War Quotes – Reflection and Insight

A collection of war quotes reflecting on conflict, human experience, and perspectives within times of strife. Thoughtful reflections on war.

This collection of war quotes offers profound and thoughtful perspectives on conflicts and their consequences. The quotes explore different aspects of war, from individual experiences to philosophical reflections. They provide insight into human attitudes toward conflicts and encourage contemplation. The selection invites engagement with war not only as a historical reality but also as a complex cultural and human phenomenon.

"After a lifetime of war-watching, I see war as an endemic human disease, and governments are the carriers."

Martha Gellhorn

"This is a fight between a free world and a slave world."

Henry A. Wallace

"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."

John Lennon

"The corporations that profit from permanent war need us to be afraid. Fear stops us from objecting to government spending on a bloated military. Fear means we will not ask unpleasant questions of those in power. Fear permits the government to operate in secret. Fear means we are willing to give up our rights and liberties for promises of security. The imposition of fear ensures that the corporations that wrecked the country cannot be challenged. Fear keeps us penned in like livestock."

Chris Hedges

"My dear friends, I think you are in very big trouble. Whether you believe it or not, YOU ARE AT WAR. And you may lose this war very soon together with all your affluence and freedoms unless you start defending yourselves."

Juri Besmenow

"Whenever a king sees that his people are about to revolt against him, he starts a war with another country."

Napoleon Bonaparte

"Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak and he’s ineffective. So the only way he figures that he’s going to get re-elected, and as sure as you’re sitting there, is to start a war with Iran."

Donald Trump

"Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy."

Henry Kissinger

"What makes the difference between a gang and a state is the belief that there is a difference between a gang and a state."

Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski

"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."

George Orwell

"If my sons did not want wars, there would be none."

Gutle Schnapper Rothschild

"Young people are accused of using violence. But are we not in a perpetual state of violence? Because we were born and raised in prison, we no longer notice that we are stuck in a hole with our hands and feet chained and a gag in our mouths. What do you call a lawful state? A law that turns the vast majority of citizens into servile cattle in order to satisfy the unnatural needs of an insignificant and corrupt minority? And this law, supported by brute military force and the stupid cleverness of its agents, this law is eternal, brute force, contrary to justice and common sense, and I will fight against it with my mouth and my hands wherever I can."

Karl Georg Büchner

"Never is so much lied as before an election, during a war, and after the hunt."

Louis Berger

"There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning."

Warren Buffet

"The war [i.e., the American Civil War of 1861-1865] would never have been possible without the sinister influence of the Jesuits."

Abraham Lincoln

"Well, of course, the people don't want war. (...) But ultimately, it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always easy to get the people to go along with it, whether it is a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliament, or a communist dictatorship."

Hermann Göring

"In times of war, there is a level of information control in reporting that is abhorrent in the case of traditional wars. In the case of a pandemic, however, one must take less democratic measures from one moment to the next [...] Over the past two years, with the outbreak of the pandemic, we have seen that the way our world is organized is outdated. Two aspects are affected by this: communication and global governance. In terms of communication, we immediately used the term “war” because it is a war, but we have not implemented a communication policy in any country that is appropriate for a war [...] I believe that in this pandemic, or at least in future global health disasters, we need to find a system that preserves freedom of expression but reconciles it with information rationed from above."

Mario Monti

"The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."

Mark Twain