Joseph Margulies Quotes

There are two things that will always be difficult for a democratic people to do: to start a war and to finish it

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

Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper and safe judges of whether a war ought to be commenced, continued or concluded.

It’s damn easy to get into a war, but damned harder to extricate yourself once you get in.

All States do not have the same interests, but are there any interests which cannot be infinitely better reconciled before than after a war?

Whenever we get involved in a war, the White House seems to have 3 priorities: We cannot appear to be losing; we must appear to be winning; we must look like we know what we are doing.

Americans have learned that it is harder to end wars than it is to begin them

Since the foolish part of mankind will make wars, from time to time, with each other, not having sense enough otherwise to settle their differences, it certainly becomes the wiser part, who cannot prevent these wars, to alleviate as much as possible the calamities attending them.

War is much too serious a thing to be left to military men.

Preventing a war is tantamount to winning a war.

It's not a choice between war and peace. It's a choice between war and endless war. It's not appeasement. I think it's better even to call it American self-interest.

Once you start a war, you have to win.

People who start wars never know exactly how they will turn out.

Keep us out of war. Be neutral.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

The most expensive peace is far less costly than the cheapest war.

Wars are most often won by those who have made the greatest effort to prevent them.

To remove as much as possible the occasions of making war, it might be better for us to abandon the ocean altogether, that being the element whereon we shall be principally exposed to jostle with other nations

I have done all I can to prevent wars. All my life I've been dedicated to preventing just what has happened today.

… in a tense situation, if time could be given for everyone to discuss what was going on before they actually went to war, we might come to our senses. Most of us are taught as children to count to 30 before we open our mouths when we were angry, and that same lesson should apply to nations.

Your power, which is already very great, you can increase more by peace than by war. For the outcome of war is uncertain. More often you see adversity rather than prosperity accompany it.

Wars are often won by diplomats and businessmen—not soldiers

It is entirely clear that there is only one way in which great wars can be permanently prevented, and that is the establishment of an international government with a monopoly of serious armed force.

For some years I have spent my time on exactly these questions - both in thinking about ways to prevent war, and in thinking about how to fight, survive, and terminate a war, should it occur.

War as Napoleon knew it just not possible any more. However, we're very unlikely to accept or recognize 'world peace' even when we get it.