Victor Davis Hanson Quotes

Men go to war for fear, honor or interest.

There is no passion to which the rulers of a people can address themselves with greater [political] effect [than war.]

It is not uncommon in modern times to see governments straining every nerve to keep the peace, and the people whom they represent, with patriotic enthusiasm and resentment over real or fancied wrongs, urging them forward to war.

I don't like war. I particularly don't like the celebration of war, which I think the administration is a little bit guilty of.

Under no stretch of imagination can war be regarded as an ethical process; yet war, force, terror, and propaganda were the evolutionary means employed to weld the German people into a tribal whole.

The force which makes for war does not derive its strength from the interested motives of evil men; it derives its strength from the disinterested motives of good men.

People have a very political way of looking at war, and that's understandable.

It has too often been too easy for rulers and governments to incite man to war.

Only in a popular war against France... do I see a misfortune.

During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.

Every move we make in fear of the next war in fact hastens it.

When one nation is at war with another nation, the political machine does everything it can to vilify the people of the other nation, so it makes it easier to kill them. Which is understandable and it's happened this way throughout history.

Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.

War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood.

War... some people glamorise war and glorify war. It's not nice, from whatever point of view you come from.

To be deeply committed to negotiations, to be opposed to a particular war or military action, is not only considered unpatriotic, it also casts serious doubt on one's manhood.

War is fear cloaked in courage.

Any great war must be a popular movement.

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

When one nation is agreed in the policy of fighting another, any pretext will answer.

War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village, stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against each other.

What makes a nation most likely to take part in war was not policy or interest, but sentiment.

The English people would never consent to go to war for a cause in which England was not manifestly interested.

If there was no war, the young men felt that they were denied manhood.

Waging war can benefit a leader in several ways: it can rally citizens around the flag, it can distract them from bleak economic times, and it can enrich a country’s elites.