Archive

Quotes

There never was a good war or a bad peace.

—Benjamin Franklin, 1773

Soldiers in peace are like chimneys in summer.

—William Cecil, Lord Burghley, c. 1555

As peace is of all goodness, so war is an emblem, a hieroglyphic, of all misery.

—John Donne, 1622

I detest war. It spoils armies.

—Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, c. 1820

You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war. 

—William Randolph Hearst, 1898

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

—Mao Zedong, 1938

War is the child of pride, and pride the daughter of riches.

—Jonathan Swift, 1697

You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.

—Leon Trotsky

War is sweet to those who don’t know it.

—Erasmus, 1508

I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. War is hell.

—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1879

I went [to war] because I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want the glory or the pay; I wanted the right thing done.

—Louisa May Alcott, 1863

The fear of war is worse than war itself.

—Seneca, c. 50

A dead enemy always smells good.

—Aulus Vitellius, 69