Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.
—Carl Sandburg, 1936
Archive
Quotes
War is sweet to those who don’t know it.
—Erasmus, 1508I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. War is hell.
—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1879The fear of war is worse than war itself.
—Seneca, c. 50I detest war. It spoils armies.
—Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, c. 1820There never was a good war or a bad peace.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1773I have loved war too well.
—Louis XIV, 1715You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war.
—William Randolph Hearst, 1898A dead enemy always smells good.
—Aulus Vitellius, 69War is the child of pride, and pride the daughter of riches.
—Jonathan Swift, 1697I 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, 1863As peace is of all goodness, so war is an emblem, a hieroglyphic, of all misery.
—John Donne, 1622Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.
—Winston Churchill, 1939