurt by that." It's a direct historical reference within the quote itself. Browse History quotes for more quotes rooted in real events.
Does this collection touch on the aftermath of World War I?
Yes. One quote describes how the end of the First World War had thrown Germany's youth into great turmoil, noting that the reins of power had fallen from the hands of a deeply disillusioned older generation. It's a sober historical observation.
Is there a quote that uses a chess metaphor to describe the war?
Yes - one quote compares the situation for Germany to an end game in chess in which she possessed one castle less than her adversary, adding that the loss of the war was as certain as the loss of an end game under those conditions. It's a vivid, strategic way of describing an outcome that felt inevitable. For more thought-provoking metaphors, see Life quotes.
What kinds of war-related quotes does this page bring together?
A mix of literary reflection, direct historical fact, and vivid metaphor - from a mention of 'War and Peace,' to the 1962 India-China border war, to World War I's aftermath in Germany, to a chess-based description of a war's inevitable loss. For more first-person reflections, see Me quotes.

Two entries look at Germany's condition in the aftermath of its 1918 defeat, one describing the disillusionment of a younger generation and the other comparing the loss to an inevitable endgame in chess. For more reflective lines, see Great or Life.