The fear of war is worse than war itself.
—Seneca, c. 50
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Quotes
A dead enemy always smells good.
—Aulus Vitellius, 69Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
—Mao Zedong, 1938There never was a good war or a bad peace.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1773I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. War is hell.
—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1879I have loved war too well.
—Louis XIV, 1715War is sweet to those who don’t know it.
—Erasmus, 1508You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war.
—William Randolph Hearst, 1898Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.
—Carl Sandburg, 1936As 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, 1939I detest war. It spoils armies.
—Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, c. 1820War is the child of pride, and pride the daughter of riches.
—Jonathan Swift, 1697