William James Quotes

War is the science of destruction.

The more bombers, the less room for doves of peace.

Violence always leads to more violence…. To the conqueror comes a conqueror.

If we have to go to war, we will.

War is the supreme form of prestige.

People engaged in a war do not lose temper over matters which affect the fortunes of war.

We are all familiar with the argument: Make war dreadful enough, and there will be no war. And we none of us believe it.

War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perserverance, by time, and by practice.

Wars are to be won with swords and spears, not with rice and salt.

The great force for forging a society into a solid mass has always been war.

I am not one of those who believe that a great standing army is the means of maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession.

For all the flailing and huffing and puffing, there is a kind of fatality about the process of war-making and the excuses we find for it, the consolation of belligerence in politics.

Then, Sir, we will give them the bayonet!

Powder is but a thing of yesterday, and war is as old as the human race--unhappily.

Force, punishment, and violence are patriarchy's answer to conflicts and social problems. Patriarchy finds its ultimate expression in war.

Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent.

Only - only that, if you believe the tales, it's in the nature of our people to go to war and to kill, just as it is to sing and play and tell stories. Perhaps they are two halves of the same whole.

I would never rob your cradles to feed the dogs of war

For WAR, consisteth not in Battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to content by Battle is sufficiently known.... So the nature of War, consisteth not in actual fighting; but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is PEACE.

The greatest curse that can befall a free people, is civil war.

That's what this war is all about, my friend. It's about which of us is the crazier.And clearly you British have an advantage.You were crazy beforehand.

What is our policy? ... to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.

We shall kill. If you have not killed at least one German a day, you have wasted that day... Do not count days; do not count miles. Count only the number of Germans you have killed.

You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'.