Norman Thomas Quotes

War is capitalism with the gloves off …

Incendiary capitalism is carrying its out evil works more dangerously than ever, and is doing so in the increasingly dangerous neighborhood of the powder kegs that are the great European military powers.

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

Remember that politics, colonialism, imperialism and war also originate in the human brain.

Wars are caused by undefended wealth.

All truly historical peoples have an idea they must realize, and when they have sufficiently exploited it at home, they export it, in a certain way, by war; they make it tour the world.

Our involvement in this war is treason to the interests of international socialism.

Imperialist exploitation and an unjust international economic order are a cause of war.

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.

In the present imperialistic milieu there can be no wars of national self-defense.

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.

It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society.

Up to the 20th century, we can say that this whole period was an Earth epoch, 'Earth' meaning the riches of the earth, simple physical work. That is why there were wars, the movement of frontiers, war over riches.

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.

He would see civilization in danger of perishing under the oppression of a gigantic paradox: he would see multitudes of people starving in the midst of plenty, and nations preparing for war although pledged to peace.

The principal cause of war is war itself.

You have to look at the history of the Middle East in particular. It has been one of failure and frustration, of feudalism and tribalism.

Today it is becoming increasingly apparent to thoughtful Americans that we cannot fight the forces and ideas of imperialism abroad and maintain any form of imperialism at home. The war has done this to our thinking.

You help us pay for the war we’ll fight; we’ll launch it while you’re asleep at night. We don’t need friends all around the world; We’ll buy our friends with our flag unfurled, And spread our arms on a global scale To show the world that we still prevail. Oh, we’re not leaders inspiring peace, But we’re in power as the world’s police. So pay your tax for our little war, And we’ll not ask for any more. This year!

I can hardly repress our press and our people too. They are thirsting for war against England.

Perhaps when the next great war comes we may see that sight unprecedented in all history, a jingo with a bullet-hole in him.

One of the cardinal causes of war, in the opinion of the present writer, is the fact that national leadership frequently falls to men of abnormal makeup.

[Theodore Roosevelt] came down here [Washington DC] looking for war. He did not care whom we fought as long as there was a scrap.

The only way to save our empires from the encroaching of the people is to engage in war, and thus substitute national passions for social aspirations.

The hour of capitalism’s greatest triumph is its greatest danger.