BEAUTIFUL QUOTES

Quotes

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives. ~Abba Eban About the quote: Israeli diplomat (1915-2002)

Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both. ~Abraham Flexner

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~Abraham Lincoln

Military glory--that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood--that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy... ~Abraham Lincoln

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure. ~Abraham Lincoln

Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. ~Abraham Lincoln

I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends. ~Abraham Lincoln

We must recognize the chief characteristic of the modern era--a permanent state of what I call violent peace. ~Admiral James D. Watkins

Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it. ~Adolph Hitler

In war, truth is the first casualty. ~Aeschylus

Any excuse will serve a tyrant. ~Aesop

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one. ~Agatha Christie

No war is inevitable until it breaks out. ~A. J. P. Taylor

No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic. ~A. J. P. Taylor

The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight. ~A. J. P. Taylor

Wars based on principle are far more destructive...the attacker will not destroy that which he is after. ~Alan Watts About the quote: from the book "The Way of Zen"

It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners. ~Albert Camus

When a war breaks out, people say: "It's too stupid, it can't last long." But though a war may be "too stupid," that doesn't prevent its lasting. ~Albert Camus

The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding. ~Albert Camus

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. ~Albert Camus

We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives...inside ourselves. ~Albert Camus

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. ~Albert Einstein

Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war. ~Albert Einstein

Force always attracts men of low morality. ~Albert Einstein

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. ~Albert Einstein

How vile and despicable war seems to me! I would rather be hacked to pieces than take part in such an abominable business. ~Albert Einstein

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. ~Albert Einstein

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one. ~Albert Einstein

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. ~Albert Einstein

It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. ~Albert J. Nock

What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood. ~Aldous Huxley

Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The demands of internal growth are incomparably more important to us...than the need for any external expansion of our power. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn About the quote: This quote is often mis-attributed to Mikhail Gorbachev, who merely quoted the remark from Solzhenitsyn's Nobel prize Harvard address.

Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change if we want to save life from self-destruction. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The next war ... may well bury Western civilization forever. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood. ~Alexander Berkman

War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder. ~Alexander Berkman

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. ~Alexander Hamilton

O peace! how many wars were waged in thy name. ~Alexander Pope

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it. ~Alexis de Tocqueville

No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. ~Alexis de Tocqueville

To all those who walk the path of human cooperation war must appear loathsome and inhuman. ~Alfred Adler

...Violence as a way of gaining power...is being camouflaged under the guise of tradition, national honor [and] national security... ~Alfred Adler

Distorted history boasts of bellicose glory . . . and seduces the souls of boys to seek mystical bliss in bloodshed and in battles. ~Alfred Adler

Our modern states are preparing for war without even knowing the future enemy. ~Alfred Adler

War is organized murder and torture against our brothers. ~Alfred Adler

War is not the continuation of politics with different means, it is the greatest mass-crime perpetrated on the community of man. ~Alfred Adler

It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them. ~Alfred Adler

At least we're getting the kind of experience we need for the next war. ~Allen Dulles

The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations. ~Ambrose Bierce

Since the end of the World War II, the United States has fought three "small" wars...we lost all three of them and for the same reason--hubris. ~Andrew Greely About the quote: Andrew Greely is a columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times. You can read his articles at http://www.suntimes.com/index/greeley.html

Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty. ~Anne Louise Germaine de Stael

Today the real test of power is not capacity to make war but capacity to prevent it. ~Anne O'Hare McCormick

A great war leaves a country with three armies: an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves. ~Anonymous (German) About the quote: (quote from 'The Anti-War Quote Book,' edited Eric Groves, Sr., pub. Quirk Books, 2008)

The real triumph of civilization is the extent to which coercion is banished from human relations. ~Anthony Gregory About the quote: Anthony Gregory is a writer and musician from Berkeley, CA. You can read his articles at www.lewrockwell.com

Brute force is not our salvation, especially as directed by State central planning and done with little regard for the innocents... ~Anthony Gregory About the quote: Anthony Gregory is a writer and musician from Berkeley, CA. You can read his articles at www.lewrockwell.com

War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus. ~Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Make wars unprofitable and you make them impossible. ~A. Philip Randolph About the quote: Randolph (1889-1979) was an African American civil rights leader. (quote from 'The Anti-War Quote Book,' edited Eric Groves, Sr., pub. Quirk Books, 2008)

Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor. ~A pirate, from St. Augustine's "City of God"

Old men declare war because they have failed to solve complex political and economic problems. ~Arthur Hoppe About the quote: Hoppe (1925-2000) was an American writer. (quote from 'The Anti-War Quote Book,' edited Eric Groves, Sr., pub. Quirk Books, 2008)

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. ~Arthur Schopenhauer

Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing. ~Ayn Rand

Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.