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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.

Supposedly, going to war initiates you into this gnostic priesthood of people who've had a liminal experience forever separating them from civilians. Except... you go there, and it is what it is. A form of human activity as varied as...

Quotes by Phil Klay

Treating war as farce is one way soldiers deal with it.

Quotes by Phil Klay

War is too strange to process alone.

Quotes by Phil Klay

Oftentimes, discussion of war gets flattened to a discussion of trauma.

Quotes by Phil Klay

Prayer in a combat zone serves exactly the same purpose as it does in peacetime. In war, the stakes are life and death, true; but if you believe in God and in the notion of a human soul, then we...

Quotes by Phil Klay

I'm not anti-war. I served in a war, and I served proudly. But just or not, necessary or not, war is the industrial-scale slaughter of other humans.

Quotes by Phil Klay

If the Southeast represents the new battlefield in the war on meth, then Tennessee clearly is at ground zero.

Quotes by Phil Bredesen

We don't go to war on narrow, partisan votes.

Quotes by Phil Bredesen

I could never understand how we could put 120,000 Japanese behind a fence in World War II. I remember being bewildered about that.

Quotes by Phil Donahue

End of the war would be when the Russian occupation troops leave Ukrainian territory and we close the uncontrolled part of the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Quotes by Petro Poroshenko

I do not want war. I am not seeking revenge, even though I can see before my eyes the great sacrifices made by the Ukrainian people. I am seeking peace and will achieve Ukraine's unity.

Quotes by Petro Poroshenko

I think each book sort of finds its own theme as it goes on. 'Warded Man' was fear. 'Desert Spear' was exploration of the other. 'Daylight War' was relationships. Some of this is intentional, and some of it evolves naturally....

Quotes by Peter V. Brett

Book four is tentatively titled 'The Skull Throne ,' and book five is 'The Core .' It's kind of hard to talk much about them without giving away things from 'Daylight War,' however.

Quotes by Peter V. Brett

We can only move to a long-term resolution regarding terrorism and war by planting seeds of peace. We have to start with ourselves.

Quotes by Peter Yarrow

Praise the Lord, O England's Jerusalem: and Netherland's Zion, praise ye the Lord! He hath secured your gates, and blessed your possessions with peace, even here, where the threatened torch of war was lighted.

Quotes by Peter Stuyvesant

George Bush, Dick Cheney, every one of the speakers praised John Kerry's war record. No one said he was unfit. They said he has terrible judgment, and that's his record as a senator. Nobody questioned his military record.

Quotes by Peter T. King

We are a nation at war - and we should act like it.

Quotes by Peter T. King

Every year, I hear about Thanksgiving. Who do one give thanks to? ... And who is giving thanks? What are they giving thanks for? For lots of poverty that's on the earth and lots of war that is a-rumoring all...

Quotes by Peter Tosh

We... our war began September the 3rd 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany, and thereafter the great state of danger in England at that time, with the bombings, necessitated the evacuation of children.

Quotes by Peter Shaffer

What is the first thing we did when we took control of Iraq? Protect the oil fields. Remember the administration quote about how the oil would pay for the war.

Quotes by Peter Schuyler

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.