More Anti-War Quotes--Stop the Fanatics

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

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

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

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

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

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. ~Ayn Rand

Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths...I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? ~Barbara Bush About the quote: Mrs. Bush spoke these words on ABC's "Good Morning America," March 18, 2003.

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots. ~Barbara Ehrenreich

What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise. ~Barbara Jordan

War is the unfolding of miscalculations. ~Barbara Tuchman

You've got to forget about this civilian. Whenever you drop bombs, you're going to hit civilians. ~Barry Goldwater

The world cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and to seek peace like intellectual pygmies. ~Basil O'Connor

War is never a solution; it is an aggravation. ~Benjamin Disraeli

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. ~Benjamin Franklin

A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang. ~Benjamin Franklin About the quote: Speaking to Benjamin Vaughan, 14 March 1785.

When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration? ~Benjamin Franklin

There never was a good war or a bad peace. ~Benjamin Franklin

Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later. ~Benjamin Franklin

I hope....that mankind will at length, as they call themselves responsible creatures, have the reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats... ~Benjamin Franklin

We Americans have no commission from God to police the world. ~Benjamin Harrison About the quote: from an 1888 address to Congress

The Atomic Age is here to stay--but are we? ~Bennett Cerf

Let us not deceive ourselves; we must elect world peace or world destruction. ~Bernard M. Baruch

War does not determine who is right, only who is left. ~Bertrand Russell

Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man. ~Bertrand Russell

Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man has a right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has quarrel with mine, although I have none with him? ~Blaise Pascal

The terrorist is the one with the small bomb. ~Brendan Behan

Peace is constructed, not fought for. ~Brent Davis

After each war there is a little less democracy left to save. ~Brooks Atkinson About the quote: Atkinson was an American journalist who lived from 1864-1984. (quote from 'The Anti-War Quote Book,' edited Eric Groves, Sr., pub. Quirk Books, 2008)

Blind faith in your leaders or in anything will get you killed. ~Bruce Springsteen About the quote: This was part of Springsteen's introduction to his 1985 version of Edwin Starr's song 'War.'

Coercive practices that threaten our neighbor(s) also threaten us. ~Butler Shaffer

In this war – as in others – I am less interested in honoring the dead than in preventing the dead. ~Butler Shaffer

The state has, in order to control us, introduced division into our thinking, so that we come to distrust others and look to the state for protection. ~Butler Shaffer

No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war. ~Calvin Coolidge

Politics is the womb in which war develops. ~Carl P. G. von Clausewitz

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means. ~Carl P. G. von Clausewitz

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes. ~Carl P. G. von Clausewitz

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy. ~Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu About the quote: from "The Spirit of Laws" (1748)

A rational army would run away. ~Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu About the quote: Commonly known just as 'Montesquieu,' Charles (1869-1755) was a social commentator and thinker of the French Enlightenment.

The voice of protest...is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum...is bidding all men...obey in silence the tyrannous word of command. ~Charles Eliot Norton

If a war be undertaken...before the resources of peace have been tried and proved vain to secure it, that war has no defense, it is a national crime. ~Charles Eliot Norton

War should be made a crime, and those who instigate it should be punished as criminals. ~Charles Evans Hughes

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. ~Charles-Louis De Secondat About the quote: From "The Spirit of Laws," 1748

Almost all war making states borrow extensively, raise taxes, and seize the means of combat- including men--from reluctant citizens... ~Charles Tilly

Name me an emperor who was ever struck by a cannonball. ~Charles V of France

The politicians in this world... have at their command weapons of mass destruction far more complex than their own thinking processes. ~Charley Reese

We...are not really free if we can't control our own government and its policies. And we will never do that if we remain ignorant. ~Charley Reese