War is sweet to those who don’t know it.
—Erasmus, 1508I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. War is hell.
—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1879A dead enemy always smells good.
—Aulus Vitellius, 69Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
—Mao Zedong, 1938I have loved war too well.
—Louis XIV, 1715War to the castles; peace to the cottages.
—Nicolas Chamfort, 1790The fear of war is worse than war itself.
—Seneca, c. 50Soldiers in peace are like chimneys in summer.
—William Cecil, Lord Burghley, c. 1555You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.
—Leon TrotskySometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.
—Carl Sandburg, 1936You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war.
—William Randolph Hearst, 1898I detest war. It spoils armies.
—Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, c. 1820As peace is of all goodness, so war is an emblem, a hieroglyphic, of all misery.
—John Donne, 1622I went [to war] because I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want the glory or the pay; I wanted the right thing done.
—Louisa May Alcott, 1863Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.
—Winston Churchill, 1939War is the child of pride, and pride the daughter of riches.
—Jonathan Swift, 1697There never was a good war or a bad peace.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1773