Walter Dean Myers Quotes

The principal cause of war is war itself.

Whether one believes in evolution, intelligent design, or Divine Creation, one thing is certain. Since the beginning of history, human beings have been at war with each other, under the pretext of religion, ideology, ethnicity and other reasons. And no civilization has ever willingly given up its most powerful weapons.

Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice.

Wars are caused by undefended wealth.

Nations make wars; states make wars; and cultures make wars. We tend to conflate the three, but they are very different wars.

There can be no peace until this German spirit of Militarism is crushed.

Preparation for war is a constant stimulus to suspicion and ill will.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack that way of life.

The history of our civilization has been one of intermittent war.

We are a Nation of peace and compassion, yet these people have and will devote every fiber of their beings to the destruction of Americans and our Country.

The main force used in the evolving world of humanity has hitherto been applied in the form of war.

Now, I believe that war is never inevitable until it starts, but there has been a great proclivity in human history, and including in recent history, for war.

The more bombers, the less room for doves of peace.

I have never understood this liking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any domestic establishment.

I am fed up with war and the clamor for war.

The causes of war are the same as the causes of competition among individuals: acquisitiveness, pugnacity, and pride; the desire for food, land, materials, fuels, mastery. The state has our instincts without our restraints.

It is from the pride and ambition of rulers and the ignorance of the people that wars arise.

Big armies have always brought, not peace, but war which has ended in a hate that in due course brings another war.

… every international bloc, every State or indeed every community has enemies and opponents that seek to eliminate it, and, as the conflict becomes violent, each party tries to undermine the reputation of the other by attributing to it repulsive epithets, such as "anarchist", "criminal", "outlaw", "inhuman", "terrorist", and the like.

War is capitalism with the gloves off …

Politics is the womb in which war develops.”

The Cold War, Bosnia and Ukraine remind us that peace is fragile. Iraq and Syria remind us that no society or culture is immune from conflict.

War, we are told, shapes character; it resolves the major questions of international politics, consolidates nations, and indeed, constitutes the principal factor in the progress of civilization through its successive stages.

A war between Europeans is a civil war.