War is the slaughter of human beings, temporarily regarded as enemies, on as large a scale as possible.
Condemning war has not curbed armed conflict. Religion and education did not eliminate war. Warfare did not terminate more wars. Armed combat simply breeds endless wars.
The enduring lesson is war is a disaster. Whoever wins, tremendous loss of life, property -- a set back for civilisation.
There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances.
War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation.
War's not black and white; it's gray. If you don't fight in the gray area, you're going to lose.
We have no right ever to forget that psychological warfare is a struggle for winning people's minds.
It is imperative to master the principles of the art of war and learn to be unmoved in mind even in the heat of the battle.
Once a conflict has dragged on for a decade, most people are tired of war -- and the troubles that flow from it.
Extreme violence has a way of preventing us from seeing the interests it serves.
The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.
War expands government powers. The trouble is that, when the war goes away, the government powers do not.
What I really want is a world where no one alive can remember what the word 'war' means. That's my goal.
The worst thing about war was the sitting around and wondering what you were doing morally.
Unless one is inordinately fond of subordination, one is always at war.
Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.
What a cruel thing war is... to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors.
It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.
For one thing, I don't think that anybody in any war thinks of themselves as a hero.
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.
Find the enemy. Don't let the enemy find you. Reconnaissance! Reconnaissance! Reconnaissance!
War's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at.
War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.
During pre-industrial warfare more than 90 percent of war dead were killed by starvation, cold and disease rather than by weapons.
There is no shorter road to defeat than by entering a war with inadequate preparation.
It's not just the war itself. It's what you do after the war and what structure you put in place and how you make that structure work.
The main force used in the evolving world of humanity has hitherto been applied in the form of war.
In war, the army is not merely a pure consumer, but a negative producer.
Misery, mutilation, destruction, terror, starvation and death characterize the process of war and form a principal part of the product.
I tell people I won't vote to go to war unless I'm ready to go or send my kids.
War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.
War does horrible things to human beings, to societies. It brings out the best, but most often the worst, in our human nature.
War can be fun for certain people. It's a magnet for sadists, losers, and angry dreamers.
War is death. If we are to engage in war, then we should have to stare it straight in the face and call it by its rightful name.
Combat is a piece of war. But war is a totalizing, uncivilized experience.
I think there's a tremendous split between people who've been through a war and people who haven't.
Next to a lost battle, nothing is so sad as a battle that has been won.
The whole art of war consists of guessing at what is on the other side of the hill.
War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder.
Blunders are an inescapable feature of war, because choice in military affairs lies generally between the bad and the worse.
Do you know what a soldier is, young man? He's the chap who makes it possible for civilised folk to despise war.
There never is a convenient place to fight a war when the other man starts it.
Guerrilla wars, and even more so terrorist assaults, are conducted only by forces with insufficient strength to carry out a real war.
The alternative to peace is war, which will expose everyone to mass casualties, misery and a loss of perspective for many years to come.
A sane person doesn't think war is a good idea.
Longer Version:
A sane person doesn't think war is a good idea. I'm not a pacifist. I feel that there are situations where fighting is inescapable, but we don't go looking for those things.
