Quotes About War

It was war itself that was evil, not men.

She was rescued from Poland by a priest during the war. At times of national crisis, she can be seen to cry." Jackson thought it might have been better if the priest had rescued a few Jews instead of a plaster statue.

Now that the war looked as if it was going to last forever Ursula had decided she might as well embark on Proust.

Jimmy, the baby produced to celebrate the peace after the war to end all wars, was about to fight in another one.

Frank joined up the day that Albert crossed the Channel – Frank knew he was a coward and was terrified other people would find out as well so he thought he'd join up as quickly as possible before anyone noticed.

At the twisted heart of every war were the innocents. "Collateral damage" they called it these days, but those civilians hadn't been collateral, they had been the targets. That was what war had become. It was no longer warrior killing warrior, it was people killing other people. Any people.

Part of him died during the war. This was just the rest of him catching up," and she put her finger to the corner of her eye and dabbed at a trace of moisture there—a tear would have been too generous a description.

that one way or another the Germans were tracking them from the

he said that when the baby was born, if it was a boy, I was to call it Edward." "Edward?" Teddy repeated blankly. "After you." And for the first time in the whole of the war Teddy broke.

Didn't you hear, Jackson?" Julia said. "The class war's over. Everyone lost.")

Ursula missed the sound of church bells. There were so many simple things she had taken for granted before the war. She wished that she could go back and appreciate them properly.

War did indeed make strange bedfellows of people.

The toll of the dead had been her business during the war, the endless stream of figures that represented the blitzed and the bombed passed across her desk to be collated and recorded. They had seemed overwhelming, but the greater figures—the six million dead, the fifty million dead, the numberless infinities of souls—were in a realm beyond comprehension.

Juliet could still remember when Hitler had seemed like a harmless clown. No one was amused now. ("The clowns are the dangerous ones," Perry said.)

the grain had entered the shell (Sylvie's own metaphoric stance) and the pearl that would be Edward Beresford Todd began to grow until he was revealed into the sunshine that came before the Great War and lay happily for hours on end in his pram with nothing but a silver hare dangling from the pram hood for company. His

It was the enormity of war, she thought, it left you scrabbling for ways to think about it. Bridget

The war, Dr. Kellet said to Ursula, had made many people search for meaning in new places—"Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, anthroposophy, spiritualism. Everyone needs to make sense of their loss.

those fateful words We are now at war with Germany, and for several hours felt strangely numb. She tried to phone Pamela

The wounds of war, Juliet thought, rather pleased with the way the words sounded in her head. It could be the title of a novel. Perhaps she should write one. But wasn't artistic endeavor the final refuge of the uncommitted?

one grief after another—her brothers, Father, the money, not to mention the war itself—had taken its toll on her and she had allowed herself to be worn down on the grindstone of Mother.

Men and boys always want to go fight. They are always looking for a reason to go to war. It is the saddest thing. They have this abiding notion that war is fun. And no history lesson will convince them differently.

Hyacinth, we all have our limits. I can't save the world. I can't stop this war. Maybe, just maybe, I can communicate a few things through art.

War was so simple, wasn't it? Much simpler than justice.

War is an unpredictable beast. Once unleashed, it runs like a rabid dog, ravening friend or foe alike. It can drag on for years, a slow attrition of nerve and fortitude, or be over in one brilliant flash, an extravagant conflagration of flame and blood and waste.