Bruce Cockburn Quotes

We believe in peace, but we are not pacifists. Sometimes we have to use force

The United States will never take part in an aggressive war.

A sane person doesn't think war is a good idea.

I’m not opposed to all wars; just dumb wars.

At every step the vast majority have expressed horror at the idea of an aggressive war.

I'm really interested in how conflicts arise and how they reach points of no return. I'm no pacifist. Sometimes force is necessary. But war is a choice.

I think war is so incredibly backward, and I don't think it's intelligent, and it's not sane. So why would you want to support it?

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

Nothing can justify war.

I am, on principle, opposed to war and in favor of peace because I regard peace as a positive good and war as a positive evil.

We wanted this war and now we've got it, and I'm not sure that we know what to do with it.

If there is no direct threat why are we invading?

Morality is contraband in war.

I think, unfortunately, we live in a world where people attack other people and I think a legitimate rationale for war is the saving of human life, the saving of lives of people who cannot defend themselves.

Either a war has to be fought, or it doesn't.

War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.

War, except in self-defense, is a failure of moral imagination.

Today, war of necessity is used by critics of military action to describe unavoidable response to an attack like that on Pearl Harbor that led to our prompt, official declaration of war, while they characterize as unwise wars of choice the wars in Korea, Vietnam and the current war in Iraq.

I think that war is diplomacy by other means, for sure, and there have been wars that have been fought for righteous reasons. There are wars that have had to be fought, and there will probably continue to be.

War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.

War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.

Everyone is interested in war, in that people don't want it to happen. I'm much more interested in peace than in war but it's important to understand why we fight.

I'm not a pacifist. I feel that there are situations where fighting is inescapable, but we don't go looking for those things.

We are much in the position of those who love peace so much that they are ready to fight for it.

I am against war, and because I am against war I went to war to fight against war.