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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.

America stood at the summit of power, emerging from the Cold War as an economic, cultural and military force without equal.

Quotes by Lincoln Chafee

Since the end of the Cold War, hegemonism has become increasingly unpopular.

Quotes by Li Peng

War is the supreme drama of a completely mechanized society.

Quotes by Lewis Mumford

In war, the army is not merely a pure consumer, but a negative producer.

Quotes by Lewis Mumford

Misery, mutilation, destruction, terror, starvation and death characterize the process of war and form a principal part of the product.

Quotes by Lewis Mumford

War vies with magic in its efforts to get something for nothing.

Quotes by Lewis Mumford

Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labour, exchange information ceaselessly....

Quotes by Lewis Thomas

The unvarnished truth is that we have spent the last decade funding the machinery of war, and our children have been sacrificed.

Quotes by LeVar Burton

Working moms elevate themselves above stay-at-home moms, and stay-at-home moms try to put down working moms. It's a war in which both sides are trying to put the other one down.

Quotes by Leslie Morgan Steiner

And I have lived since - as you have - in a period of cold war, during which we have ensured by our achievements in the science and technology of destruction that a third act in this tragedy of war...

Quotes by Lester B. Pearson

As a civilian during the Second War, I was exposed to danger in circumstances which removed any distinction between the man in and the man out of uniform.

Quotes by Lester B. Pearson

As a soldier, I survived World War I when most of my comrades did not.

Quotes by Lester B. Pearson

It has too often been too easy for rulers and governments to incite man to war.

Quotes by Lester B. Pearson

The scientific and technological discoveries that have made war so infinitely more terrible for us are part of the same process that has knit us all so much more closely together.

Quotes by Lester B. Pearson

The stark and inescapable fact is that today we cannot defend our society by war since total war is total destruction, and if war is used as an instrument of policy, eventually we will have total war.

Quotes by Lester B. Pearson

Today continuing poverty and distress are a deeper and more important cause of international tensions, of the conditions that can produce war, than previously.

Quotes by Lester B. Pearson

Until the last great war, a general expectation of material improvement was an idea peculiar to Western man. Now war and its aftermath have made economic and social progress a political imperative in every quarter of the globe.

Quotes by Lester B. Pearson

The grim fact is that we prepare for war like precocious giants, and for peace like retarded pygmies.

Quotes by Lester B. Pearson

When you are on assignment, you stick to the facts, limit your vision, and often cut out the most revealing material. There is no texture, no shades of gray. In fiction, you can bring the reader on the perilous journey...

Quotes by Leslie Cockburn

I covered the first Gulf War in Saudi Arabia and Israel for ABC News.

Quotes by Leslie Cockburn

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.