William Graham Sumner Quotes

You cannot prevent and prepare for war at the same time.

Striving for peace and preparing for war are incompatible with each other, and in our time more so than ever.

A certain degree of preparation for war ... affords also the best security for the continuance of peace.

Whenever you have a possibility of going in two ways, either for peace or for war, for peaceful methods of for military methods, in the present age there is a strong prejudice for the peaceful ones. War seldom ever leads to good results.

Prepare for war, since you have been unable to endure a peace.

Peace is our goal but preparedness is the price we must pay.

Preventing a war is tantamount to winning a war.

Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue.

In time of peace prepare for war.

We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analysing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will.

I think the day you start building the war plan is the day you start beginning the postwar plan.

War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.

It is wise statesmanship which suggests that in time of peace we must prepare for war, and it is no less a wise benevolence that makes preparation in the hour of peace for assuaging the ills that are sure to accompany war.

Our conflict is not likely to cease so soon as every good man would wish. The measure of iniquity is not yet filled; and unless we can return a little more to first principles, and act a little more upon patriotic ground, I do not know when it will-or-what may be the issue of the contest. Speculation-peculation-engrossing-forestalling-with all their concomitants, afford too many melancholy proofs of the decay of public virtue; and too glaring instances of its being the interest and desire of too many, who would wish to be thought friends, to continue the war.

He that makes a good war makes a good peace.

I see this as the central issue of our time: how to find a substitute for war in human ingenuity, imagination, courage, sacrifice, patience... War is not inevitable, however persistent it is, however long a history it has in human affairs. It does not come out of some instinctive human need. It is manufactured by political leaders, who then must make a tremendous effort--by enticement, by propaganda, by coercion--to mobilize a normally reluctant population to go to war.

Peace, like war, can succeed only where there is a will to enforce it, and where there is available power to enforce it.

We need a Peace Department in our national government to do extensive research on peaceful ways of resolving conflicts. Then we can ask other countries to create similar departments.

The power of making war often prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of peace.

In peace, a wise man makes preparations for war.

It is very important for I think those of us who desperately want peace, who see war as, at some level, a break-down, a manifestation of human weakness, to understand that sometimes it’s also necessary – and you know, to – to be able to balance two ideas at the same time; that we are constantly striving for peace, we are doubling up on our diplomacy, we are going to actively engage, we are going to try to see the world through other people’s eyes and not just our own.

We desire peace. However, if imperialism insists on fighting a war, we will have no alternative but to take the firm resolution to fight to the finish before going ahead with our construction. If you are afraid of war day in day out, what will you do if war eventually comes? First, I said that the East Wind is prevailing over the West Wind and war will not break out, and now I have added these explanations about the situation in case war should break out. Both possibilities have thus been taken into account.

We want peace with all our hearts. But peace cannot be achieved through weakness.