Quotes on War

What has happened here [aftermath of 9/11] is not war in its traditional sense. This is clearly a crime against humanity. War crimes are crimes which happen in war time. There is a confusion there. This is a crime against humanity because it is deliberate and intentional killing of large numbers of civilians for political or other purposes. That is not tolerable under the international systems. And it should be prosecuted pursuant to the existing laws.

A nice war is a war where everybody who is heroic is a hero, and everybody more or less is a hero in a nice war. Now this war is not at all a nice war.

The ability to breathe the air and drink the water will be what the wars will be about from here on in. And it's coming with alarming rapidity.

Tyrants preserve themselves by sowing fear and mistrust among the citizens by means of spies, by distracting them with foreign wars, by eliminating men of spirit who might lead a revolution, by humbling the people, and making them incapable of decisive action.

War destroys, kills, impoverishes. Lord, give us your peace!

One cannot offend, make war, kill in the name of one's own religion, that is, in the name of God.

War should always be the absolute last resort.

In war, the truth must be guarded by a body guard of lies.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative.

You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly.

Coward: One who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs.

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important affairs.

There is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace.

All wars are fought for the sake of getting money.

The main achievement of economics is that it has provided a theory of peaceful human cooperation. This is why the harbingers of violent conflict have branded it as a dismal science and why this age of wars, civil wars, and destruction has no use for it.

I ask why your Omnipotent God does not hold a man back when he is about to commit a sin or offence. It is child’s play for God. Why did He not kill war lords? Why did He not remove the fury of war from their minds? In this way God could have saved humanity from great calamity and horror.

Show me who makes a profit from war, and I'll show you how to stop the war.

The Great War differed from all ancient wars in the immense power of the combatants and their fearful agencies of destruction, and from all modern wars in the utter ruthlessness with which it was fought.

John Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war.

There must be people who remember World War II and the Holocaust who can help us get out of this rut.