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WAR (THOUGHTS ABOUT) N - Z

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see: "WAR & PEACE" for related links



The Frenches do not please the Germans,
Who call them names in hymns and sermons;
The Germans do not please the Frenches,
Who wish to shoot at them from trenches.
Now, anybody whom a German hates,
He presently exterminates,
But he who exterminates a French
Is never safe from Gallic revench,
But he who gets even with a German
Is obliterated like a vermin.
And so it goes for ages & aeons
Between these neighboring Europeans.
I hope that such perpetual motion
Stays where it started, across the ocean.
--Ogden Nash (1902—1971)
American writer of humorous poetry.

It is the habit of every aggressor nation
to claim that it is acting on the defensive.
--Jawaharlal Nehru (1889—1964)
Indian statesman.
_Glimpses of World History_ [1942]

There are historic situations in which refusal to defend
the inheritance of civilization, however imperfect, against
tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even
worse than war.
--Reinhold Niebuhr (1892—1971)
American theologian.
In D. B. Robertson (ed.) _Love and Justice: Selections from
the Shorter Writings of Reinhold Niebuhr_ [1957, 1976 ed.].

-

Against war it may be said that it makes the
victor stupid and the vanquished revengeful.
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
_Human, All Too Human_ [1878]


How acceptable sound bad music and bad
motives when we march against an enemy!
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
_The Dawn of Day_ [1881]

-

The naοve notion that we can preserve freedom by
exuding goodwill is not only silly, but dangerous.
The more adherents it wins, the more it tempts
the aggressor.
--Richard Nixon (1913—1994)
American Republican statesman, President [1969—1974].
_The Real War_ [1980]

My factories may make an end of war sooner than your congresses.
The day when two army corps can annihilate each other in one second,
all civilized nations, it is to be hoped, will recoil from war and discharge
their troops.
--Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833—1896)
Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist who
invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prizes.

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo;
No more on Life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
On fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And glory guards, with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
--Theodore O'Hara (1820—1867)
American poet.
"The Bivouac of the Dead"
Written in memory of fellow Kentuckians killed in the Mexican War [1847].

God is Spanish and fights for our nation these days.
--Olivares, Gaspar de Guzmαn y Pimentel (1587—1645)
Spanish prime minister [1623-1643].

For forty-some years the ban-the-bomb bums, unilateral disarmament
goonies, nuclear-freeze sleaze, peace creeps, and no-nukes kooks
bragged about the horrors of atomic war. There was no end to their
end of the world. They painstakingly detailed Armageddon, polished
the Apocalypse, rubbed and loved a radioactive holocaust that made
the Jonathan Edwards sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
sound like a vacation postcard from Cozumel. "Better red than dead!"
they shrieked. They could have gone to Stalin's Russia, Mao's China,
or Pol Pot's Cambodia and been both.
--P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947)
American political satirist.
_The CEO of the Sofa_ [2001]

-

War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.


The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
_Polemic_ [May 1946],
"Second Thoughts on James Burnham"


A State which was . . . in a permanent state
of 'cold war' with its neighbors.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
In "Tribune" (London) [19 October 1945].

-

War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances . . .
that no human wisdom can calculate the end. It has but one thing certain,
and that is to increase taxes.
--Thomas Paine [spelled Pane prior to 1774] (1737—1809)
English-American writer and political pamphleteer.
_Prospects on the Rubicon_ [1787]

Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a
war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other
poor dumb bastard die for his country.
--George S. Patton, Jr. (1885—1945)
American general.
Attributed in "Patton" [1970 film], but no source can be found.

-

I was in the library in 1915, studying a Latin poet,
and all of a sudden I thought: 'War can't be this
bad.' So I walked out and enlisted.
--Lester B. Pearson (1897—1972)
Canadian prime minister [1963—1968].
In John Robinson Beal _Pearson of Canada_ [1964].


The grim fact is that we prepare for war like precocious
giants and for peace like retarded pygmies.
--Lester B. Pearson (1897—1972)
Canadian prime minister [1963—1968].
Speech in Toronto, Canada [14 March 1955].

-

But it was pretty news came the other day so fast,
of the Dutch fleets being in so many places, that
Sir W. Batten at table cried, 'By God!' says he, 'I
think the Devil shits Dutchmen.'
--Samuel Pepys (1633—1703)
English diarist and naval administrator.
[19 July 1667],
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 387.
Cohan & Major explain:
In the last few months of the Second Anglo-Dutch
War, Dutch naval superiority in general and the
notorious raid on Chatham in particular shocked
the English, who had been led to expect an easy
victory.

If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign
troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my
arms— never — never — never! You cannot conquer America.
--William Pitt, the Elder, also called (from 1766) 1st Earl of
Chatham (1708-1778) British statesman, twice virtual prime
minister [1756-1761, 1766-1768].
Speech [18 November 1777].

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or
treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always
stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require
a leader.
--Plato (427?—347 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
_The Republic_ bk. VIII

-

One of the fondest expressions around is that we can't be
the world's policeman. ... But guess who gets called when
suddenly someone needs a cop?
--Colin L. Powell (b. 1937)
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff [1989—1993]; Secretary of State [2001—2005].
Interview with "New York Times" [1990].


We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred
years and we've done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan
and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have
lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground
to bury them in.
--Colin L. Powell (b. 1937)
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff [1989—1993]; Secretary of State [2001—2005].
Speech at World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland [26 January 2003].

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I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote
for war. I vote No.
--Jeannette Rankin (1880—1973)
Rankin was the first woman to serve in the U.S.
Congress.... she voted against U.S. entry into
both World War I and World War II, becoming the
only member of Congress to do so.

History teaches that wars begin when governments
believe the price of aggression is cheap.
--Ronald Reagan (1911—2004)
American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor.

If you want to know when a war might be coming, you just
watch the U.S. and see when it starts cutting down on its
defenses. It's the surest barometer in the world.
--Will Rogers [William Penn Adair Rogers] (1879—1935)
American humorist and actor.
Quoted in Bryan B. Sterling (ed.) _The Best of Will Rogers_ [1990].

All of us in this country give lip service to the ideals set forth in the
Bill of Rights and emphasized by every additional amendment, and
yet when war is stirring in the world, many of us are ready to curtail
our civil liberties. We do not stop to think that curtailing these liberties
may in the end bring us a greater danger than the danger we are trying
to avert.
--Eleanor Roosevelt (1884—1962)
American human rights activist, diplomat, and
wife of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
"Cosmopolitan" [February 1940]

-

I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen
blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out
their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have
seen cities destroyed. I have seen 200 limping, exhausted, men
come out of line — the survivors of a regiment of 1,000 that
went forward 48 hours before. I have seen children starving.
I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882—1945)
American Democratic statesman and President [1933—1945].
Speech at Chautauqua, NY [14 August 1936].


The work, my friend, is peace. More than an end
of this war — an end to the beginnings of all wars.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882—1945)
American Democratic statesman and President [1933—1945].
(Undelivered address for Jefferson Day, [13 April 1945]
the day after Roosevelt died - ODTQ.)

-

War is not merely justifiable, but imperative upon honorable
men, upon an honorable nation, where peace can only be
obtained by the sacrifice of conscientious conviction or of
national welfare.
[...]
A just war is in the long run far better for a nation's soul
than the most prosperous peace obtained by acquiescence
in wrong or injustice. Moreover, though it is criminal for a
nation not to prepare for war, so that it may escape the
dreadful consequences of being defeated in war, yet it
must always be remembered that even to be defeated
in war may be far better than not to have fought at all.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
Annual message to Congress [3 December 1906].

Whoever has his foe at his mercy, and does
not kill him, is his own enemy.
--Sa'di [Muslih-uddin] (c. 1184—1291?)
Iranian poet.
_Gulistan_ [1258]

If America cannot win a war in a week,
it begins negotiating with itself.
--William Safire (1929—2009)
Journalist, speechwriter, novelist, lexicographer,
and winner of the 1978 Pulitzer for commentary.
_The New York Times_ [10 August 1990]

-

-

"Grass" by Carl Sandburg
(1878—1967)
American poet.

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work —
I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?

I am the grass.
Let me work.


Little girl: Sometime they'll give
a war and nobody will come.
--Carl Sandburg (1878—1967)
American poet.
"The People, Yes" [1936]

-

-

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous
quality in the captain and a positive crime in a statesman.
--George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.


Only the dead have seen the end of war.
--George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.
_Soliloquies in England_ [1922] "Tipperary"

-

I don't consider myself dovish. And I certainly don't
consider myself hawkish. Maybe I would describe myself
as owlish — that is, wise enough to understand that you
want to do everything possible to avoid war; that once
you're committed to war, then be ferocious enough to
do whatever is necessary to get it over as quickly as
possible in victory.
--H. Norman Schwarzkopf, III (1934- )
American general who commanded the U.S. forces in the Gulf War of 1991.
In "New York Times" [28 January 1991].

The enemy say that Americans are good at a long shot,
but cannot stand the cold iron. I call upon you instantly
to give a lie to the slander. Charge!
--General Winfield Scott (1786—1866)
American army officer who served as a general in three wars
and was the unsuccessful Whig candidate for president in 1852.
Address to the 11th Infantry Regiment before the
U.S. victory over British forces at Chippawa, Canada [5 July 1814] {GBAQ.}

We are mad not only individually, but nationally. We
check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what
of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering
whole peoples?. . . Deeds that would be punished
by loss of life when committed in secret are praised
by us because uniformed generals have carried them
out.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.
"On the Usefulness of Basic Principles"
_Moral Letters to Lucilius_ tr. Richard M. Gummere [1918]

Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Julius Caesar_ [1599], act 3, sc. I

-

There was only one virtue, pugnacity; only one vice,
pacifism. That is an essential condition of war.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish dramatist and critic.
_Heartbreak House_, "Preface" [1919]

-

The legitimate object of war is a more perfect peace.
--William Tecumseh Sherman (1820—1891)
American Union general.
Speech in St. Louis [20 July 1865].


Every attempt to make war easy and safe
will result in humiliation and disaster.
--William Tecumseh Sherman (1820—1891)
American Union general.
_Memoirs of General William T. Sherman_ [1875]


There is many a boy here today who looks on
war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.
--William Tecumseh Sherman (1820—1891)
American Union general.
Speech in Columbus, Ohio [11 August 1880].


I am tired and sick of War. It's glory is all moonshine. It is
only those who have never fired a shot nor heard the shrieks
and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more
vengeance, more desolation. War is Hell!
--William Tecumseh Sherman (1820—1891)
American Union general.
Speech at the Michigan Military Academy [19 June 1879].

& note:

War is Hell.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804—1815].
Quoted in "Zion's Herald and Wesleyan Journal" [1 February 1860].

-

All's fair in love and war.
--Frank Edward Smedley (1818—1864)
English novelist.
_Frank Fairlegh or Scenes from the Life of a Private Pupil_ [1850]

For God's sake, do not drag me into another war! ..... I am sorry for
the Spaniards — I am sorry for the Greeks — I deplore the fate of the
Jews; the people of the Sandwich Islands are groaning under the
most detestable tyranny; Baghdad is oppressed — I do not like the
present state of the Delta — Tibet is not comfortable. Am I to fight
for all these people? Am I to be champion of the Decalogue and to
be eternally raising fleets and armies to make all men good and
happy? We have just done saving Europe, and I am afraid the
consequence will be that we shall cut each other's throats. No
war, dear Lady Grey! no eloquence; but apathy, selfishness,
common sense, arithmetic!
--Sydney Smith (1771—1845)
English clergyman and essayist,
in 1802 cofounded "The Edinburgh Review."
Letter to Lady Grey.

Some were blinded. When others saw the burns
spread upon their arms and legs and felt the
increasing pain ... they ... broke and fled. From
their easy perches in high heaven the Italians could
see ... with a feeling of rich treasure trove, an
Ethiopian force jerked suddenly backward, horrified
and scattered. Bombing had never shown such an
aesthetic result. Total dispersion.
--G.L. Steer _Caesar in Abyssinia_ [1937] p.233.,
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 789.
Cohan & Major explain:
From an eyewitness account of Italy's first indiscriminate
use of mustard gas, sprayed from aircraft on the lightly
clothed Ethiopian soldiers and civilians, 22 Dec. 1935.
Italy's war on Ethiopia destroyed one of the only two
independent states south of the Sahara; the other was
Liberia.

Waste of Blood, and waste of Tears,
Waste of youth's most precious years,
Waste of ways the saints have trod,
Waste of Glory, waste of God,
War!
--Geoffrey Anketell Studdert-Kennedy
(1883—1929) British poet.

-

The four great motives which move men to social activity
are hunger, love, vanity, and fear of superior powers. If
we search out the causes which have moved men to war
we find them under each of these motives or interests.
--William Graham Sumner (1840—1910)
American sociologist and economist.
"War" in _War and Other Essays_ [1911]


If you want a war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines
are the most fearful tyrants to which men ever
are subject, because doctrines get inside of a
man's own reason and betray him against
himself. Civilized men have done their fiercest
fighting for doctrines.
--William Graham Sumner (1840—1910)
American sociologist and economist.
"War" in _War and Other Essays_ [1911]

-

In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's
country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So,
too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture
a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence;
supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without
fighting.

--Sun Tzu (fl. early 4th cent. B.C.)
_The Art of War_, ch. III "Attack By Stratagem"


Know the enemy and know yourself; in a
hundred battles you will never be defeated.
--Sun Tzu (fl. early 4th cent. B.C.)
_The Art of War_, ch. III "Attack By Stratagem"

-

-

Our greatest advantage in coping with tribes
so powerful is that they do not act in concert.
Seldom is it that two or three states meet
together to ward off a common danger. Thus,
while they fight singly, all are conquered.
--Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
(c.55—c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian.
_The Life of Cneaus Julius Agricola_


The gods are on the side of the stronger.
--Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
(c.55—c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian.
_Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 17

& note:

Fortune is always on the side of the largest battalions.
--Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sιvignι
(1626—1696)
French writer whose letters constitute one of the
most celebrated collections of epistolary writing.
"Lettre ΰ sa fille", 202, as quoted in Craufurd Tait Ramage
_Beautiful Thoughts From French and Italian Authors_ [1866].

& see:

God is usually on the side of the big squadrons
and against the small ones.
--Roger Bussy-Rabutin (1618—1693)
French soldier and poet.
_Letter to the Comte de Limoges_ [18 October 1677].

& note:

It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.
--Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.
Letter to Franηois-Louis-Henri Leriche [6 February 1770].

-

The battlefield as a place of settlement of disputes
is gradually yielding to arbitral courts of justice.
--William Howard Taft (1857—1930)
27th President of the United States [1909—1913]
and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court [1921—1930].
In _The Dawn of World Peace_ [1911].

-

"The Charge of The Light Brigade" [1854]
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809—1892)
English poet.

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made,
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

-

Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and
that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not
take lightly the perils of war.
--Thucydides (c.460—c.400 B.C.)
Greek historian of Athens.

O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody
shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling
fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help
us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks
of their wounded, writhing in pain. . . .For our sakes
who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their
lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy
their steps, water their way with tears, stain the
white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
"The War Prayer" [written 1905, published 1923]

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.
--Vegetius [Flavius Vegetius Renatus] (fl. c. 375)
Roman military expert.
_De Rei Militari_, III, prologue

The submarine may be the cause of bringing
conflict to a halt altogether, for fleets will become
useless, and as other war matιriel continues to
improve, war will become impossible.
--Jules Verne (1828—1905)
French author.
_The Future of the Submarine_ [1904]

Wars are not acts of God. They are caused by man,
by man-made institutions, by the way in which man
has organized his society. What man has made, man
can change.
--Frederick Moore Vinson (1890—1953),
13th Chief Justice of the United States (1946—1953).

As a peace machine, [the airplane's] value to the world
will be beyond computation. Would a declaration of war
between Russia and Japan be made, if within an hour
thereafter, a swiftly gliding airplane might take its flight
from St Petersburg and drop half a ton of dynamite above
the [Japanese] war offices? Could any nation afford to
war upon any other with such hazards in view?
--John Brisben Walker (1847—1931)
American editor and publisher of _Cosmopolitan_ [1889—1905].
In _Cosmopolitan_ [March 1904]

-

That no man should scruple, or hesitate to use arms in defense
of so valuable a blessing [as freedom], on which all the good
and evil of life depends, is clearly my opinion; yet arms . . .
should be the last resource.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783]
and first president of the United States [1789—1797].
Letter to George Mason [5 April 1769].


If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to
repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the
most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity,
it must be known, that we are at all times ready
for War.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783]
and first president of the United States [1789—1797].
Fifth Annual Address to Congress.

-

-

Next to a battle lost, the greatest
misery is a battle gained.
--Duke of Wellington (1769—1852)
British soldier and statesman.
In _Diary of Frances, Lady Shelley 1787-1817_ (ed. R. Edgcumbe).


I don't know what effect these men will have
upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten
me!
--Duke of Wellington (1769—1852)
British soldier and statesman.
(On the men under his command [1809])
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 534.

-

Before a war, military science seems a real science, like
astronomy. After a war it seems more like astrology.
--Dame Rebecca West [Cecily Isabel Fairfiield]
(1892—1983)
British-Irish journalist, novelist, and critic.
Quoted in Jonathon Green
_Morrow's International Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations_ [1982].

Television is an instrument which can paralyze this country.
--William Westmoreland (1914—2005)
American soldier.
Quoted in _Time_ [5 April 1982].

-

But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for
the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts — for
democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have
a voice in their own Governments, for the rights and liberties of
small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert
of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and
make the world itself at last free.
--Woodrow Wilson (1856—1924)
American Democratic statesman and President [1913—1921].
Address to Congress [2 April 1917].


President Woodrow Wilson of USA, trying to cut Australian PM Billy
Hughes down to size by alluding to Australia's minor role at the
Versailles Peace conference (Jan. 1919), asked him who he represented.

President Woodrow Wilson: Mr Hughes, I speak for very many
millions of people. For whom do you speak?

Australian PM Billy Hughes : Mr President, I speak for 60,000 dead.

[Although Australia's population numbered less than a twentieth of
that of the USA, its tally of war dead was more than half the USA's.]


I can predict with absolute certainty that within
another generation there will be another world war
if the nations of the world do not concert the
method by which to prevent it.
--Woodrow Wilson (1856—1924)
American Democratic statesman and President [1913—1921].
Speech in Omaha, Nebraska [8 September 1919].

-

Remember the Maine!
--Slogan coined after the sinking of the
U.S. battleship _Maine_ in the harbor of
Havana, Cuba [15 February 1898].

-

When war is declared, Truth is the first casualty.
--anon., epigraph to Arthur Ponsonby's _Falsehood in Wartime_ [1928];
attributed also to Hiram Johnson, speaking in the U.S. Senate [1918],
but not recorded in his speech; possibly based on a passage by Samuel
Johnson in "The Idler" [11 November 1758] {ODTQ}.

note:

Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the
diminution of the love of truth by the falsehoods which
interest dictates and credulity encourages.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_The Idler_, Num. 30 [11 November 1758]

also see:

The first casualty of war is truth.
--Sherwood Eddy and Kirby Page _The Abolition of War_ [1924],
as quoted in Fred R. Shapiro (ed.) _The Yale Book of Quotations_ [2006].

-

The high contracting parties solemnly declare
in the names of their respective peoples that
they condemn recourse to war for the solution
of international controversies, and renounce it
as an instrument of national policy in their
relations with one another.
--Kellogg-Briand Pact, Article 1, signed in Paris [27 August 1928].
The Pact had 64 signatures: Japan, Germany, Italy, among others.

-

Old soldiers never die;
They only fade away!
--British Army song [c.1915]

-

We sure liberated the hell out of this place.
--American soldier in the ruins of a French village [1944];
quoted by Max Miller, _The Far Shore_ [1945].

-

Disease, not battle, used to be the No. 1 killer during war.
In the Spanish-American war, for every man who died in
combat, six died from disease. During the American Civil
War, 185,000 troops died in combat or of battle-related
wounds, 373,000 died of disease.


-

-----

armistice (noun) ['ah(r)-mκ-stis]
A limited cease-fire or the document containing the terms of a limited
cease-fire; a temporary truce put in place until a permanent agreement
can be reached between two hostile parties.

bellicose [BEL-ih-kohs], adjective:
Inclined to or favoring war or strife; warlike; pugnacious.

extirpate (verb)
To destroy totally; exterminate.
Synonyms: eradicate, exterminate, uproot

internecine (adj.) [in-tκr-'ne-seen]
Aimed at total destruction; mutually destructive;
pertaining to a struggle within an entity, such as
a nation or organization.


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