War

"Perhaps America will one day go fascist democratically, by popular vote."

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

William L. Shirer made these words the epigraph for his Rise and Fall
of the Third Reich (1959)."


It cost about 75 cents to kill a man in Caesar's time. The price rose to about $3,000 per man during the Napoleonic wars; to $5,000 in the American Civil War; and then to $21,000 per man in World War I. Estimates for the future wars indicate that it may cost the warring countries not less than $50,000 for each man killed. [The 2003-2006 Iraq War cost the U.S. Congress, per enemy killed, $11 million.]

Homer Truet Bone, US Senator during World War II

War is the health of the state [government power].

Randolph Bourne

Imagine there's a war and no one shows up
— then war will come to you.
Whoever stays home when the battle begins
and lets others fight for his cause
ought to watch out:
because whoever has not shared in the fight
will share in defeat.
He who wants to avoid fighting
will not once avoid the fight:
because he will fight for the cause of the enemy
who hasn't fought for his own.

Bertolt Brecht

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

Sir Winston Churchill

Endless money forms the sinews of war.

Cicero, in Philippics

War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.

Georges Clemenceau

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of the way and let them have it.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, President, 1952-1960

There is nothing that war has ever achieved that we could not better achieve without it.

Henry Havelock Ellis

The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility.

Sir John Fisher

There never was a good war or a bad peace.

Benjamin Franklin, 1773-9-11

Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country.

Hermann Göring, Nazi leader, at Nuremberg trials

War usually starts with collective euphoria.

Chris Hedges, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, p. 84

The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.

Ernest Hemingway

I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.

Thomas Jefferson