Umberto Eco Quotes

The great lesson to be learned in the battered towns of England and the ruined cities of Germany is that the best way to win a war is to prevent it from occurring.

I consider even a victorious war as an evil, from which statesmanship must endeavor to spare nations.

Frankly, Senators, if nations may not safely agree to respect each other’s rights, and may not agree to confer if one party to the compact threatens trespass, or may not agree to advise if one party to the pact is threatened by an outside power, then all concerted efforts to tranquilize the world and stabilize peace must be flung to the winds. Either these treaties must have your cordial sanction, or every proclaimed desire to promote peace and prevent war becomes a hollow mockery

To discover a system for the avoidance of war is a vital need of our civilisation.

The best defence of peace is not power, but the removal of the causes of war, and international agreements which will put peace on a stronger foundation, than the terror of destruction.

The biggest difference would be made if we don't have wars to begin with.

It is always easy to begin a war, but very difficult to stop one.

Peace is an Excellent Thing, and War is a great Misfortune. But there are Many things More valuable than Peace, and many Things Much worse than war. The maintenance of the Ottoman Empire belongs to the First Class, the Occupation of Turkey by Russia belongs to the Second.

Today the real test of America's power and wisdom is not our capacity to make war but our capacity to prevent it. Prevention must be our overriding objective. It can be done. Surrendering to the inevitability of combat only paves the way for its occurring.

Preventing a war is tantamount to winning a war.

At present, the most effective way of preventing war would be for statesmen to direct politics so as to support a sound nationalism. This leads to concordance between people of kindred race and languages, whereas the conquest and coercion of people of different race and language inevitably lead to new wars.

Treaties of peace, made after war, are entrusted to individuals to negotiate and carry out.

All our rulers have said that war is unthinkable, and then we think about it almost all the time. We've got to make it unthinkable.

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

I am the friend of peace and mean to preserve it for America so long as I am able. . . . No course of my choosing or of their (nations at war) will lead to war. War can come only by the wilful acts and aggressions of others.

The way to prevent war is to bend every energy toward preventing it, not to proceed by the dubious indirection of preparing for it.

The best missile defense system of all would be a just and lasting peace.

No one wins a war. It is true, there are degrees of loss, but no one wins.

The only way to end war is communication between people.

You have to be willing to sacrifice as much to prevent war, as soldiers are willing to sacrifice to wage war.

Wars--and what is war except crime on a mass scale?--destroy rather than produce. The vandal that destroys a window causes not only the owner to bear the costs of replacing it, but costs those whom he planned on using that money to buy from. The same goes for wars. The warlords--of war and peace--destroyed so much, not only what existed, but all those new things that could have existed, if only individuals were left in peace.

Why is war such an easy option? Why does peace remain such an elusive goal? We know statesmen skilled at waging war, but where are those dedicated enough to humanity to find a way to avoid war

War represents the supreme failure of nations to resolve their differences. From a strictly pragmatic standpoint, it is the most inefficient waste of lives and resources ever conceived.

To stop war by the perfection of engines of destruction alone, might consume centuries and centuries. Other means must be employed to hasten the end.

There's no war that will end all wars.