Barack Obama Quotes

You can’t have peace without a war.

Our conflict is not likely to cease so soon as every good man would wish. The measure of iniquity is not yet filled; and unless we can return a little more to first principles, and act a little more upon patriotic ground, I do not know when it will-or-what may be the issue of the contest. Speculation-peculation-engrossing-forestalling-with all their concomitants, afford too many melancholy proofs of the decay of public virtue; and too glaring instances of its being the interest and desire of too many, who would wish to be thought friends, to continue the war.

If we don't manage to find not just a compromise but a lasting peace agreement, we know perfectly well what the scenario will be. It has a name, it's called war.

It is not a process of bargaining or give-and-take. The peace process is not about giving concessions. We will not allow any step which would hurt the memories of our martyrs.

There have always been people during periods of history that thought that we could get along with the enemy if only we would reach out. Peace in our time is a philosophy.

Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it.

Never start a war with something you can't talk to.

Peace is impossible, war is improbable.

We want peace with all our hearts. But peace cannot be achieved through weakness.

There are times for making war and times for making peace.

It is easier to make war than to make peace.

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue.

Waging war we understand, but not waging peace, or at any rate less consciously so.

You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria.

There is never any military solution to any problem. Even when you have total victory you still have to go in and talk to people.

It is easier to obstruct peace than it is to promote it.

It is impossible for either nations or individuals, in the management of a dispute, to have the benefit of two opposite chances. They may be, from the first, moderate, pacific, magnanimous; they will thus secure certain advantages, and they will lose possible advantages. They may, on the contrary, be haughty, warlike, and selfish ; their chances and advantages will then be the reverse of the former. It is impossible to unite the two.

We must fight terrorism as if there's no peace process and work to achieve peace as if there's no terror.

Middle East history is replete with examples of missed and lost chances to make peace.

War is the admission of defeat in the face of conflicting interests.

You'll get more from being a peacemaker than a warrior.

We always prefer war on our own terms to peace on someone else's.

The Government wants a peaceful settlement. But we totally reject a peaceful sell-out.