John McCain Quotes

We are going to use the truth, and we are going to use it toward the end of winning the war; and we know what would happen to the American people if we lose it.

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.

We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated.

This bloody past suggests to us that enemies cease hostilities only when they are battered enough to acknowledge that there is no hope in victory - and thus that further resistance means only useless sacrifice.

War, I have always said, forces men to change their standards, regardless of whether their country has won or lost.

Arms once taken up should never be laid down, but upon one of three conditions—a safe peace, a complete victory, or an honorable death.

War’s very object is victory—not prolonged indecision.

War is about strategic agendas and epic battles that define nations and shape history. War is about courage and heroism, but it is also about pain and suffering and sorrow and tragedy

It is a wide road that leads to the war and only a narrow path that leads home again.

I said in my heart that, rather than have war, I would give up my country.

We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly.

War makes thieves and peace hangs them.

The State thrives on war - unless, of course, it is defeated and crushed - expands on it, glories in it.

War is grounded in the notion of triumph and defeat. It is zero-sum.

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

We are a nation at war - and we should act like it.

The real peril of war lies not in military defeat. It lies in war itself, whether we win or lose.

In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers.

War is a blessing compared with national degradation.

Nothing binds a people to their leader like a common enemy. Voters don't change governments during war.

War is a series of catastrophes which result in victory.

Will we fight or will we retreat? That is the question that is posed to us. Some of my friends on the other side of the aisle often refer to Iraq as a distraction.

War is fear cloaked in courage.

I have fought for many years. I have killed many men. I have never seen a foreigner die.