War Quotes

“Under the ominous shadow which the second World War and its attendant circumstances have cast on the world, peace has become as essential to civilized existence as the air we breathe is to life itself.”

“When we comprehend how few wars have ever been fought for the sake of justice or the people; how personal spite, the ambition of military professionals, and the protection of capitalistic ventures are the real moving powers...then the mythology of war will no longer bring us to our knees.”

“There are very few men and women, I suspect, who cooked and marketed their way through the past war without losing forever some of the nonchalant extravagance of the Twenties. They will feel, until their final days on earth, a kind of culinary caution: butter, no matter how unlimited, is a precious substance not lightly to be wasted; meats, too, and eggs, and all the far-brought spices of the world, take on a new significance, having once been so rare. And that is good, for there can be no more shameful carelessness than with the food we eat for life itself When we exist without thought or thanksgiving we are not men, but beasts.”

“Fox News's coverage of 9/11 and the war in Iraq improved its ratings, demonstrated its influence, and intensified the controversy over its practices.”

“First our comrades. They come from many places. Some were good Jews fighting the baddy Arabs, some were baddy Jews fighting the goody Arabs, some were good protestants fighting the baddy catholics, some were baddy protestants fighting the goody catholics, some were goody or baddy, Viet Cong, black or white, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.”

“There are people who cannot forget, as neither do I, the lesson of the years of the Indochina War. Which was, first, that the state is capable of being a murderer. A mass murderer, and a conspirator and a liar.”

“God used me that day. Even though so much of my body was burned, my feet were not burned, and so I could run out and be there for that photo. It saved a lot of souls and brought an end to the war.”

“All morning they watched for the plane which they thought would be looking for them. They cursed war in general and PTs in particular. At about ten o'clock the hulk heaved a moist sigh and turned turtle.”

“I think my quarry is illusion. I war against magic. I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and invariably weakens and constricts the spirit.”

“It is our responsibility to pray for a peaceful world.”

“We can guess that the unacceptable conduct of the soldiers at Abu Ghraib resulted in part from the dangerous state of affairs on the ground in a theater of war.”

“American planes full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation. The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires gathered them into cylindrical steel containers and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans though and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France though German fighters came up again made everything and everybody as good as new. When the bombers got back to their base the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America where factories were operating night and day dismantling the cylinders separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground to hide them cleverly so they would never hurt anybody ever again.”

“If I'm a bad person, you don't like meWell I guess I'll make my own wayIt's a circleA mean cycleI can't excite you anymoreWhere's your gavel? Your jury?What's my offense this time?You're not a judge but if you're gonna judge meWell sentence me to another lifeDon't wanna hear your sad songsI don't wanna feel your painWhen you swear it's all my faultCause you know we're not the same (no)We're not the same (no)Oh we're not the sameYeah the friends who stuck togetherWe wrote our names in bloodBut I guess you can't accept that the change is good (hey)It's good (hey)It's goodWell you treat me just like another strangerWell it's nice to meet you sirI guess I'll goI best be on my way outYou treat me just like another strangerWell it's nice to meet you sirI guess I'll goI best be on my way outIgnorance is your new best friendIgnorance is your new best friendThis is the best thing that could've happenedAny longer and I wouldn't have made itIt's not a war no, it's not a raptureI'm just a person but you can't take itThe same tricks that, that once fooled meThey won't get you anywhereI'm not the same kid from your memoryWell now I can fend for myselfDon't wanna hear your sad songsI don't wanna feel your painWhen you swear it's all my faultCause you know we're not the same (no)We're not the same (no)Oh we're not the sameYeah we used to stick togetherWe wrote our names in bloodBut I guess you can't accept that the change is good (hey)It's good (hey)It's goodWell you treat me just like another strangerWell it's nice to meet you sirI guess I'll goI best be on my way outYou treat me just like another strangerWell it's nice to meet you sirI guess I'll goI best be on my way outIgnorance is your new best friendIgnorance is your new best friendIgnorance is your new best friendIgnorance is your new best friendWell you treat me just like another strangerWell it's nice to meet you sirI guess I'll goI best be on my way outYou treat me just like another strangerWell it's nice to meet you sirI guess I'll goI best be on my way out”

“A lot of my father's family in Canada volunteered in the First World War because they saw it as a war that was defending the mother country.”

“My work has been in the field of engaged Buddhism. That is my own practice, which began in 1965 that formed the base for the work I was doing in the civil rights and anti-war movement.”

“Many people in Europe and the U.S. dispute the thesis that we are living through a clash of civilisations between Islam and the west. But a radical minority of Muslims firmly believes that Islam is under siege, and is committed to winning the holy war it has declared against the West.”

“Both World War II and the subsequent Cold War gave America's involvement in world affairs a clear focus. The objectives of foreign policy were relatively easy to define, and they could be imbued with high moral content.”

“If a columnist writes that something happened on a certain date, or that the government spent a certain amount of money on something, or that a specific number of people have died in the war in Iraq, to pick a few examples, it is his or her responsibility to make certain that information is correct.”

“Unless a nation's life faces peril, war is murder.”

“After I graduated in Vancouver, I had been working on a book about war-affected children and land mines with the foreign minister - he was working at a place on campus and hired me. I then got a job as a Human Rights and Refugees Officer in London, and I loved working there.”