Edmund Burke Quotes

A government, a ruling class cannot go to war if the people are unwilling and resisting. Therefore a moral and intellectual preparation is no less necessary than a technical and organizational preparation.

Reform is born of need, not pity. No vital movement of the people has worked down, for good or evil; fermented, instead, it carried up the heaving, cloggy mass.

The will of the people determines the final outcome of any war.

Any great war must be a popular movement.

The vast majority of the peoples of the world are against war and against aggression. If they make their wishes known and effective, war can be stopped. It all depends on whether they are willing to make the effort necessary for the purpose

By God, you can't fight a war unless the people support it.

I know this country well enough to know that it can’t sustain a conflict if people do not believe in the purposes.

There never has been a war yet which, if the facts had been put calmly before the ordinary folk, could not have been prevented. The common man I think, is the great protection against war

I believe in war, if the people want war. They have to do the fighting. I believe, first, in a referendum to the people, and failing that, a decision by the people's representatives in Congress assembled.

Political leaders will never take risks unless the people push them to take risks.

This is essentially a people’s contest.

I think people would be up in arms. I think we would most likely have a similar situation to what happened in the 60s. I don't know if it would be as violent, I think it would be difficult to say that. But I think that, from what I can understand, our nation as a whole is largely against the war as it stands.

I love my country but I cannot vote for war.

The people are good; the government is not good.

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

When we, the Workers, all demand: “What are we fighting for?’… Then, then we’ll end that stupid crime, that devil’s madness--War.

Waning public support for a war tends to influence even the most stubborn of presidents

This party [the Progressive Party] comes from the grass roots. It has grown from the soil of the people's hard necessities.

Chavez is not Chavez. Chavez is the people! And the people will not be stopped.

Naturally the common people don't want war ... but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

The people, ever greedy for war, till they suffer by it …

We are afraid to trust ourselves, and pretend that we are afraid to trust the people. My hopes have rested and always will rest upon the people …. The people will rise in their majesty, and the world will be interested in the spectacle.

Revolution is the duty of the worker and the peasant masses and not of just a few heroes, hence the necessity to organize these masses and draw them into the struggle.

Uncle Sam’s Latest Greatest Shortest War

Infantry, Artillery, Aviation--all that we have--are yours to dispose of as you will.... I have come to say to you that the American people would be proud to be engaged in the greatest battle in history.