QuoteProject
I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.
George Mcgovern
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote criticizes how older generations often instigate conflicts that disproportionately affect the youth.

In this quote, George McGovern expresses his frustration with the cyclical nature of war and the tendency of older leaders to instigate conflicts without facing the direct consequences. He highlights the moral responsibility of those in power to consider the impact of their decisions, particularly on the younger generation, who are sent to fight and often pay the highest price in such conflicts.

Themes

WarYouthLeadersOld MenConsequencesPeace

In practice

Example use cases

During a peace rally, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for youth activism against war.

More from George Mcgovern

I was the guy who was constantly speaking out against the Vietnam War. I have no regrets about that.
George McgovernRead
Pay attention to the hungry, both in this country and around the world. Pay attention to the poor. Pay attention to our responsibilities for world peace. We are our brother's keeper.
George McgovernRead
Every Senator in this Chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This Chamber reeks of blood.
George McgovernRead
The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else.
George McgovernRead
When you start one of these programs, school lunch programs, in a country that heretofore had nothing of that kind, immediately school enrollment jumps dramatically. Girls and boys get to the classroom with the promise of a good meal once a day.
George McgovernRead
I hope I live long enough to see every hungry school child in the world being fed under the so-called McGovern-Dole program.
George McgovernRead

Similar quotes

The glory of God is the human person fully alive.
Irenaeus Of LyonsRead
I sat in the gradually chilling room, thinking of my whole past the way a drowning man is supposed to, and it seemed part of the present, part of the gray cold and the beggar woman without a face and the moulting birds frozen to their own filth in the Orangerie. I know now I was in the throes of some small glandular crisis, a sublimated bilious attack, a flick from the whip of melancholia, but then it was terrifying...nameless...
M. F. K. FisherRead
People had been working for so many years to make the world a safe, organized place. Nobody realized how boring it would become. With the whole world property-lined and speed-limited and zoned and taxed and regulated, with everyone tested and registered and adressed and recorded. Nobody had left much room for adventure, except maybe the kind you could buy. [...] The laws that keep us safe, these same laws condemn us to boredom.
Chuck PalahniukRead
Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habits, his clothes, in short, of everything he possesses: he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint, for he who loses all often loses himself.
Primo LeviRead
The IP standards advanced countries favour typically are designed not to maximise innovation and scientific progress, but to maximise the profits of big pharmaceutical companies and others able to sway trade negotiations.
Joseph StiglitzRead
There is a wolf in me... - I keep this wolf because the wilderness gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go.
Carl SandburgRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.