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Quotes About War

I have never advocated war except as means of peace, so seek peace, but prepare for war. Because war... War never changes. War is like winter and winter is coming. Coming like a mysterious adventurer. I used to be an adventurer until I took an arrow to the knee. A knee that will not bend, like Leonidas at Thermopylae.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
The Southern rebellion was largely the outgrowth of the Mexican war. Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions. We got our punishment in the most sanguinary and expensive war of modern times.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in
~ Ulysses S. Grant
Once initiated there were but few public men who would have the courage to oppose it. Experience proves that the man who obstructs a war in which his nation is engaged, no matter whether right or wrong, occupies no enviable place in life or history. Better for him, individually, to advocate "war, pestilence, and famine," than to act as obstructionist to a war already begun.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
War at all times, whether a civil war between sections of a common country or between nations, ought to be avoided, if possible with honor. But, once entered into, it is too much for human nature to tolerate an enemy within their ranks to give aid and comfort to the armies of the opposing section or nation.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
Now Mexico has a standing army larger than that of the United States. They have a military school modelled after West Point. Their officers are educated and, no doubt, generally brave. The Mexican war of 1846-8 would be an impossibility in this generation.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
Correspondents of the press were ever on hand to hear every word dropped, and were not always disposed to report correctly what did not confirm their preconceived notions, either about the conduct of the war or the individuals concerned in it.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
When I first went on deck I entered the captain's room adjoining the pilot-house, and threw myself on a sofa. I did not keep that position a moment, but rose to go out on the deck to observe what was going on. I had scarcely left when a musket ball entered the room, struck the head of the sofa, passed through it and lodged in the foot.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion.
~ Umberto Eco
After so many years even the fire of passion dies, and with it what was believed the light of the truth. Who of us is able to say now whether Hector or Achilles was right, Agamemnon or Priam, when they fought over the beauty of a woman who is now dust and ashes?
~ Umberto Eco
a book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements, clumsy hands. If for a hundred and a hundred years everyone had been able freely to handle our codices, the majority of them would no longer exist. So the librarian protects them not only against mankind but also against nature, and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion, the enemy of truth.
~ Umberto Eco
In a certain sense I could agree with the Futurists that war is the only hygiene of the world, except for one little correction: It would be, if only volunteers were allowed to wage it.
~ Umberto Eco
An old saying had it that war is too serious to be left to the military. These days it needs bringing up to date: the world has become too complex to be left to those who used to run it.
~ Umberto Eco
The crusades were carried out in virtuous bad faith.
~ Umberto Eco
Le guerre sono lo sfogo più efficace e naturale che si possa desiderare per tenere a freno la crescita degli esseri umani. Non si diceva infatti un tempo, partendo per la guerra, Dio lo vuole? Ma bisogna trovare gente che la guerra abbia voglia di farla. Se tutti si imboscassero, in guerra non morirebbe nessuno. E allora perché farle?
~ Umberto Eco
El hecho de que la humanidad haya practicado la guerra durante decenas de miles de años como una solución a los estados de desequilibrio no es más convincente que el hecho de que en el mismo período la humanidad haya decidido resolver los desequilibrios psicológicos recurriendo al alcohol o a otras drogas.
~ Umberto Eco
In a certain sense I could agree with the Futurists that war is the only hygiene of the world, except for one little correction: It would be, if only volunteers were allowed to wage it. Unfortunately war also involves the reluctant, and therefore it is morally inferior to spectator sports.
~ Umberto Eco
Una guerra santa sigue siendo una guerra.
~ Umberto Eco
So the librarian protects them not only against mankind but also against nature, and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion, the enemy of truth.
~ Umberto Eco
L'eroe Ur-Fascista gioca con le armi, che sono il suo Ersatz fallico: i suoi giochi di guerra sono dovuti a una invidia penis permanente.
~ Umberto Eco
To think that in the midst of the last desperate agony of war, with several "Big Berthas" dropping shells into the city every twenty minutes, with food scarce and fuel unobtainable, more than three thousand men and women had sat at easels and maintained their faith that art could not be destroyed, but was and would remain the supreme achievement and goal of life! Lanny
~ Upton Sinclair
This was the sort of government the American Army wanted in order to win the war quickly, and it was the sort they would want after the war, with no nonsense from reformers and crackpots. The big businessmen were those who got things done; they were the men the big brass dealt with in Washington, and whom they understood and liked.
~ Upton Sinclair
Listening to Monck's story, Lanny realized that this had been an oil war. Lack of oil was the reason the mad Führer had had to drop his program of bombing Britain out of the war and to fall back upon a defensive program.
~ Upton Sinclair
if we don't break down England's caste system, we'll find this war was hardly worth fighting." Lanny agreed with all that; but he wanted to shake his head sadly when the flyer went on to say: "There will be a different England after this war. Our people will never be content with the old life, after the sacrifices they have made." Lanny had heard exactly the same words from Alfy's father during World War I, before this youngster had been born.
~ Upton Sinclair